Beloved Austin Holiday Shopping Event Celebrates 15 Years Cherrywood Art Fair Announces its December 10 & 11 Artist Lineup

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CONTACT: Christy Butler, Jewell Media
Christy@cityjewell.com 512.694.6456

Beloved Austin Holiday Shopping Event Celebrates 15 Years!
Cherrywood Art Fair Announces its December 10 & 11 Artist Lineup

Championed by local nonprofit Chula League, this free, family-friendly event supports the Little Artist BIG ARTIST mentoring program.

(Austin, Texas) — Since its inception in 2002, Chula League’s Cherrywood Art Fair (CAF) has come a long way, but most importantly these principals have stayed consistent: no manufactured goods, no junk, all original art! Hundreds of artist applications have been carefully reviewed by a panel of respected jurors to cultivate a balanced, high-quality show including an eclectic group of goods ranging from whimsical toys for kids and pets to small batch functional ceramics to geometric jewelry and organic skincare products. The curating work is thanks to 2016 jurors Michael Sieben, editor of Thrasher Magazine and columnist at Juxtapose, Jennifer Perkins, Austin Craft Mafia founding member and former producer of Stitch Craft & Fashion Show and Asa Hursh, Executive Director of Art Alliance Austin.

Held in East Austin, the proceeds from Cherrywood Art Fair will benefit its host Maplewood Elementary School and Chula League’s Little Artist BIG ARTIST program, a 10-week mentoring experience pairing professional artists with East Austin 5th and 6th graders to turn ideas into art and art into business.

“Little Artist BIG ARTIST is cultivating the next generation of makers,” said Ann Flemings, Chula League Executive Director. “Since 2007, we have mentored over 174 kids on the practicalities required to be a successful working artist. We are proud that proceeds from the Fair will help us expand the program from four to six East Austin schools next year, empowering more children to explore their creativity, celebrate accomplishments and strengthen social skills.”

The 2016 Cherrywood Art Fair will represent a diverse selection of seasoned veterans and new promising artisans alike. Below is a sampling of a few of the 88 artists whose booths will grace the halls of Maplewood Elementary School from 10 am to 5 pm on December 10th and 11th.

Bee Amour is a bee-centric jewelry line created by a backyard beekeeper that supports living bees with every sale.

Copper Dot Weaving creates handwoven wall hangings inspired by natural colors and fibers, woven into beautiful geometrical shapes.

feto soap handcrafts fragrant, fun and skin-safe bath & body products, nail polishes and candles.

Franny & Metal jewelry pays tribute to clean geometric lines and hollow spaces, creating modern, durable and minimalist jewelry.

Joel Ganucheau, Austin Art Garage co-founder, creates mixed media and acrylic experimental works of art, inspired by Austin and beyond.

Kimball Prints dreams up nature-inspired kitchen tea towel designs with brilliantly colored succulents, animals, fruits, vegetables and more.

LemonGlaze carefully hand-forms, stamps, and glazes unique ceramic pieces from dainty ring holders to large serving dishes.

Lille Huset LLC makes magical paper dollhouses and whimsical games, books and décor for the little ones in your life.

OldNewMiddle repurposes found materials such as record albums, antique door knobs, vintage maps and books to create true, one-of-a-kind gifts.

Smith Map Studio hand-draws original maps of iconic Texas themes, cities and US history using pen, ink and acrylic paint.

The full Cherrywood Art Fair artists list is found here: http://cherrywoodartfair.org/2016-artists

In addition to the limitless shopping for everyone on your list, Cherrywood Art Fair will host a full-day of live music on Saturday with headliner Suzanna Choffel, engaging family-fun activities on Sunday including the wildly popular Lumiere Photo Booth and a weekend of Austin’s favorite food trucks including Mmmpanadas, Texas Chili Queens and Wholly Kabob. Both days will showcase a silent auction to benefit Chula League’s Little Artist BIG ARTIST program including goods from each participating CAF artist and artwork from the Little Artists who have participated in the mentorship program.

For more information about the 2016 Fair, including updates on confirmed bands, food vendors
and more, like Cherrywood Art Fair on Facebook: facebook.com/cherrywoodartfair, follow on
Twitter and Instagram: @ChulaLeague or visit http://www.cherrywoodartfair.org/.

This project is supported in part by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department.

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Get to know the Cherrywood Art Fair Artist Coordinator

Meredith

Get to know Meredith Kuntzsch, the Cherrywood Art Fair Artist Coordinator!

Meredith came to the great state of Texas to follow where the majority of her best art customers lived. She has exhibited at more than 300 art festivals and fairs, private salons and galleries — winning awards throughout the country. As an artist herself, Meredith hopes to bring a great sensitivity to this role.

What’s your day job?

Artist, (painter, development, lecturer, workshops) and music/fundraiser event production guru.

What’s your favorite hobby?

Music, music, music — being on stage or backstage at event-production gigs — I’m lucky to love my work. But, I’m also a big reader. Always a book in my hand. And forget about keeping me out of Lake Travis. Last but not least, if I had the money, skydiving every week. The higher the better. Wooooo!

What are you most excited about for this year’s fair?

Seeing all the beautiful handmade creations by our wonderful artists and welcoming our repeat and new customers who will be blown away by the talent. Seriously y’all, it’s gorgeous work!

What’s your favorite East Austin hangout?

It’s hard to name a favorite! Eastside Cafe has delicious homegrown veggies. They make memorable, unique dishes with their organic gems. I think I had a daily special made out of the leaves of some sort of tuber in an appetizer similar to a potato pancake. YUM! I also worked a SXSW event at Weather Up where beautifully crafted cocktails flew by. I love walking on those old wooden floors.

What Austin celebrity should come shop at the Cherrywood Art Fair?

Hayes Carll — I should personally assist him at the show. All day. Good shopping ideas for his girlfriend, son and family.

If you could pick any family-oriented act (a band, artist, musician, activity, dance team, theater troupe, etc.) to perform at the fair, who would it be?

I think Oliver Steck is a fabulous musician. He plays with a lot of people including Bob Schneider and teaches music to kids. He’s funny, smart as a whip, and theatrically trained. Oh, and a heck of a nice guy to boot. I should also put in a plug for my family…my niece’s husband, Drew Womack, Grammy award-winner, singer/songwriter and producer. Yep, also a heck of a nice guy!

Introducing Our New Executive Director

The Chula League Board of Directors is pleased to announce our new Executive Director, Ann Flemings.
Ann Flemings is an artist, mother, wife, and nonprofit all-star! Ann joins us from UT Austin where she worked with the Butler School of Music and the Jackson School of Geosciences. Always committed to local nonprofits, she currently serves as a board member of Generous Art and she served on the St. David’s Episcopal Church Grants committee. Ann is also a professional artist with a studio in East Austin.

Ann brings the perfect background to lead our charge in helping to fuel and sustain the arts in East Austin. Let’s learn a little more about her and her plans for Chula League…

You’ve been on the job just over two months. What has been your impression of Chula League so far?

I am amazed at how well run this small, volunteer-based, nonprofit is! It has created a sustainable income stream through the Cherrywood Art Fair (CAF) and we are so effective at managing money that neighborhood organizations have engaged us to serve as fiduciary on their behalf. That says a lot about the professionalism of the Chula League board.

We are doing so much, on such a small budget, to help the arts thrive in East Austin. We provide a productive marketplace for artisans to sell their work. We cultivate the next generation of artists as they turn their concepts into art, and their art into a business. Chula is doing its part to provide the tools needed to make the arts sustainable in East Austin.

The most heartwarming thing about Chula is the people. Everyone has been so welcoming! Our board members are committed to making this organization shine and some of our program volunteers have been with us for many years. It says to me that there is a lot of passion here, and I think it must be great fun to be a Chula volunteer.

What excites you about this position and how does it build on your prior professional experiences?

With my background in fundraising, I hope to expand our grant funding for Little Artist, BIG ARTIST (LaBA) and I am keen to build a donor base of individuals that support our mission. Right now, I am working on expanding sponsorships for the Cherrywood Art Fair.

The past 15 years have seen the fair grow to become one of the most anticipated holiday shopping events on the “shop local” scene. The Cherrywood Art Fair proceeds benefit Little Artist, BIG ARTIST, thus it becomes a real win-win for our sponsors. As a free, afterschool arts mentorship program, LaBA brings the best of Austin artists together with East Austin elementary school children and creates a 10 week experience which empowers all involved.

If we can increase fair sponsorships by 20%, that will help Little Artist BIG ARTIST go just a bit further. Opportunities are still available to co-brand your business with one of the few juried art fairs in Austin, so give me a call!

What do you think are the most significant opportunities for the organization? Challenges?

We are expanding the Little Artist, BIG ARTIST program and adding artist professional development workshops. The more people understand what we are working to accomplish, the bigger impact Chula League will be able to make. Board leadership is creating a strategic marketing plan to share our message with the goal to engage more people across all channels.

My job is to put the right resources in place — dedicated volunteers, adequate funds and beneficial partnerships — to move our programs forward. Working with the board, listening to our constituents and heeding the advice of our volunteers is important to my role. In fact, a fundamental responsibility of Chula League is to assure our programs thrive and that our volunteers are provided for and valued.

If you could say one more thing to supporters of Chula League, what would it be?

It is an exciting time to be part of Chula League. Become a volunteer with our programs, serve as a BIG ARTIST mentor or apply to the Cherrywood Art Fair. Donate to us and help raise Chula’s star across the 6,000 nonprofits that call Austin home. I encourage everyone to put the Chula League at the top of your “gift list” this year. We want to make giving to Chula a year-round habit.

Thank you for letting me share some thoughts about the future of Chula League. Please contact me at ann@chulaleague.com to get involved with us.

Meet the 2016 Cherrywood Art Fair Jurors!

Meet the 2016 Cherrywood Art Fair Jurors!

Michael Sieben is a professional designer and illustrator whose work has been exhibited and reviewed worldwide as well as featured in numerous illustration anthologies. He is currently the managing editor at Thrasher Magazine and has a monthly column in Juxtapoz Magazine. He is a founding member of Okay Mountain Collective and cofounder of The Program skateboards. Michael was also a Big Artist in Chula League’s Little Artist BIG ARTIST program.

Jennifer Perkins began her career as a jewelry designer. Her line, Naughty Secretary Club, has since been featured in publications like Elle Accessories, Teen Vogue, Bust and The New York Times. Her home and kitschy interior design aesthetic has been spotlighted by Apartment Therapy, Etsy, CNN, Yahoo Homes and more. As a businesswoman, blogger, and Indie craft pioneer, Jennifer has been profiled in The Wall Street Journal, Handmade Nation, Fortune Small Business and Inc. Magazine.

Asa Hursh is the Executive Director of Art Alliance Austin, which focuses on elevating Austin’s art scene and creating more education and access points to connect the public to contemporary art in Austin. Hursh attended graduate school at UT, receiving an MA in Art History with a concentration in Modern and Contemporary Art and an MBA from the McCombs School of Business. He also holds a BFA in painting from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Artist Applications Opening Soon!

Cherrywood Art Fair artist

Applications for Chula League’s 15th annual Cherrywood Art Fair open July 15th, as in tomorrow! We are excited to see submissions of great photos with original, quality art and handmade goods. We’ve made some changes to our application, and have new categories to help you find your place better. Our apply page is full of information to help you with the application process. Here are key things to remember…

1. Take a deep breath, set aside some time to apply. There’s no need to rush, the jurors do not review your work until the application period has ended.
2. Read the apply page, the artist FAQ, AND the Terms. Each of those pages have information to help you submit a strong application.
3. Your photos are everything. The jurors rate your work based on the three images you submit, their category, and the caption (detailing the work). Individual product shots over booth shots are recommended. Be careful when using lifestyle shots, make sure your work stands out so the jurors know what they are judging.
Images should be under 1 MB with a minimum resolution of 133 ppi (pixels per inch)
Optimal size: 1000 x 1000 pixels or 1200 x 800 pixels saved as a maximum quality jpeg
4. Look over our new categories, there may be a change to the category you’ve applied in before:
3D ART (sculpture, wood, metal, etc.)
BEAUTY & SPA (soaps, skincare, candles, hair accessories, etc.)
CERAMICS & POTTERY
FINE ART (drawings & paintings in pencil, pastels, oils, acrylics, watercolors, etc.)
HOME GOODS (décor, frames, glasses, kitchen items, phone cases, planters)
JEWELRY
KIDS & PETS (toys, games, clothes / pet toys & accessories)
PHOTOGRAPHY (color, black & white, digital collage, etc.)
PRINTS & PAPER GOODS (card sets, journals, prints, comic books, posters)
TEXTILES & APPAREL (clothing, hats, bags, purses, belts, scarves, tapestries)
For those of you that sell work that fall into multiple categories, choose the category that dominates what you sell most. We do not penalize artists if they show work in their booth that wasn’t in their category, so long as it is their work and a majority of items in the booth are from the accepted category.
5. This year we have created a Facebook event page for the application period. We encourage you to post application questions there. If you’re not on Facebook, you can email us at: artists@cherrywoodartfair.org

5 questions for Big Artist Sara Senseman

We’re asking our Big Artists five quick questions to find out how they feel about mentoring Little Artists.

Next up: Sara Senseman of Cargo Collective

How long have you been a Big Artist?

This is my first year being a Big Artist.

What is your favorite thing about the program?

I love seeing my little artist improve. It’s amazing how much someone can improve on a skill in only eight three-hour sessions. My favorite part is looking back at their first tries at a new medium or tool, and comparing it to the final product. It’s always impressive.

What is it about teaching and mentoring that makes you happy?

For me, mentoring is a sort of stress reliever. You stop thinking about yourself and your life, and focus on helping someone else. It’s very relaxing and rewarding.

When you were a kid, did you have a mentor or someone who gave you a push toward art?

My high school art teacher really made a big impact on my life choices dealing with my art. She gave me the confidence to apply to good art schools for college and made me believe that my work was good enough to turn into a career. If it weren’t for her, I probably wouldn’t have thought I was good enough to even apply to art schools, much less start my own business with my artwork.

Where can people find your work?

My website is the best place to view my artwork at the moment: www.cargocollective.com/sarasenseman. I am about to switch from Etsy to Amazon Handmade, so that will come soon. I also post artwork and updates to my art Facebook page: www.facebook.com/artistcouple

Sara Senseman

For Big Artist Michael Sieben, Art is Something to Share

Big Artist M. Sieben

­By Lisa Wyatt Roe

Think about it: Why would busy professional artists invest the time to go to an art classroom or open their studios for a child they don’t know? And where do they even start if they’ve never been a mentor?

Big Artist Michael Sieben is pretty much the definition of “busy.” As an artist, writer, and skateboard designer, he’s built a creative career over the past 20 years with an impressive amount of initiative. When he couldn’t find a gallery to exhibit his work, Michael and some friends opened their own galleries, including Austin’s Okay Mountain. After years of designing skateboards, he’s started two skateboard companies; his current company is The Program. His illustrations have been in books, on Adidas shoes, on t-shirts, even on TV’s Nicktoons. He’s managing editor of Thrasher Magazine, which has more Instagram followers than the population of several countries. He has two young kids. And he skateboards — a lot. So, yeah, he’s busy.

This year, he took another gig: working as a Big Artist mentor with Little Artist Elias at East Austin’s Blackshear Elementary.

Michael’s path to becoming a Big Artist has roots in a commitment he made in his 20s. Fresh out of UT’s art school, he emailed 20 artists he looked up to for advice on how to start his career. He got one reply. That one artist taking five minutes to respond made such an impression that Michael decided he would share information with younger artists whenever he could.

“I remember thinking in my early 20s that I would never be someone who would ignore someone with questions,” Michael says.

Being an artist who’s part of the ever-youthful skateboarding subculture has given him lots of opportunities to hold true to that, especially with young artists who work in that style. Now in his 40s, he still answers emails. He also gives advice in his column for art and culture magazine Juxtapoz.

Reflecting on how his children are growing up more fortunate than other kids got him thinking about helping in a different way. It was a chance meeting in a parking lot that led Michael to the Little Artist BIG ARTIST program. While saying hello to Chula League board member Brian David Johnson, a two-year veteran Big Artist who teaches woodworking at his BDJ Craft Works studio, Michael got the same kind of gentle nudge toward becoming a mentor that Big Artists give to kids who want to become artists.

“It seemed like a great opportunity to put my time where my mouth was in terms of not just writing about sharing information but actually one-on-one hanging out with a kid and spending time in the classroom,“ Michael says.

As a first-year Big Artist, Michael had a few things to figure out, including what to work on with Elias. For Michael and Elias, their mutual love of drawing was a starting point.

“It was really great to be paired with a young artist who’s really interested in drawing in the same way that, at that age, I was just obsessed with drawing,” Michael says.

When it was time to choose two projects to work on, Michael’s studio full of skateboard decks and screen printing supplies made for a natural choice. “I thought, take the two things I know most about and try to make lesson plans out of those, but also try to explain how that ties into the bigger world of art or graphic design,” Michael says.

Elias and Michael started by working on a design for a skateboard deck in Elias’ journal. They came up with a color palette, then Elias hand painted the deck. “He was able to build up the colors, then do the line work based on his drawing in the sketchbook,” Michael says.

Designing skateboards is a definite niche. “You’re working with something that’s 8 inches by 32 inches,” Michael says. “It’s a very specific shape, so there’s a design problem there — ‘How do I make a design that fits well in this shape?’ — which can carry over into designing anything: an album cover, something square, a t-shirt design.”

The second project was screen printing based on one of Elias’ illustrations. “We did these really loose watercolor paintings,” Michael says. “It was just a very fun experiment of throwing down color on the page. Later we took those and screen printed on top of them, so we were able to lay an illustration down on top of these really loose color fields, and he got to see how that changed the look of his illustration.”

They did a six-print edition so Elias could donate one print to the Little Artist BIG ARTIST auction at the Cherrywood Art Fair, which will send the proceeds to Blackshear’s art program. He has another five that he can give to family or friends, trade, or sell.

That emphasis on the commercial aspect of art — making art that people will want to buy — is an important part of Little Artist BIG ARTIST. One goal of the program is to show kids that art can be a viable career. Michael took that to heart.

“When I was younger, I remember trying to exhibit black-and-white work and showing drawings, and nobody would buy them. And I started adding color into them, and I was able to sell my work. So I think people respond to color,” Michael says. Elias “mainly works in black and white, so I tried to show him some easy ways to inject color into what he’s doing, so if later he does present his stuff to galleries or if he’s trying to sell work, there’s color.”

Big Artists try to walk the line between suggesting a direction for the work and making sure it’s about what the Little Artist wants to express.

“That was a good deal of what we talked about — how to keep the essence of what he’s interested in, which is doing black-and-white work, but easy ways to inject color into it where it doesn’t feel forced or it’s not making him do something he’s not interested in doing,” Michael says.

They also talked about riding bikes, skateboarding, fishing — just whatever came to mind. That kind of one-one-one attention from an adult mentor tells a child, “You’re important.” The adults, however, may never know how important they’ve been to the child. ”It could be something you never get the feedback for, and that’s fine,” Michael says.

It took a bit of time for Michael to feel like he and Elias were connecting. Elias is a quiet, reserved kid, Michael says. But photos of them working together show a thoughtful young artist, quietly taking in what Michael is saying.

“Two weeks ago, he came to my studio, and that was the first time we’d been out of the classroom, and he got to bring his little brother,” Michael says. “It seemed like a less formal setting, and it seemed like he really started to open up. It seemed like the first time we were just hanging out as more like friends rather than teacher or student.”

Something Elias wrote in his journal bears that out: “I think that my artist was more like a friend by the end of the classes. I hope my artist keeps doing Little Artist Big Artist. It was the best thing ever.”

Seeing that on the page was an emotional moment for Michael.

“He just wrote it, closed the book and put it in his pile,” Michael says. “Then he started talking to a friend, and I opened it up and read it. It’s been a meaningful experience for both of us, but I didn’t know if it was just another day to him or if he was getting something out of it. And to read that was really . . . I almost cried.”

For any mentor, a tear or two can be the best part.

Michael Sieben