A New Year Message for Members, Patrons, Sponsors, and Creative People
In 1958, in the small town that was then Sedona, some very visionary people decided that our community needed a creative hub. They were artists, sculptors, civic leaders, educators, business owners and—whether they knew it or not—our town’s pioneers in cultural development.
A few years later, they turned an apple packing warehouse into the Art Barn, and set the pace for community arts programming in Northern Arizona. Decade by decade, Sedona Arts Center blossomed beneath the ubiquitous red rocks and quiet canyon trails. Thousands of artists, educators, friends and neighbors began investing in the idea of a more creative community. And then they built one.
With the fruits of their labor, Sedona learned how to express itself, how to reflect its sense of place, and how to support the creative process. Ideas were shared, and film, music, theatre, and revelry found a regular home at the Art Barn. New facilities and organizations followed, taking Sedona from the prosaic to the poetic. Cultural elements from near and far began to define Sedona as an extraordinary point on the map. Artists, pilgrims, thinkers, and energy seekers took refuge in this growing creative community.
Then and now, the active ingredient has always been you—the people of the Verde Valley who support the arts, explore the creative process, and make our unique culture come alive around us. Sedona Arts Center proceeds from your legacy of community building, of fearless programming, diverse arts education activities, cultural celebration, and wildly creative gatherings. As we begin the adventure of a new year, our board and staff start by offering our thanks for the past 58 years. You make our organization possible...
Because of you and this wonderful creative community, the Art Barn is now a robust campus. The classrooms, gallery, theater, event spaces, and ceramics studio are activated year-round, and serve thousands of people in search of artistic development and new inspiration. Our once quiet town, still hidden among the towering red rocks and riparian watersheds, has grown up around us. And that shared cultural development ethic, born almost 60 years ago, remains intact to this day—thanks to our members, patrons, sponsors and artists.
So with a nod to our founders, and an eye to the future, Sedona Arts Center has a few favors to ask as we summon up a bold and extraordinary new year:
First, help us continue building this unique creative community. Bring your ideas and projects for the coming year. Propose an event or new collaboration. Consider our organization as your creative platform, a resource, a laboratory, a place to kindle your creative spark. Because we are.
Next, help us expand partnerships and programming in unimagined ways. Tell us what you’d like to see, or do, or experience. Give us feedback on workshops, exhibitions, and cultural activities. Connect our organization—and our shared community—with other forces and new cultural elements from around the world.
And finally, invite everybody in town to get creative with us. Bring a friend to the ceramics studio. Tell your neighbors about upcoming art classes. Direct a tourist to our front door. Join us as a new annual member. Encourage colleagues to attend a First Friday gallery reception, our Sedona Plein Air Festival, a life drawing session, or a Red Earth Theatre production.
Stop by the Art Barn and let a hundred new creative opportunities unfold. Find your path in painting, music, theatre, or ceramics. Learn about and collect art, celebrate plein air painting, listen to local poets read aloud, explore the dramatic arts, and collaborate with others. Help us continue this evolution from simple orchard warehouse to diverse cultural facility at the heart of the American West. Join us here at Sedona Arts Center, and we promise a bold and wildly creative New Year. Our visionary founders, and the many cultural pioneers who follow in their footsteps, wouldn’t want it any other way.
Eric Holowacz
Executive Director
About Sedona Arts Center
One of Northern Arizona's oldest cultural nonprofits, Sedona Arts Center was founded in 1958. Our organization now serves as the creative hub of the Verde Valley, with year-round opportunities and exciting new partnerships designed to make 2016 more interesting and expressive.
For the coming year, the Arts Center will expand programming with new art classes, diverse exhibition programming, and lively events and festivals. We will also present innovative collaborative projects like The Art of Recylcling, Loving Bowls, 12 x 12, Plein Air festivals, creative summer camp for kids, and arts education outreach to communities (and new partner schools like Monument Valley High).
All of what we do Sedona Arts Center is made possible by you—our generous members and supporters. We look forward to sharing our exciting new events, projects, and partnerships with you in 2016 and beyond.
For more information about anything we do, or to get involved in upcoming Arts Center offerings, click here to visit our website, call our office at 282-3865, click here to send us an email, or stop by our office or Fine Art Gallery at SR 89A and Art Barn Road in Uptown Sedona.
Thank you for supporting our mission, collaborating with our organization, and helping us make Sedona more interesting and creative over the past six decades!
