All Things Run For The Arts

Students participating in the Run For The Arts. photo courtesy of Jenny Coleman

School has started, Fall is upon us and the weather here in Portland has been magnificent!  I’ve been in Portland for nearly 20 years (yikes!) and this is the best summer weather I’ve ever seen.  Not to jinx things, but when it starts raining, I hope it’s not until November.  And here’s why…

2012 Run For The Arts Final Design

2011 Run For The Arts Winning Design

October is when the Fall Run For The Arts happens at area schools.  The nice thing about doing the run this time of year as opposed to spring (mid-March through April) is the weather; runs don’t get rained out as much, if at all.  The drawback is there is a shorter prep time since school has only been back less than a month, whereas in spring, there’s some breathing room in getting it all set up.

The other Run For The Arts thing that happens is the T-Shirt Design Contest. We got off to a late start this year, so we’ve extended the deadline from it’s usual October 31st to November 30th.  Area schools should be receiving entry forms in the mail this week, addressed to Arts Coordinator.

2010 Run For The Arts Winning Design

2009 Run For The Arts Winning Design

2008 Run For The Arts Winning Design

Once we receive all the submissions for the T-Shirt Design Contest (rules here), we review them, then the entire office has an opportunity to select the ones they like.  We have a Winner, a Second Place, a Third Place and usually an Honorable Mention or two.  The winner gets a $350 prize and the chance to work with a professional Graphic Designer to digitize their design!

2007 Run For The Arts Winning Design

2006 Run For The Arts Winning Design

2005 Run For The Arts Winning Design

The winning artwork will appear on ALL the posters and sponsor sheets for 2013 and, most importantly, their image will appear on the 2013 Run For The Arts T-Shirts!  This is a great experience for the budding artist in your family.

In case you were wondering, all the images in this post are past winners, and no two winners are alike!  If you’re interested in submitting something, here’s more information, and good luck!

2012 Run For The Arts T-Shirt Contest Submissions on Display

2012 Run For The Arts Modified Winning Design

This time of year, Run For The Arts keeps me pretty busy; helping the schools with additional materials and answering their always good questions, assisting parents of participating students with their sponsor sheet questions, getting the banners hung all over town and getting the T-Shirt Design Contest submissions on display for the public as well as getting them on our website.

Well, most of that has been taken care of already.

Starting Monday, April 23rd through Friday, April 27th, a vast majority of the submissions we received for the 2012 Run For The Arts T-Shirt Design Contest will be on display at Umpqua Bank in the Pearl District.  In the past, they were on display for about 4 weeks, but it was only a matter of time before others started clamoring  for this choice location (right on the Portland Street Car Line) and we were reduced to just a week.  I’ll take what I can get.

If you don’t get a chance to see them at Umpqua Bank, you can see them on our website.  I probably sound like a broken record (will that phrase ever be retired even though vinyl is moving to the annuals of old tech?), but this year was tough in selecting a winning design, so enjoy all the wonderful submissions!

2012 Run For The Arts T-Shirt Design Contest Winner and Winning Design

Run For The Arts

In the last 8 days, we here in Portland have gone from threats of snow the last few days of February to nearly 60 degrees over the weekend, then back to snow on Tuesday and soon we’ll be back in the 60 degree range.  Crazy weather.  Of course, it could be worse.

Having complained about the weather, it should come as no surprise that selecting the winning design for the 2012 Run For The Arts T-Shirt was just as crazy; we had a very hard time deciding which one would be the winner, and we were all over the map!   And since it took us FOREVER to decide, it put the whole process behind schedule, something I try very diligently to avoid.

So without further a due, I’m pleased to announce the winning submission of the 2012 Run For The Arts T-Shirt Design Contest.  Her name is Caemlyn, age 9 and attends Arleta School.

Since selecting only one entry was so difficult, we made a few changes to the process.  In the past, there was only the winning design.  This year we decided to add some additional categories; First Runner Up, Second Runner Up and 2 Honorable Mentions (links are here and here).

The additional category winners all received a certificate proclaiming their achievement.  The overall winner received a certificate as well, $350.00, the opportunity to work with a seasoned designer in converting their drawing into digital media, attending our annual gala event as our guest, take part in a the initial press run of the t-shirt and will have their design appear on thousands of t-shirts and tens of thousands of sponsor sheets.  A pretty nice prize for being the winner, if I don’t say so myself.

So the crazy indecision we suffered was well worth it.  Of course, come January of next year, I may not feel the same way.

Summer’s End and Run For The Arts

courtesy: NWS

When Labor Day comes and goes, most people are prone to say summer is over.  For those of us in Portland, Oregon, that couldn’t be further from the truth this week; we’re expecting 90 degree heat through the weekend, possibly reaching close to 100 degrees along the way.  For us, summer is still on.

For students at most of the area schools, post-labor day is back to school.  I will admit it was nice having the ability to sit on the bus for my ride to work while school was out.  Today, however, it was back to the way it was; standing up for a good portion of the trip.  Welcome back students!

At the office right now, I have several projects going on for Young Audiences.  The first is the Fall 2011 Run For The Arts.  In a nutshell, this is a program that helps participating schools raise money for arts education and arts education-related expenses.  The Run (as we call it) is a jogathon the schools hold at their individual locations, with Young Audiences supplying the posters and the sponsor sheets for the students.  We also supply prizes for those students at each school who earn the most points (combined laps and total number of sponsors).  If you’d like to learn more about the Run, click here.  For entry forms for the Fall Run (October 2011) or the Spring 2012 Run (mid-March through April), they can be found here.

Run For The Arts

The other project that’s going on is the 2012 Run For The Arts T-Shirt design contest.  This is open to all students for submission.  The entry form and rules can be found here.  Every year, Young Audiences holds this contest to see which design will be on next year’s t-shirt.  As part of the prizes, we provide t-shirts to the students who earn 30 or more points during the actual run, and the shirts have become somewhat of a collectible item.  The really fun part of being the T-Shirt Design Contest Winner is the winner gets a $350 prize, the opportunity to work with a graphic designer in preparing the image for the various printing formats and having their artwork appear on our website, the posters and the sponsor sheets, which is seen by everyone!

Having said all that, the cut-off date for submissions for the T-Shirt Design Contest is October 31st, 2011.  To take part in the Fall 2011 Run For The Arts, getting the paperwork in within the next few weeks ensures you have sufficient time to plan the Run, hold the Run and get the prizes to the students before the winter holiday.  Consider doing both, or a least one; the students are MORE than worth it.

Run For The Arts T-Shirt Submission on Display

Design contest winner and our designer working with Photoshop on the winning design

This time of year, Run For The Arts keeps me pretty busy; helping the schools with additional materials and answering their always good questions, assisting parents of participating students with their sponsor sheets, getting the banners hung all over town and getting the T-Shirt Design Contest submissions on display for the public as well as getting them on our website.

The display finally got set up this past Friday, April 1st at Umpqua Bank 1139 NW Lovejoy

To see all the submissions, you can also check out our website here.

All the submissions were fantastic and this was one of the more difficult selection processes we’ve been through, so enjoy the kid’s artwork!

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

So.  I’ve been absent from these pages for a couple of weeks.  Normally I make every effort to have something listed here, either for our sake or for our artists sake, on a regular basis.  However, it being the time of year that it is, that’s not always possible; we tend to enter high gear around the middle of January through June.

Just to give you an idea of what’s going on with the staff;

The Spring 2011 Run For The Arts;  confirming sponsors, confirming prize contributors, lining up prizes, working with the Student Designer and winner of the T-Shirt Design Contest in preparation of producing t-shirts, getting the schools signed up and getting out press releases (for more information, click here).

Mad Hot Burnin’ up the Dance Floor;  selling tickets and/or tables, getting the Run of Show ready, creating the printed Program, deciding on a menu (it’s harder than you think), getting the celebrity dancers trained, getting the kids selected and trained to perform at the event, organizing the Event Registration, decor, setting up a website to do online dancer voting and what feels like a thousand tiny loose ends (for more information, click here)

Arts for Learning;  we’re in the Pilot year, so we’re working hard on getting that worked out with Beaverton School District, Young Audiences’ National Office, the University of Washington and WestEd.  This is a 5-year project funded by the DOE (US Department of Education) in an I3 grant to Beaverton SD which will rolled out district-wide.  No small feat (for more information, click here)

2011 Sunburst Awards Luncheon;  we’re beginning to focus on this appreciation event which take place on May 17, 2011.  I’ll update you as we make progress.

Performances and Residences in the Schools;  September through December is usually slow, but once everyone returns from their winter break, the focus is on getting artists into the schools, which is the core of what we do.  Needless to say, the pace quickens amazingly fast.

There you have a snapshot of the first six months of the year for us, however blurry and murky.

The 2011 Run For The Arts T-Shirt Soon to be Revealed!

Way back in November of 2010, the staff of Young Audiences review over 50 submissions from students around the Portland/Vancouver Metropolitan area to select the image to be used on the 2011 Run For The Arts T-shirt.  For those unfamiliar with RFA, it’s a program Young Audiences created way, way back in 1977 as a funding method schools could use to raise money to cover arts-related expenses.  The Run is a jogathon the students take part in, similar to a walk-a-thon (more information).

Design contest winner and our designer working with Photoshop on the winning design

Every year in September, we blanket area schools with the sign-up forms encouraging art teachers and principals to have their students submit original artwork to Young Audiences for consideration as the coming year’s t-shirt design.  In return, the student receives a check for $350, the opportunity to work with a designer from Weiden+Kennedy and they get to see the initial press run of the t-shirt, all of which is pretty fascinating.

Well, we made our selection.  Of course, I can only show a little bit of the design because we like it to be a somewhat of a surprise!  In the picture is our designer working on this year’s image with the design winner.

Stay tuned for updates!

For more information about the contest, click here