Volunteers sought for Art Center activities

By Hope Wallace

We often hear of what Van Wert was and what Van Wert can be. What is our community now? I think our community has taken many steps forward and once in a while a step back. That’s ok. Hops, skips and jumps, our community’s morale is growing through pride in culture and sometimes it does that quietly with small signs. The grass is growing, our flowers are blooming and we scored some great outdoor tables this week. Watch more signs of life as the Wassenberg continues its brainstorming progression. Better yet, join us. We have plenty for everyone to do. If you would like to volunteer for our upcoming Eats on the Streets/Art from the Fort event, you will receive some perks and a warm, fuzzy, civic feeling, give us a call!

Summer Camp II! Our July summer camp will be scheduled this year from July 21–23 for ages 6–15. We will be exploring perspective with chalk and photography, Native American art through by examining our Faces of Little Bighorn Collection and making artifacts. We’ll be making crazy illustrations by melting crayons and study children’s author and illustrator, Shel Silverstein. Ages 6-10 10–noon, ages 11–15 1–3 p.m. Sign up soon this goes fast! Costs are $30 for art center members, $35 regular. Needs-based scholarships can be made available if a young person wishes to participate in our camp. Please contact the director.

Thank you to our most recent sponsors, Greve Chrysler/Plymouth and Van Crest Health Care for helping us towards making Eats on the Street a new community event! We appreciate your generous assistance. Adopt a duck to win $1000, $400, $100 and some fabulous prizes, enjoy gourmet food trucks, music, and performers on every corner, the art of five Fort Wayne artists, music inside and out, come to Eats on the Streets/Art from the Fort held on July 11. The One-eyed Show will take the stage later in the evening and fill the back festival area with diverse musical influences that range from the Allman Brothers Band and the Black Crowes, to the Eagles and Johnny Cash, The One-Eyed Show’s sound spans many genres. Within a single performance, TOES often runs the gamut of rock, bluegrass, funk and the blues — all the while maintaining an improvisational styling. TOES has performed the Midwest from Chicago to Athens and many festivals and venues in between.

Our first ever Town Creek Duck Derpy will drop a minimum of 600 ducks off our foot-bridge and race to a finish line! The proceeds will benefit the Wassenberg Art Center, Main Street and the Van Wert Robotics Team. To adopt a duck(s) please contact the Wassenberg at 419.238. 6837, Main Street, Open Minded, Chet Straley, Straley Realty, or a Robotics Team member. You may also purchase online: http://www.wassenbergartcenter.org/announcements/duckderpy. Eats on the Streets & Art from the Fort, July 11; experience new forms of food, fun and art. Open to the public and ZERO entry fee.

Our ongoing watercolor class is taking a break during July, but it will continue in August.  The group meets on Tuesday mornings from at 10 a.m.–noon and the instructor is Pat Rayman.  The class is sold in monthly increments. $35 for members and $40 for non-members.  People can jump in any time.

We will be hosting a watercolor workshop by published watercolorist, Allen Hutton, Toledo, September 8–10 from 10 a.m.– 4 p.m. Allen graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art with A BFA in Industrial Design. He is a regularly accepted artist in the Ohio Watercolor Society Exhibits, and has shown his work in group and solo shows across the country since 2002. He continues to be awarded in most of the exhibits he enters and will provide instruction on his unique style. Hutten strives to render the fleeting patterns of light and shadow with the simple purpose of preserving the reality of a landscape or still life in a particular moment in time and season. Costs will be $100 per day with a two-day minimum sign-up. Materials list will be provided. Please give us a call soon for this unique opportunity to paint the world in a different light.

For more information on exhibits or to sign for classes and events visit wassenbergartcenter.org. The Wassenberg Art Center is located at 214 S. Washington St (former Van Wert Armory). We can also be reached by telephone at: 419.238.6837, email: info@wassenbergartcenter.org and our website is: wassenbergartcenter.org.