The Calaveras County Arts Council intends to wake up a sleepy Saturday afternoon—Saturday May 12, to be specific—with its first ever family community event at the Gallery Store in San Andreas. The Council is planning a free art-filled afternoon, with art tables where families can paint, weave, make a bubble wand, puppets, or a Mother’s Day card. The sidewalk behind the gallery will be the canvas for a giant chalk mural celebrating family and created by the community. A storyteller will be on hand, as well as musicians from the Murphys School of Music to keep things light-hearted.
 
“We wanted to do something fun for families and kids in our county,” Kathy Mazzaferro, executive director said. “We want people to know that the Arts Council is a fun resource for all ages.”  Event chairperson Fara Roberts added,  “This will be an opportunity for families to have fun while experiencing the arts council gallery as well as the old buildings of main street. It is an opportunity to open an art show to more people in the community and have them become involved with the arts council.”
 
The show will feature artwork about motherhood by local artists, as well as poems and prose. If you wish to read your work, sing a song, or tell a story about motherhood, contact the Arts Council at 209/754-1774 for more information.
 
In addition to exhibiting artwork by local area artists, this show will feature artwork by local mothers. The project, also called Motherhood, invited women at local mothers groups to express their feelings about motherhood on 6” x 6” canvases. According to Roberts, “Mothers throughout the community, from different walks of life in their motherhood, are expressing on the canvases what motherhood is to them. This is an opportunity for them to be creative, to collaborate on one installation that reflects what mothers experience.” The resulting artwork will be hung together, as one young mother said, “like a patchwork quilt.” 
 
An additional display of artwork from the students of Toyon Middle School will provide another perspective of motherhood. “I like kids’ artwork because it’s uninhibited,” said Mazzaferro. “Children’s artwork frequently has a truth to it that adults are hesitant to express.”
 
The gallery show will extend from May 4 to June 16.

Gallery: 22 North Main St., San Andreas, CA 95249

​The Calaveras County Arts is committed to helping our local schools provide high quality arts instruction. We believe that children thrive when they have contact with the arts, and that the arts are a necessary part of a child’s education and life. Your donations and events like Ride & Bike4Art raise funds that help kids succeed in and enjoy life.

Your donations help fund a visit to San Andreas Elementary School by B Street Theater, a professional company whose mission includes outreach in education. This year they will bring the 32nd Fantasy Festival of New Plays, a touring group that celebrates the work of student playwrights. The plays, written by kids between 3rd grade to 8th grade, range in topics and include a battle between chefs, time travel, and a mystery between and old rat and a cat.
 
The shows are entertaining for the kids, to be sure, but they’re about more than just a good show.  B Street Theater brings study guides for the teachers that prompt discussions about writing, telling stories, and the themes of the plays, and offer suggestions for kids to write their own stories.

For the last two years, the Arts Council has supported programs like the Jenny Lind Fine Arts Day. Every year for last 18 years, Jenny Lind Elementary School has devoted a day to the arts. Kids choose what classes they want to be in and then spend the whole day making art.
 
Teacher and volunteers and professional artists work in classrooms giving art lessons for the kids.  Past lessons have included spin art, butterflies out of coffee filters, and photography. The kids have had drama, music, and an assembly where they got to watch dancers from the Top Hat School of Dance from Burson.

Your gifts will help us provide art supplies to Calaveras High School Floral design class so that students can learn watercolor in order to create artwork based on their floral designs.  You’ll also be helping us sponsor two teachers—Anne Cook and Sue King—as they teach arch classes in the spring at Toyon Middle School.

Dear Cycling and Walking Friends,
 
Thank you for attending the Calaveras County Arts Council Third Annual Ride & Walk4Art.
 
Ride & Walk4Art has been four years in the making, ever since the Calaveras County Arts Council Board of Directors imagined an outdoor fundraiser for their Art in Education program. The response has been incredible: This year, 240 cyclists and walkers from all over Northern California spent a sunny spring day enjoying West Calaveras County.  
 
We thank you for your participation and generosity; you made this event great. You helped raise over $6,500 to support the arts in Calaveras County public schools. We also thank our 4 presenting sponsors—Cal-Waste Recovery Systems, Mar-Val Valley Springs, Diane and Richard Freggiaro, and the Stockton Bike Club. Their support made this event possible.
 
Thanks to our event photographer Susan Conner, we have pictures of you cycling and walking, enjoying Irish music, having lunch overlooking Hogan Lake, shopping for art, laughing, and celebrating. You can see those photos here.
 
It was a great event, with only a few hiccups. A dozen cyclists turned right at Stoney Creek and rode uphill towards Jackson (Don’t worry! We found them). A young Stockton cyclist fell during a fast turn. I misplaced a safety vest and stop sign; forgot to bring the official registration list; and left my wife’s car keys at home so she couldn’t join me at opening of our event...but, all in all, it was a picture perfect Ride & Walk4Art. 
 
Someone asked me if this event is worth all the effort. It is. I think so. I care about providing art support to our local schools. In the last year, the CCAC has helped fund arts programs in eight Calaveras County Schools; Ride & Walk4Art helps bridge the funding gap for arts in our schools.
 
I also ride bikes in the Motherlode and hike local trails in West Calaveras County. I feel fortunate that you wanted to spend the day supporting Arts in Education at Ride & Walk4Art 2018. I had the best day ever!
 
We are already planning Ride & Walk4Art 2019. Since it will happen on St. Patrick’s Day, we’re adding corned beef to the menu. We’re creating a Leprechaun Treasure Hunt for bike and walking teams. We also plan to add a third longer bicycle route; in fact, it’s the very Stoney Creek jog that took some cyclists towards Jackson.
 
We do our best to make every participant feel welcome, safe on road or walk, entertained, well-fed, and part of a community.
 
Thank you for supporting Arts Education in Calaveras County public school and riding and walking in with us. We’ll see you next year!
 
Rob Williams