Editor:

As the Eastern Shore Art Center begins a new membership year, I have had the opportunity to look back over the past 12 months and realized that we could not have accomplished all that we have without the support of the community.

If you’ve driven down Section Street, you’ve seen the Art Center construction that started this time last year and was officially opened in February as our new courtyard gallery. By enclosing the center of our facility, we have achieved a dramatic space with 30-foot ceilings that enable us to host large-scale exhibits, teach many more workshops and accommodate large social events like our popular First Friday ArtWalk receptions.

Exhibits change each month at the Art Center, which is open to the public six days a week. Area businesses have served as exhibit sponsors for us during the past year, including First National Bank of Baldwin County, Weichert Realty Eastern Shore, JME Realty of Fairhope, Terry Thompson Chevrolet, Cornerstone Investment, Walcott Adams Verneuille Architects, JME Realty/Walter Ernest, Vision Bank, Roberts Brothers, Al Pennington attorney at law, Norwalk Furniture and Compass Bank. We have hosted several traveling shows of nationally known artists and showcased the work of local and regional artists. We have also hosted shows for Fairhope High School art students, The Haven, Weeks Bay Reserve Foundation, Alabama Marine Resources, Color Me Kids/Springhill Memorial Hospital and the B.R.A. show, which benefitted the American Cancer Society.

Our member artists hang their work for sale at the Art Center in our Members Gallery and are also given the opportunity to exhibit their work for sale at Andree’s, Bayshore Dermatology, Citizens Bank, Eastern Shore Adult Medicine, Eastern Shore ENT, Fairhope Internal Medicine, Fairhope Physical Therapy, First Gulf Bank of Fairhope, the Grand Hotel, Honey Baked Ham, Medical Park OB-Gyn, Sunflower Cafe, Thomas Hospital, Whitney Bank of Daphne and Valenti’s Restaurant.

In addition to teaching classes for children and adults on a year-round basis at our Center, we also have a very active arts-in-schools program. Nancy Raia, program director, works closely with Vicky Nix Cook, fine art supervisor for Baldwin County schools, to take art into classrooms all over Baldwin County. With support from the Alabama State Council on the Arts, the Mobile Arts Council, the city of Fairhope, the Mapp Family Foundation and the Community Foundation of South Alabama, this program is beginning its sixth year of in-school art instruction. In addition, the ABC program supports the community by creating artwork for Earth Day, by working with community members with disablities as part of the Very Special Arts program, hosting a reception each year for students whose work was selected for the Alabama Marine Resources calendar, and helping Hispanic students in Baldwin County express themselves through art. Ms. Raia and local blind artist Ricky Trione have worked tirelessly to encourage students of all ages and learning levels to open up to creatvity.