Art Presence is Renovating!—After a lot of hard work and preparation, founder Anne Brooke and Board member Arlis Duncan submitted applications for two grants, the Transient Lodging Tax Grant from the City of Jacksonville and the Haines and Friends Fund from the Haines Foundation, to support much-needed renovations to our building. Together we waited for weeks with great anticipation for the decisions, and just received word that Art Presence was awarded both grants! We are beside ourselves with gratitude, and extend heartfelt thanks to all who played a special role in helping us attain this important goal.

Normally, Art Presence would be announcing our annual Small Treasures show right now, but we have received an early holiday blessing…and now we have work to do! Art Presence Art Center will be closed for renovations through the end of this month. When we’ve finished sprucing things up, we will have freshly painted sheetrock walls and new carpeting to enjoy for the holidays and greet the new year in style.

Which leads us to spoilers about our December show. Dolores Ribal will show her collection of new works in the Main Gallery. Anne Brooke has created an 8” x 8” coloring book, entitled, “Color Historic Jacksonville,” and published by David and Ginna Gordon of Lucky Valley Press, a Jacksonville publisher. This will be the perfect gift for this year’s holiday giving…lure friends and family from elsewhere to come for a visit, or delight those closer to home with a chance to make their own Jacksonville artwork…with Anne’s outlines to guide the way, of course! The show opens Friday, December 1 and runs through Christmas Eve, with a festive holiday reception to celebrate Dolores, the holidays, and our gallery’s new look on Saturday, December 2, from noon-3:00pm. Save the date and join us for the first party of the season!

Art Presence Offsite Exhibits—Walt Wirfs exhibits his graphite drawings in the Jacksonville Library through December. Shan Lollis shows her acrylic figure drawings at the Medford Library, opening in November.

Life Drawing Sessions—Since the gallery is down this month, there are no life drawing sessions or other activities scheduled. Life Drawing will resume in December.

Reserve our upstairs room for your class, workshop or meeting!—Contact Anne Brooke at 541-941-7057.

As always, you can find the above information and more on our website, https://art-presence.org.

Featured image: Color Historic Jacksonville coloring book by Anne Brooke Hawkins.