Wednesday Lemonade

April 29, 2020

Welcome back to Wednesday Lemonade, a community newsletter focused on keeping VCCA Fellows, staff, and supporters connected.

Thank you to those authors who replied to last week's call to take part in a new VCCA reading series. We've seen a great response and look forward to setting our lineup and announcing those upcoming events. We know many Fellows โ€” writers, visual artists, and composers alike โ€” are already participating in similar online events to share their work and foster artistic exchange; today, we highlight one way you might invite the VCCA community to take part in your events.

We also announce our participation in #GivingTuesdayNow and invite you to consider VCCA as the world celebrates a day of giving next week.

In the spirit of online events and online generosity, today's messages from Fellows feature artists who are hard at work on their own creative initiatives to provide support to others.

Our best to all of you.
upcoming events
๏ปฟ A Global Day of Giving: May 5, 2020
This Tuesday, May 5, VCCA is participating in #GivingTuesdayNow , a global giving event put together as an emergency response to the unprecedented need caused by COVID-19. To help support VCCA during our temporary closure and to celebrate #GivingTuesdayNow with us, you might:

๏ปฟ You Tell Us!
Are you hosting an upcoming online event โ€” a Facebook Live concert performance, a Zoom book launch party, a virtual studio tour, a writing webinar, etc.? We invite you to invite your fellow Fellows on the Events page in Virtual VCCA . This is a handy feature of our new virtual gathering space that we hope will help Fellows spark new online gatherings and spread the word about existing events that are relevant to our community. Simply click the + button in the upper righthand corner of the Events page to get started.

Not already a member of Virtual VCCA? Use this link to join the group.
fellow messages
Below are just a few of the many lovely messages from Fellow we've collected so far. Keep them coming! And keep an eye out for more message from Fellows elsewhere.
Robynn Smith
"It is very difficult to concentrate right now, so I am splitting my time between smallish print projects that take a few days at most, and promoting Print Day in May , hoping to maximize the impact of this community-building event that is especially relevant in this surreal and troubled time. I invite everyone to make a print on May 2, whether it be a complicated lithograph, a potato print or a footprint in the sand. All participation is welcome and creates a link in a global chain. Check us out on FB and Instagram, and visit our website ."
Hiram Larew
"I realized that Poetry X Hunger, an informal initiative that I began 2 years ago which brings poets and poetry more deliberately to the anti-hunger cause, needed to issue a special call for poems about pandemic-related hunger. The hope is that such work will be useful to a variety of local, national and global hunger prevention organizations. The ' Now More than Ever ' call is posted on Facebook โ€” Poetry X Hunger . Or, visit the website โ€” PoetryXHunger.com . Or email poetryxhunger@gmail.com . "
Ginger Huebner
"As a visual artist, I also am the founding director of Roots + Wings School of Art and Design . We have had to close our doors physically and transform our creative language of art and design into a collection of creative experiences for all ages online. As with my school's in-person experiences, our new online collections are equally unique in their approach to creative education. They are not step by step, paint by number, product-based lessons. They focus on the experience rather than the product through prompts, tools, and ideas that help participants discover and unleash their creativity. I believe that it is more important than ever right now for us to share creative opportunities โ€” with our kids, our family, with ourselves โ€” to connect, to be seen, to explore, to create. For us it is a MUST to get the word out and have folks sign up to connect with us through our Roots + Wings Creative Community โ€” to keep my school afloat. While I was at VCCA this summer, a series of works arose that I call WEtogether. THIS is what this time is about...Thanks for sharing... #wetogether"
Alanna Schubach
" I've found it difficult to focus on writing and have heard that many of my fellow writers are experiencing the same thing. To help spark creativity in both them and myself, I've started a free, twice-weekly newsletter I'm calling A Poem A Story A Prompt , because it comes with one of each of those things. Please feel free to subscribe, share, and email me with feedback or recommendations for what to include at info@alannaschubach.com . "

The photo is from Alanna's VCCA residency at Mt. San Angelo earlier this year in February.
covid-19 resources
Tip: Look Locally
Community foundations, regional arts councils, and other local nonprofit organizations can be valuable sources of information and support. We offer up these lists of resources from the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation and CultureWorks Richmond as opportunities to our neighbors in the Commonwealth of Virginia and as examples to all. We encourage you to look for similar work being done in your own corner of the world.
standing invitations
Buy New Books by Fellows
Keep in Touch
๐Ÿงก Stay safe, and be well.