 2018 ART BARN PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD WINNERS
The judges, they judge, but the people, they also have their say at the Art Barn during the Plumas-Sierra County Fair. The People’ Choice award at the annual county Fair are always the most coveted. People's Choice award winners and the category for which they won are: Courtney Jennings was chosen for Children's Arts and Crafts. Jade Kennedy won the Student Photography category. Johnna Leonhardt was the Adult Amateur Arts & Crafts People's Choice award winner. Heather Way and Terri Rust were tied for the Adult Amateur Photography award. Dani Czuprynski was chosen for the Professional Arts & Crafts Division Michael Beatley won for Professional Photography. In the new category for Decorated Piggy, the Winner was Quincy Provisions. In addition to the honor of being selected for this award each of the winners will receive a beautiful ribbon and a cash award or Town Hall Theatre movie passes contributed by Plumas Arts. Plumas Arts coordinates a massive volunteer effort each year to accept, hang and docent the Art Barn for the duration of the fair. Plumas Arts is extremely grateful to the dozens of people that make the Art Barn display possible. “We certainly could not do this without the hands and help of so many that make this possible,” says Roxanne Valladao, Plumas Arts’ Executive Director.
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 Art Barn coordinator extraordinaire Maggie Hennessy shows off the completed "adopted pigs" under the new canopy of white lights. THE ART BARN IS A LABOR OF LOVE
“Fair management has told us for many years that the Art Barn at the Plumas Sierra County Fair is the most popular attraction,” offers Plumas Arts Executive Director Roxanne Valladao. Plumas Arts has long been the primary coordinating entity behind getting the Art Barn ready for the enjoyment of fair-goers of all ages. The monumental task of getting all the art accepted and up on the walls and docenting during the fair requires many hands and hundreds of volunteer hours to accomplish. Interacting with entrants is a massive public relations effort as kind-hearted volunteers work to resolve issues of late entries or corrections to the final log books that are used for judging. But the real heart of the project is Maggie Hennessy. Hennessy has been contracted by Plumas Arts to coordinate, design, and execute the art display since 2014. For her, it truly is A Labor of Love. “Each year Maggie adds another special something to her efforts showcasing the creative talents of the dozens of individuals who bring their precious creations for judging and display,” adds Valladao. “This year she added strings of lights to form a ceiling canopy, and perhaps the most fun is the Animal Adoption Corral.” For the last several months the paper has announced a campaign to “Adopt a Pig” for $25. Funds collected go into an account for the Art Barn, which funds the additional niceties that have done so much to improve the visuals of the displays. Once “adopted,” new “parents” are tasked with the decoration of the blank plywood cut-out to make their little piggy a thing of beauty. Decorated pigs are on display in the Art Barn during the fair in the Animal Adoption Corral. A special thanks goes out to Matt McMorrow who cut all those little piggies out of plywood. And what will be up for adoption next year? Well, Maggie says, it might be roosters.  California Arts Council Director Anne Bown-Crawford (center) visited Quincy to meet with Executive Directors for the Sierra County Arts Council BJ Jordan (right) and Roxanne Valladao (left) from Plumas Arts. The trio climbed aboard a truck parked behind the Town Hall Theatre in front of the mural that the California Arts Council helped to fund. CALIFORNIA ARTS COUNCIL DIRECTOR VISITS QUINCY
Plumas Arts was honored to host a regional meeting with the newly appointed Director of the California Arts Council, Anne Bown-Crawford, who came to Quincy to meet with arts council directors from Plumas and Sierra Counties. Governor Brown appointed Anne Bown-Crawford as the new Director of the California Arts Council (CAC) last December. One of her first orders of business has been to travel around the state to meet face-to-face with the directors of the county arts agencies that form the State Local Partnership network. The Partnership is the backbone of the Arts Council programming that embraces every county in the state into a coalition that genuinely represents the entirety of California. Each county has an opportunity to designate a representative to the State Local Partnership. Plumas Arts has served as our county’s representative since 1981. In the last two decades Plumas Arts has consistently ranked in an exemplary partner status. The California Arts Council provides essential annual operating support to Plumas Arts. “The most exciting part of Anne’s appointment is that she has strong roots in the rural areas of Northern California, so she really understands the sensibilities and challenges faced by those of us who serve in rural areas,“ comments Plumas Arts Executive Director Roxanne Valladao. “In the 32 years that I have served in the State Local Partnership we have never had a CAC Director from a rural area, nor have we ever had a CAC Director visit us in Plumas County, so this was a very special occasion.” With nearly 40 years as a teacher at the secondary level, Bown-Crawford is a champion for arts education, serving as administrator for numerous exemplary arts programs. Most recently as Director of the Arcata Arts Institute and the Innovation Design Institute, both programs within Northern Humboldt Union High School District; as well as the Fine Arts Department Chair at Arcata High School. Bown-Crawford is also a founder of the Create CA Leadership Council, a statewide collective impact organization with a mission to rethink and create an educational environment for all California students featuring arts education as a central part of the solution to the crisis in our schools, and a member of the National Art Education Association and the California Art Education Association. She is also a new media studio artist and a freelance graphic designer who specializes in branding not-for-profit organizations via print, web, and social media. Bown-Crawford holds a Master of Arts in Education from UC Berkeley, a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Design from Northern Illinois University, and was an MFA Design candidate at the California College of Arts. |
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