Member News

Read about how NAMTA members are supporting the arts in their communities.


Humanity First: Raising Money for Education Through Art

Bradford Brenner is one of many talented artists with a gallery in Healdsburg. To members of a variety of north county school communities, Brenner is much more - he’s the artist who works with local kids to create collaborative paintings he then donates to charity, paintings that will raise big bucks for Sonoma County education this year alone. Recently, a masterpiece that Brenner engineered with all of the 3-to-5-year-old students at Live Oak Preschool sold for $1,700 during the 41st annual Live Oak Preschool Dinner Dance Auction fundraiser...

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Marabu uses Art Supplies to Support its Community with a Charitable Sponsorship

Marabu was proud to be one of the sponsors for Empty Bowls - Detroit, an annual event that raises funds and awareness for families in need of food, housing, health services and job programs. Marabu provided a large shipment of paint for their community bowl-painting workshops. The painted ceramic bowls are then sold at the event. Details at The Empty Bowls Project was founded in 1990 when Michigan art teacher John Hartom, and wife Lisa Blackburn, challenged his high school ...

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Hot Wire Foam Factory Helps Artist Create Fortress-of-Solitude Super Girl Costume

Hot Wire Foam Factory was recently approached by artist Cory Hunt who was working with a non-profit organization called The Magic Wheelchair. Cory had a project to do and needed to get it done fast! Foam was his medium of choice and How Wire jumped at the chance to help in his quest. In 3 short weeks, their new found artist friend created a Fortress of Solitude Super Girl costume for a little girl named Zoe (pictured below)...

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FM Brush Hosts Dynasty/Splashes of Hope Paint Night 2017

FM Brush recently hosted a Paint Night for the organization Splashes of Hope. They donated the brushes and brought in a group of artists to the Splashes location on Long Island, Dynasty Artists Shar Sosh and Sandy McTier, and FM Brush family and friends. Blick Art Materials donated the paint. The group painted all sorts of ceiling tiles and murals to be installed at the Northport VA Medical Center...

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Pina Zangaro Provides Gallery & Exhibition Space

Over the past ten years, San Francisco's real estate market has been fueled by the tech industry, driving many artists and arts organizations, including dozens of galleries, out of the city or out of business. Realizing that there was a dearth of exhibit space in San Francisco for photographers, Pina Zangaro converted two large spaces in the front of their building for use as a photo gallery. They host five or six large exhibitions a year, all at no cost to the exhibitors, in addition to many smaller arts events. In a city that lacks exhibition space, the Pina Zangaro Gallery has become an important resource for photographers at all levels. Additionally, the Gallery has been a great tool for better connecting with the users of our print presentation products...

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Dixon Ticonderoga Company Helping The Kids In Need Foundation

Dixon Ticonderoga Company and The Kids In Need Foundation have worked together to ensure success in the classroom for over a decade.

There are 40 KINF Resource Center locations in the United States, distributing much needed school supplies to kids who would otherwise go without. This year Dixon has donated 70,000 in fine art supplies, which will be distributed to the Resource Centers, and is working with 10 KINF Resource Centers are working with ten local artists to create 20 fine art pieces using products from the Maimeri, Canson, and Daler-Rowney brands. Ten masterpieces will be auctioned off at the national KINF annual gala ...

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MM Manufacturing Assists Rural Title 1 School

Title I, Part A (Title I) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as amended (ESEA) provides financial assistance to local educational agencies (LEAs) and schools with high numbers or high percentages of children from low-income families to help ensure that all children meet challenging state academic standards. (Oct 5, 2015)

Early in July, Marianne Bennett, owner of MM Manufacturing aka Marvelous Marianne's received this email from a rural Title 1 school.

"I would like to request a donation of your product for our school's art program. We are a small, rural, Title I school who does not have a large budget for purchasing items from year to year, therefore we rely heavily on donations. Our art room does not have a sink and in order for students to clean up, they must walk to the nearest student bathrooms which are a considerable distance away and make it difficult for me to monitor the classroom and the bathroom simultaneously as the two rooms are out of sight of one another. Since this is a gentle cleaner that can be used without water, it would be a very welcome and appreciated addition to our room."

Under the teacher's name was "Even the smallest person can change the course of the future."  - J.R.R Tolkien

Marianne said, "All of us, suppliers, retailers and reps donate items but this email for a rural Title 1 school in Rural may be reminder to all of us of the importance of our art giving."

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Paint Spot's Annual Art Walk

Art Walk recently took place in Edmonton, Canada. It is eight blocks of unrestrained creativity with around 450 artists and craftspeople - Graffiti, pop, surrealism, art nouveau, impressionism, and just plain cool looking items. Festival producer, and owner of the Paint Spot, Kim Fjordbotten, has been there since the beginning in 1995. In its 22nd year, Art Walk brings waves of symbolic communication of imagination in the public realm. The Edmonton Journal said “Kim deserves credit for institutionalizing, coordinating and making possible something our bylaws-obsessed local reality would otherwise instinctively stand in the way of in the name of law and boredom.”

Encouragement and opportunity are a big part of what draws crowds and artists to the festival. Artists usually have to turn to either the online storefront, or just hope for a gallery show, Art Walk provides a space for everyone to equally display the fruits of their labour.

Kim hopes someday Art Walk won’t just be for a weekend in July, but for the entire summer. She makes a strong case – “It’s an important part of the community. It takes the art from out of the studios and the closets and the garden sheds and brings both the work and the artists to where the people are. I call myself a mother bear sometimes, because I think art often gets relegated to frivolous or looked at as the first thing we can cut because it’s not that important. For those of us in the arts to articulate why it is important is really hard. People see it as it’s nice, or it’s enjoyable, or it’s stress relieving. To me, it’s the cornerstone of our society.”

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NAMTA's Partners in Art