Come on downtown to VAAM for "First Thursday," September 1, 5-9 pm! Enjoy the music of Amy George !!! Try your hand at the amazing, traveling Painted Piano !!! Weaving demonstration inside VAAM. The 200 block of South Main will be hopping with fun, music, good times...!!!

Champagne Art Tour! presented by VAAM

Join us for a Champagne Art Tour, September 24, to the 79th Kansas City Plaza Art Show! Enjoy 240 artists, 3 music stages, kids art workshops, and the Kemper Street Museum.

$75 per person includes Coffee & Muffins, Mimosas & Chocolate Strawberries, and Box Supper on the way home. Lunch is on your own--you can choose from 30 different Plaza Restaurants! Bus departs at 7am from McPherson, returns later that evening.

Stop in the VAAM office/gallery to sign up today! 620-241-5774 for information.

"First Thursday" August 4, 5 pm–?

VAAM will be open on McPherson's first "First Thursday" August 4, 5 pm–? Stop in and watch art demonstrations by Wayne Conyers and Anne Albright during the evening! View the new exhibits of Jeannette Seger, Patricia Neufeld, and Rosella Ogg! Listen to music played David Albright on the vintage piano, decorated by Michelle Logback and Beverly Hunter. The 200 block of South Main will be hoppin' with fun, music, food...!

Paintings by Rosella Ogg, Manhattan

The McPherson High School Alumni Exhibit for 2011 in the Heritage Gallery of the McPherson Opera House will be the work of Rosella Ogg, Manhattan, Kansas, August 2–September 30. You are invited to the Reception for Rosella Ogg, Patricia Neufeld, and Jeannette Seger, Friday, August 26, 5–7pm!

Reception, Friday, July 22, at the Red Barn Studio, Lindsborg

Tonight! The Raymer Society for the Arts is hosting a reception in honor of the 10th anniversary of the VAAM artist-members' working art residency at the Red Barn Studio, 212 S. Main St, Lindsborg. Stop by 5-7 pm tonight to meet the VAAM artists, who have been working on their art this week.

This is the 10th year they have been Artists-in-Residence, Sunday, July 17-Saturday, July 23, at the Red Barn Studio.

Guest artists Jeannette Seger and Patricia Neufeld

The new exhbit including the work of guest artists Jeannette Seger and Patricia Neufeld, of Newton, Kansas, is July 1–August 30. The reception to meet Jeannette and Patricia will be Friday, August 26, 5–7 pm.

Next youth art classes coming up!

Making Paper for 6th-8th Graders
Make your own handmade paper by making the paper pulp, coloring/adding to the paper pulp, and couching it into sheets to make fun projects: greeting cards and a frameable piece of paper art.
July 9, 16, Saturdays, 9:00 am-12:00 noon & 1:00-3:00 pm each day
Instructor: Susan Shepard

“Wood is Good” Wood Assemblage for 1st-5th Graders
“Wood” you believe? Wood – a beautiful medium for artists of all ages!
If you can imagine, draw, construct, and embellish it, you can have it all!
July 11-15, Monday-Friday
1st-2nd Graders 9:00 am-11:30 am
3rd-5th Graders 1:00-3:30 pm
Instructor: Anne Nettleton

$25, all materials included! To register:
McPherson Arts Council office, 620-241-6131
The Visual Arts Alliance of McPherson, 620-241-5774
Some scholarships available

Who Does She Think She Is?

In a half-changed world, women often feel the need to choose: mothering or working? My children’s well-being or my own? Responsibility or self-expression? You are invited to a girls’ night out, June 16, 7 pm, in the Ballroom of the McPherson Opera House. We will show the documentary “Who Does She Think She Is” by Academy Award winning film maker Pamela Tanner Boll, who features five fierce women who refuse to choose. Following the film, McPherson College English professor, Dr. Kim Stanley, will lead an engaging and fun discussion, while VAAM artists serve refreshments. Attendance is free.

Now! A Figurative Ceramic Sculpture Show

by VAAM member Michaela Valli Groeblacher
Reception is Saturday, May 14, 6-8 pm, in the VAAM Gallery

Also! Thursday, June 16, 7 pm, in the Ballroom of the McPherson Opera House: The documentary film "Who Does She Think She Is" examines women's struggle to juggle parenting and creativity, partnering and independence, economics and art. Do we have to choose between who we love and what we love? Discussion will follow. Please join us!

Memorial Exhibit of John Blake Bergers

See the Memorial Exhibit of the work John Blake Bergers in the Heritage Gallery of McPherson Opera House, through May 31. Reception, Sunday, May 22, 2–4 pm. His Lindsborg and Smoky Valley series of paintings, sketches, and studies of early history captured days-past important events, homes, Main Street stores, festivals, parades, country schools, given form for new generations to discover, older generations to recall and reflect.