Event to raise funds for kids’ art

Businesses nationwide are struggling, but local nonprofit organizations like Your Art Here work to keep the arts alive in Bloomington with the fundraising event “Bagels, Billboards and Ballads” – a fundraiser for Billboard Generation VII.

“Your Art Here was started by a group of Bachelor of Fine Arts students at IU,” said Julie Hardesty, co-director for the group, “and Billboard Generation was one of the first projects that they tried doing as a group, as an organization. And it coincides with National Youth Art Month in March.”

Billboard Generation VII, the seventh annual youth art billboard competition, allows students from grade school through high school to create their own billboards centered around this year’s topic, “Sustainability: Living in Balance.” Participants chose from subjects such as recycling, pollution, deforestation and alternative energies. The idea for the topic was sparked by the 2008 presidential debates and seemed relevant to the current state of the world, said co-director of Your Art Here, Michelle Dalmau. It also strongly connects to the environmentally conscious lifestyle of Bloomington residents, Dalmau said.

“I think this community in particular is very receptive to alternative forms of energy,” Dalmau said. “There’s a lot of walking, there’s the farmer’s market, there’s a lot of community support.”

The contest committee received 240 submissions and a seven-person jury, including board members, volunteers and co-directors of Your Art Here chose the winners. The jury chose winners for each category, kindergarten to second grade, third to fifth, sixth to eighth and ninth to 12th, out of the Bloomington submissions. One winner was chosen from the Indianapolis submissions because only 10 designs were submitted.
“It just fits in with the whole city of Bloomington and their mission of supporting public art,” Dalmau said. “And I’m hoping that we can actually get some financial support as well.”

Dalmau and Hardesty both worry that the organization won’t raise enough funds to support the next year’s Billboard Generation. Delmau said the likelihood each winner will have his or her own billboard still has not been confirmed because of Your Art Here’s budget crisis.

The Bloomington Community Arts Commission and the city of Bloomington are currently supporting Your Art Here financially, Hardesty said.

Bloomington Bagel Company will donate bagels to the event, and Bloomingfoods will provide additional food and beverages. Families are encouraged to participate in an interactive performance by musical performers Yuri Rodriguez, Steve Mascari and Lara Lynn and The Kid.

Generally the organization’s fundraisers are at 21+ clubs because of the member’s connection to local bands, but this time around Your Art Here decided to coordinate a fundraiser geared toward families, Delmau said. Families will have the opportunity to participate in an art project called “Tree of Life.”

“We want to engage people with the theme this year, so we’re actually taking one of our old billboards and reversing it and then using the back side of it,” Demau said. “We’re recycling the billboard essentially to create a collage so that all the folks who come can work together, parents and kids and friends and family, to work on this huge collage.”

All proceeds will fund next year’s Billboard Generation to allow children to continue to express their thoughts creatively. The event will be from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Feb. 7 at the Monroe County History Center. Admission is $5 for adults and free for kids.