The Artists for Obama Gallery stroll in Salt Lake City Utah was a huge success! We held the event on Friday, September 19, 2008 in the basement of Obama Headquarters. Rob Bennions band played great jazz out front all evening and drew even more of a crowd.
Thank you to all of you who participated in and submitted artwork to our gallery stroll event. Artists love Obama and Obama loves artists. Did you know that McCain doesn't even have a position on the arts?
A special thanks goes out to the artists who lent their talent to the show. Robin Ballard, who owns the building did a lot of work to see that the hanging system was installed. Amy Gezon and Mary Jane Smith helped with food and made the tables look great. Thank you Marureen, Rob, Amy U, Leslie and Mason who stuck around all night and helped.
We had over three hundred people pass through. Many of them volunteered to help the campaign, donated money, picked up yard signs and bought art. We even had a few voter registrations. Even Mayor Coroon bought a piece of great work.
The group is closed and we wont be accepting any more work. There has been an overwhelming interest in contributing work and there just aren't enough resources. We will have many more events in the gallery for the campaign, and we will try to make it available on Friday nights for viewing. We will likely hold another smaller open house during gallery stroll in October.
If you missed the show, come to Headquarters and check out the work of Mason Fetzer, Pilar Pobil , Gigi Kelson, Cori Redstone, R. Skraznas, Francis Zimbeaux, Weird Chief Pop Art, Michelle Anjenette Buck,Walt Wilcox, Howie Garber, Maurine Hobbs, Mike Walton, Jordan Hinckley, and many more.
Look for a piece about our event and the arts policies of both the Obama and McCain campaigns in an upcoming issue of the Salt Lake Tribune.
Keep staying involved. Send your friends to voteforchange.com to make sure they are registered. We still have a lot of work to do before the election.
Thank You !
Cori Redstone
Thanks to all who came to the Convention Watch Party in Canyon Rim Park. It was agreat deal of fun and was the closest thing i could emagine to being there ourselves. We just should have had fireworks.
To all the candidates who joined us I hope you had a great time and met a lot of potential voters. Special thanks to Mayor Becker for joining us and his great speech
Thanks to everyone who helped out with the set up. Particular thanks to John Lee for all his help with setting up the screen and Mike Lookinland who helped us out with the technical aspects.
Thank you to all of you who participated and volunteered last night at Canyon Rim Park. A special thanks goes to Mike Lookinland who kept things running with the giant screen.
All four major news stations covered the event as well as local papers and radio stations.
Kristen Garbett did a great job running the soda and snacks booth and Rob Skraznas was a great host. The event was hosted by Rob, Kristen and I. Over a dozen volunteers registered voters and signed up more future volunteers. Sydney Rhees merged his ever-expanding house party with ours and we really appreciate his help and participation. If you haven't seen his house it is on 7th East. His little paint job has made the papers. He also brought cardboard Obama and many people took pictures with him.
We don't have any banners locally, but by all means, if you want to make something and display it on your home that says a lot about your support.
Many people brought homemade signs and banners. Obama t-shirts abounded and some even got their dogs into the spirit by decorating them. No animals were harmed or will be harmed in this campaign. I swear.
We had around 300 people attend. More than that showed up just to get yard signs. Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker attended and gave a great speech.Candidates Jean Welch Hill, Brian King, Bob Springmeyer,and Lynn Hemmingway were on hand to speak to voters, get their input and celebrate with the crowd. Grae Wallace from Canyon Coffee did a great job keeping everyone caffinated.
Suzanne Gelderman addressed the crowd. Duchess and Patrick worked the Obama booth and spoke to everyone. If you forgot to take home the candidate sign you wanted go to slcountydems.org for more information on getting lawn signs of local candidates. It is vital that we keep up the pressure and show our support not only for Obama but for local people on the ground who will contribute as a whole to the Obama Presidency.
John and his wife had those great Jute bags for sale with the logo on them. If you missed getting one you can catch him at the Farmers Market downtown every Saturday. We signed a banner to hang in headquarters. If you haven't made it to headquarters yet is is on 780 East, South Temple. Stop by to volunteer this Saturday or stop by sometime just to say hello. Hopefully we will get some t-shirts and bumper stickers.
If you would like to see photos of last night go to this link.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28691399@N06/
It was an emotional evening as we spread out on blankets in front of the glowing Wasatch Mountains under the setting sun. It was the next best thing to being in Denver because sharing this occasion with a cheering crowd is no comparison to sitting in one's own livingroom.We clapped, we screamed, we booed, and we gave standing ovations. Wouldn't we have felt funny doing that in front of the sofa alone at home?
Now is the time to get started on local campaigns. There will be many volunteer opportunities. Look in Events for them and register saying you will volunteer. The Neighbor to Neighbor program can be found when you go to your dashboard. We need a lot of people in Utah to help out. Volunteer early and you may be a local coordinator.
Thanks for sharing in the excitement. I hope to see you elsewhere in the community. Say hello and let's have a great election!
Two galleries have already show some interest in holding a show for the September gallery stroll. Once your piece is completed you should give a printer at least a week to have an initial number of prints ready. Try to have your piece done by the middle/ late part of August. We will be selling prints weekly at the farmers market by the fifteenth.
I ended up doing a 16x20 of the design you see on the group site.
Don't stress about perfection. DO SOMETHING ARTISTIC! Ask yourself, 'why does the Obama campaign inspire me?'
Talk to other artists, no pressure, no expectations, but if they can come up with something, GREAT!
http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/UtahArtistsCo-opforObama
We are creating collectible posters with a Utah theme. There will be a small number of prints available. Look for a future show at a local gallery with the original pieces.
Tell an artist you know.
By the way, the 4th voter registration numbers for Sugarhouse came in at OVER 200 PEOPLE!
Over 100 registered on the 24th at Liberty. Way to go!
Tell everyone you know we are having a party for Obama on August 28. We will watch the convention speech live. It is currently set up at Sydey's house for the event. Sign up.
