Utah artists are asked to submit proposals for two pieces of original artwork to be permanently displayed in the new headquarters of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Utah. Called “A Wishing Place,” the building is designed to be inviting to children and a place of respite for families. As the first of its kind in the nation, the building will house a special room for children to come to make their wishes.  Artists are asked to envision a waterfall-like fixture for this room, as well as a sculpture/mobile for the main hall.

Looking more like a large home than an office building, the design for A Wishing Place incorporates ideas from wish children—including a peaceful garden, castle spire, and magical unicorn. Children also expressed a desire to “leave something of themselves behind.” This is the purpose for the sculpture. Though the specifics will be left to the artist, it is intended that each wish child could create something that would add to the sculpture and, in time, be a monument to all wish children.

    The other piece of artwork is an interactive water feature, which will provide a focus for the wishing room. Most likely this piece will be a waterfall that feeds the moat around the room and is controlled by a small computer, allowing for color and lighting effects. It is anticipated that this project will require the collaboration of a team of designers.

    The Make-A-Wish Foundation operates on the belief that children can overcome the hardships of life-threatening illnesses and seeks to enrich the human experience with hope, strength, and joy.  The Utah chapter has been granting wishes to children since 1985, and now grants over 100 each year. The foundation understands that children are energized by a wish. They can imagine, describe, plan, anticipate, and eventually rejoice in its fruition. By demonstrating that a wish can come true, the Make-A-Wish Foundation encourages a child to envision a positive future and to remain an active partner in treatment when courage and hope flag. At the same time, a wish is a moment of joy and fantasy and laughter in the midst of a much darker time in the child’s life and in the life of the family. As one child said on coming home to his wish presentation, “It smells like happiness in here!”  Hope, strength, and smiles can be powerful medicines.

The Make-A-Wish Foundation is funded through the donations of private individuals and charitable organizations and relies on its network of hundreds of volunteers to envision, organize, and carry out wish granting. Each year volunteers also organize three main fund-raising events and smaller family gatherings. In the future, A Wishing Place will house many of these family events. 

Artists interested in submitting a proposal should contact info@makeawishutah.org or call Kathy at (801)-277-4673 for a complete description of the project, including selection criteria and budget information. The deadline for proposals is February 28, 2003.

To learn more about The Make-A-Wish Foundation of Utah please visit our website at www.makeawishutah.org or call (801)- 277- HOPE.

In the many years that I have spent talking with artists all across the country - the most frequent question is "Where do I start?"  And the answer to that is ALWAYS - "Start with advertising!"
 
When a business opens for the first time, do they just open up their doors and hope for someone to walk in? If they are gonna stay in business for any length of time they know that advertising is the most important thing that needs to be done.  And the same holds true for artists and their business.
 
You can be a great artist - but if no one can see your work, you will fail. So, put yourself together an advertising plan from the very start and your business will have a greater chance of getting off the ground.
Begin by looking over your work and focusing on several pieces that have had good responses from your clients.  These should be the pieces that you choose to use in your first advertising materials.  They are a good reflection of your style and you would be proud to use them on a volume basis.
 
The first piece of advertising you should choose is your business card. Business cards are easy to carry with you all the time, they are accepted in the marketplace, and even expected when meeting people for the first time. When you present your business card, you are presenting a piece of yourself - and a good showing of what you do. And because they have one of your images on the front, people tend to save them because they are so unique.  It is very important that your business card shows your work because that is what you do, and a card that just says, "Joe Blow - Artist" on the front with no image is not worth doing.  People still do not know what you do for a living.
 
Let's walk into a social situation for a minute together.  You have just been introduced to someone and are trying to get the conversation going. You spend a bit of time with small talk and then they ask what you do for a living.  Have you ever noticed that whenever you say you are an artist - the conversation just seems to stall?  Do you know why?  It is not because they don't like artists, it is because they do not know what to say from there. They do not want to say something "dumb" because they may not know anything at all about art.  And, what you do is so very visual, they can't for a second imagine what that might be.  If you ask them the same question, they can give you a very easy answer, like a teacher, or an accountant or even a lawyer.  The conversation can go on with their profession because it is not based strictly on visual images.  So, back to you - at this time, if you had a color business card with one of your original paintings on the front - you could hand it to them and the conversation could continue. "Oh, you paint wildlife...I have never figured out how someone could do that so well." Or - "what kind of painting is this? Is it an oil?" - you get the idea.  The door caan stay open for discussion about your professional business.  And, you never know - you may get a client out of the meeting
One word of warning about size - in your creative thought process, maybe you decide to have an odd size card to help "jazz" up the look - beware of doing this because it does not fit into business card files, or wallets, or general places people have their business cards.  Where does this odd size go? You guessed it - in the trash or in another place that ends up getting lost to them when they are trying to find you.  The card should be unique - but smart unique.  It is okay however, to print your cards double size and then fold over to the standard size of 2 x 3 ½ .  In fact, I have seen some beautiful cards that had several images on them because they opened up from standard size.