Hello Everyone!

We are happy to announce this year’s Community Art Project in conjunction with our fundraising efforts for North Texas Giving Day, September 21, 2023.

For the past several years, we’ve donated collaborative community artworks to local nonprofits, involving our members and people from the Denton community, and beyond. This year we want to honor and celebrate the joy and support that our animal companions bring to our lives, so we’ll be donating a large-scale collaborative artwork called Welcome Home to the Linda McNatt Animal Care and Adoption Center.

But not only are we announcing our Community Art Project today, we’re also putting out the call for participants and artists! Below is the image we’ll be creating, along with more information about the artwork and your participation.

Welcome Home will be re0alized from 1,500 individual Artist Trading Cards, each a 2 ½ inch x 3 ½ inch miniature artwork, all woven together, collage style, to create the 5 ft. x 9 ft. larger image. Each card will be predominantly one color, and although your color palette will be limited to the color you choose, you’re free to be creative in texture, style, media, and subject matter. You’re also welcome to do more than one card! Since we need 1,500 Artist Trading Cards, your creations will be the most important part of our success in this truly collaborative community project!

If you're interested in participating, we'll be passing out kits starting Friday, 7/14/23, at The Art Room, 721 S. Locust St., Denton, TX. Each kit includes a color swatch and the 2 ½ x 3 ½ inch watercolor paper, and you’re encouraged to pick up as many as you want and are able to complete! The deadline for turning in the Artist Trading Cards is 8/18/23. Cards can be picked up and returned to The Art Room anytime we’re open: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 5:30 pm-7:30 pm, and Fridays and Saturdays 11:00 am-3:00 pm. We are also adding 3 additional evening open studio dates exclusively to work on creating these cards: Wednesdays 7/19, 7/26, and 8/2, 5:30 pm-7:00pm.

Virtual instructions will also be offered to those who can’t come by to pick up kits, so if you aren’t able to come in but would like to participate, please email education@theartroomdenton.org, and we’ll send you those instructions.

Finally, we’re hoping to have a few pop-ups around town to help get the community involved in creating artist cards. The times and dates are below:

Aura Coffee, 7/28/23 and 8/11/23 from 1:00 pm-5:00 pm
Dan’s Silverleaf, 8/4/23 from 4:00 pm-7:00 pm
Tentative: One of Denton's public libraries. The time and place to be determined so stay tuned for announcements.

If you can’t commit to creating an Artist Trading Card but do want to offer your support to the Community Art Project, please consider making a donation to The Art Room by clicking here on the Donate button, and mention that you want to sponsor our Community Art Project efforts:

Your financial help will be greatly appreciated since we’ll need to frame the piece before presenting the work to the Linda McNatt Animal Care and Adoption Center.

We’ve already received much-needed community support for this project from Voertman’s art supplies department, which donated all the paper for the Artist Trading Cards! We can’t thank them enough for getting the Welcome Home Community Art Project started!

We’re looking forward to the beauty and surprise of this Community Art Project, and also to the wonderful experience of giving our artwork to the Linda McNatt Animal Care and Adoption Center during the week of North Texas Giving Day in September.

Feel free to share this email or our flyer (see attached) with anyone who might be interested in participating in this Community Art Project, and please support The Art Room for NTGD in September.

Thank you for your generous support of The Art Room and the Linda McNatt Animal Care and Adoption Center!