Please consider donating to Artstra on southwest Washington's day of giving, Give More 24! on September 23, 2021. The mission of our all-volunteer organization is to elevate the arts, build greater arts awareness, reward creative excellence, and expand arts accessibility. Your generous donation will help fund Artstra's ongoing activities and programs: Clark County Open Studios [...]
By tradition when fall arrives, the arts come alive with announcements of upcoming performances, exhibitions, workshops, and classes for the year ahead. And as local arts organizations see it, this year should be no different. They’ll adjust for whatever the pandemic throws their way. The show must go on. The arts took a hit this [...]
Vancouver Ballet Folklorico (VBF), Fourth Plain Forward, and Artstra have collaborated to launch a new program, Espacio de Arte en el Parque, spearheaded by Anna Cruz, Artstra board member and founder of VBF. The program is also a natural extension of Artstra's Creative Relief Clark County. Cruz's idea was inspired by fond memories of her [...]
Jurors Steven L. Grafe, Leith Gaines, and Judith Schlicting have selected the following artists for participation in this fall's Clark County Open Studios Tour: Stefanie Adams, Sharon Agnor, Michelle Allen, Christian Barrios, Robert Bickel, Stephanie Burton, Anne Cavanaugh, Kathleen Cosgrove, Robin Damore, India de Landa, Erin Dengerink, James DeRosso, Kathleen Duncan, Adrienne Eliades, Ann Fleming, [...]
A hybrid approach — with COVID safety in mind The Clark County Open Studios Tour is back on the calendar for this November 6–7. The tour will return after a year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This fall will mark the eighth year of the free, self-guided tour of local artists’ studios. “What’s new [...]
Vancouver poet Armin Tolentino has been selected as Clark County Poet Laureate, 2021-2023. Armin is the author of the poetry collection We Meant to Bring It Home Alive (Alternating Current Press). He earned an MFA in Creative Writing at Rutgers Newark and his work has been published in numerous literary journals including Common Knowledge, Arsenic [...]
The City of Vancouver and Historic Trust, with support from Artstra, are working on a concept to repurpose the Vancouver police headquarters building (located at 605 E. Evergreen Blvd.) into the Arts Headquarters, a community arts center that could potentially offer studio space, classrooms, a gallery, and makerspaces. If you are an artist, maker, or [...]
Poetry Moves Season 10 poems are now on C-Tran buses. This latest group of poems highlights the diversity of voices among ten local area poets invited by Artstra to offer short poems to share with the riding public. Poetry Moves is an Artstra program developed in partnership with C-Tran. Season 10 poets are Tiel Aisha [...]
We are coming up on what should have been Open Studios weekend and many will miss that special opportunity to connect with artists. To say this year has been challenging is an understatement. Many local businesses and artists continue to struggle. Although our annual Open Studios Tour is cancelled this year, we can still enjoy [...]
Artstra thanks all who contributed to supporting the arts during the Community Foundation for Southwest Washington's Give More 24! day of giving. It was gratifying to see so many local arts organizations supported by our community. The arts have had to adjust and take new approaches to reaching out and to surviving during this stressful [...]