WESTAF Update Notes #84 | July 2015
From Anthony Radich, Executive Director
This is the 84th in a continuing series of updates about the work of WESTAF
Applicants Sought for 2015 Emerging Leaders of Color Program
Applicants are currently being invited to apply to participate in the WESTAF seminar for emerging leaders of color. The seminar will be held October 26-28, 2015, in Denver. Selected participants are invited to attend the seminar at no cost, and travel and lodging expenses are paid by WESTAF. Organized by Chrissy Deal, WESTAF’s program associate for multicultural initiatives, participants work with a core faculty comprised of long-time cultural leader Margie Johnson Reese of Dallas; Salvador Acevedo, principal and president at the marketing, research, and communications firm Contemporánea of San Francisco; and Tamara Alvarado, executive director of the School of Art and Culture at the Mexican Heritage Plaza in San Jose. Candidates must reside in the 13-state WESTAF region, be under the age of 35, and have no more than 10 years of experience working in the arts. Applications and accompanying endorsements must be received by Thursday, August 13, 2015. Applicants will be notified of a decision in September 2015. For information about additional requirements and to apply, please visit www.westaf.org.
CaFÉ™ Turns 10!
Since its launch in 2005, CallforEntry.org (CaFÉ) has grown to become the nation’s leading online call-for-entry application and jury management system. Thanks to a series of significant improvements and an expanding team, CaFÉ now has over 150,000 registered artists and is the only system with an active marketplace of artists who regularly search for and apply to calls through the site. The CaFÉ site consistently hosts more than 120 active calls, with over 60 new calls added each month. Each call receives an average of 220 submissions for juried exhibitions, art competitions, and public art commissions. Improvements will continue to be made to the site while an all-new site is designed and built for release in approximately two years. The new site will continue to offer the current core adjudication functionality but will be expanded to offer users even more features, including additional ways to use the site as both an artist and administrator.
Public Art Archive™ Nearing 10,000 Records
The Public Art Archive (PAA) database is quickly approaching 10,000 records from almost 1,000 collections around the nation and abroad. As the database grows, the PAA team continues to work on ways to help more of the public discover and learn about public art collections. One big step towards this goal is the Collection Showcase Page feature, which allows administrators with collections in the PAA to develop their own home page as an access point to their collection. Using the showcase page in this way is far less expensive than designing a stand-alone public art site. In addition, because the PAA is heavily used, the public is better able to search for a collection in a locality rather than seeking one out that is often buried in state and local government sites. A showcase page allows visitors to search within a specific collection and view supplementary media related to that collection. The feature also allows for embedded video and audio files, the ability for local administrators to alter content, and generally serves as a findable promotion tool for public art collections. The City of Austin, Texas, purchased a Collection Showcase Page in October, and their staff has done an exceptional job maximizing its use. View their showcase page here.

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