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June 2005: VSAS Artshift student goes to Washington D.C.
VSAarts of California Executive Director, Alice Parente, and Board Member, Kurt Weston, attended the National VSAarts Meeting in Washington D.C. the week of June 6, 2005. The meeting offered workshops on Board leadership and grantwriting as well as Careers in the Arts forums for artists with disabilities.
Parente and Weston also attended a banquet awards dinner at which Weston was announced as one of three honorees for an Outstanding Leadership Award.
As part of their visit, Parente and Weston lobbied for Arts in Education funding. They met with six legislative aides for California Senators Feinstein and Boxer, Congresswoman Susan Davis, Congressman John Doolittle, Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey and Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard. The politicians were supportive and showed interest in restoring $10 million to VSAarts, which was slashed in the President's current budget proposal.
Later that week, Parente and Weston attended a Congressional reception for the winners of the National VSAarts contest "Discover What Art Is . . ." which was sponsored by the organization. Among the ten winners of the art contest and many attendess of the reception was Rachael Wilson, a McKinleyville, California artist and participant in VSAarts of California programs.
