Redlands Art Association

What inspires your creativity?  Is it a blank canvas and a box of paints?  How about a pile of yarn or a handful of beads?  What if you had never seen those things or didn’t have the tools or the skills to use them?  What if you did create them and no one ever saw them?  It would be a tragedy to your spirit and you wouldn’t know the thrill of accomplishment that comes from creating original art.

For almost 50 years the Redlands Art Association has provided children and adults with skills, tools, and opportunities for recognition of their creativity.  From our modest beginnings in 1964, we have grown to provide support for artists of all ages.  In the past 12 months, we have taught classes to 281 children including our new Academy classes and offered traditional courses from cartooning to ceramics. We have also taught 217 adult students in both classes and workshops.  During this same time period, our State Street Gallery sold 2,987 pieces of original, handmade art created by our 271 members.  Additionally, our annual Art in the Park, Art on State Street and Multi-Media Mini shows draw artists from much of Southern California and continues to enable us to provide artists with a venue for creative expression and contribute to our local economy. 

The exciting news is that there is potential to do much more than we are currently doing!  Arts education in the schools is declining due to funding cuts and most of our classes are full as soon as they are announced.  The scholarships that we provide are always appreciated by worthy young students.  These students not only learn a drawing skill, or how the color wheel works, they are taught to create and they are given a place and an outlet for their creative expression.

Your gift, of any size, to the Redlands Art Association will ensure that classes continue to be available for adults and youth of all ages, that artists continue to have the opportunity for their work to be shown and admired and that the City of Redlands continues to be a place where art is created and treasured.

Thank you for your support, it is vitally important as we carry out our mission of providing art for all.