Colfax street banner contest will get post holidays launch

Colfax Arts Council has moved the 2012 edition of their H’ Art of the Palouse street banner contest to a later schedule to disentangle the annual event from the holidays, according to Debi Anderson, Council president. The fifth annual contest will begin right after the New Year and end with the artists’ reception in May.

“We decided participants might enjoy having the contest at a time when they are not busy with holiday activities,” Anderson said. “We have always gotten started in late October and hit both Thanksgiving and Christmas in a schedule that ended in February.

The council will firm up the dates with an announcement after the Thanksgiving holiday. The tentative schedule calls for a Feb. 3 entry deadline with winners announced Feb. 13. A workshop session will follow with painted banners due March 30. Date for hanging the banners will be April 22 with people’s choice balloting in the following two weeks.

Information flyers and entry forms will be available at the library and at the Colfax Chamber of Commerce after Thanksgiving. They can also be downloaded from the council’s website:

http://www.colfaxarts.com.

The theme is The Palouse Area and can include anything related: historic subjects, wild life, local mythology, farming and urban subjects, WSU, etc., and may be in any style from representative to abstract.

“Variety is what makes the Main Street Exhibit interesting,” Anderson said. “It’s amazing what variety we keep getting year after year.”

Additions for the coming year are being discussed, such as bigger prizes, design workshops for potential participants with CAC members and other regular exhibitors prior to the entry deadline, a children’s exhibit of paintings on smaller banners to be hung on Mill Street and a separate children’s design workshop. Announcements will be made in the next month, Anderson said.

The CAC apologizes for banners that have come down due to Main Street traffic mishaps and wind, but the banners are safely in their custody and will be re-hung as soon as hangers and a bucket truck become available.