Sponsors

As the ARC Salon™ is growing now with an 9^th category and the live exhibition, we have decided to take on Category Sponsors to help fund our expanding competition. We thank them for their dedication to fine art and their generous donation to pay for the first, second and third place winners in their respective sponsored categories, to help the vision of an international traveling exhibition and our multi-genre competition to inspire, promote, and defend the advancement of the Realist Movement in the 21^st century.

If you are interested in sponsoring an ARC Salon™ Category, please write to Kara Ross at kara.ross@artrenewal.org

Sponsored by the Florence Academy of Art

The Florence Academy of Art, one of the Art Renewal Center's first approved schools, has been advancing the training and techniques of classical painting and sculpture for 25 years. It has formed many skillful artists who are important members of the Realist Art movement of the 21^st century. The Florence Academy recognizes the importance of the ARC Salon as an international showcase for classically trained artists, in particular now as the exhibition expands to a live venue. Through its sponsorship of the Figurative Category, the Florence Academy hopes to help ARC continue to cultivate the global audience of students, artists and patrons. Students who apply to The Florence Academy of Art seek the language used by Rembrandt, Velasquez, Titian, and the tools to convey their ideas with confidence through the oil or clay mediums. A common visual aesthetic draws them to the classical world (and its renaissance in Florence) to build an artistic vocabulary where beauty and humanity are intrinsic to art. To accomplish this, the Florence Academy’s methodology combines intense observation with advanced craft skills. The Florence Academy of Art is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD) as an undergraduate certificate program. With three locations in the US and Europe, they encourage their students to take the opportunity to study in Florence, Sweden or New York.

Sponsored by Studio Incamminati

For more than a decade, Studio Incamminati, School for Contemporary Realist Art, has been a leader in the growing contemporary realist art movement. Founded by the late Nelson Shanks and his wife Leona, it is now recognized nationally and internationally for its rigorous curriculum, accomplished instructors and diverse outreach efforts. An ARC Approved™ Atelier, the school is modeled on the traditional Italian academia and French atelier and committed to the belief that mastery of technique is essential to creative expression. Its innovative curriculum fuses classical traditions of the Renaissance era masters, luminous color of the Impressionists and a fresh, contemporary sensibility. Its goal is to offer an affordable education that produces highly skilled artists who call upon their training and abilities to create art with depth of purpose and to give back to their community. Its artists, faculty and alumni have been featured at prominent venues such as the National Arts Club and Philadelphia's Comcast Center. And, the school has received media coverage ranging from art-community thought leaders such as International Artist magazine and Fine Art Collector to mainstream media including the New York Times, CNN and NPR.

Even the school's name is filled with symbolism. In Italian, "Incamminati" means "moving forward" and invokes the innovative spirit of its namesake studio founded by the Renaissance artist, Annibale Carracci. Studio Incamminati, one of the few schools of its type accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, fulfills its vision in a number of ways. In addition to its core Advanced Fine Art Program, the school offers workshops open to the general public both in Philadelphia and with the In Your Town programs nationwide. Other programs serve school-age artists and art educators.

Sponsored by Bay Area Classical Artist Atelier (BACAA)

Bay Area Classical Artist Atelier (BACAA), is in the San Francisco Bay Area City of San Carlos. We offer weekly Art Classes, Workshops, Intensive Summer Programs, Open Model Sessions for artists of all abilities who desire to study drawing and painting in the tradition of Classical Realism of the old masters. We are located 30 minutes south of San Francisco in mid peninsula's beautiful town of San Carlos CA, County of San Mateo. The New BACAA studio has 50 ft. wide north facing window and 20 ft. high ceiling, which provide the ideal environment for classical study. Please visit the About Us page for local accommodations and affordable housing and our BACAA (Bay Area Classical Artist) page on Facebook. Linda Dulaney, Founder of BACAA, is a lifelong artist who manifested her desire to bring a school to life in the San Francisco Bay Area, based on the ateliers of the Renaissance and old masters. Starting in the mid 1990s, Linda developed a clear understanding of the style and type of instruction she wanted in an atelier. Linda's most influential teachers were Tony Ryder, Ted Seth Jacobs and Michael Grimaldi. She currently teaches the ongoing daytime classes at BACAA and at Stanford University. BACCA also holds regular workshops by a long list of prestigious and world-renowned guest instructors. Please visit the BACCA website for additional information and to register.

Sponsored by Atelier Programs at Gage Academy of Art: the Magrath Sculpture Atelier and the Aristides Atelier

The Magrath Sculpture Atelier at Gage Acad­emy of Art is a multi-year, part-time Atelier designed to confer the core disciplines needed to become a practicing figurative sculptor at a high level of excellence. Led by celebrated sculptor, Michael Magrath, students learn to become adept in both traditional approaches as well as contemporary concerns in a variety of media. Designed to be undertaken over three years, but may be taken part-time over several years, the long term goal of the Magrath Sculpture Atelier at Gage is to confer upon the student who completes the program a well-recognized certificate of mastery in fine art figure sculpture, and the skills and confidence needed to make sculpture at the highest level.

Atelier Programs at Gage Academy of Art: The Aristides Atelier, run by world renowned artist and author Juliette Aristides and the Magrath Sculpture Atelier feature an opportunity to work and study in a stimulating, communal environment under the guidance of a master teaching artist. An intensive studio program for the serious artist-in-training, Ateliers offer a contemporary variation on the traditional teaching model of the 19^th-century European academies, where dedicated art students apprenticed with a master artist. In the last two years Gage has greatly expanded its Atelier program from Classical Painting & Drawing, Contemporary Painting & Drawing and Still Life Painting to now include Figurative Sculpture, Contemporary Collage, Painting, & Drawing, and our new Core Drawing Intensive, each as vibrant and individual as the primary teaching artist. Gage Ateliers run mid-September through mid-June, and are designed as multi-year or tailored to meet the needs of the individual student.

Sponsored by PleinAir Magazine

PleinAir magazine is centered around the worldwide outdoor painting movement. Published bi-monthly, the magazine focuses on the highest-quality painters who do studio and outdoor landscape, figure in landscape, architectural, floral, and other paintings painted on location. To learn more, visit www.outdoorpainter.com or subscribe at pleinairmagazine.com.

Sponsored by The Plein Air Convention

Imagine painting outdoors with 1,000 other painters in some of the most beautiful locations in the world. This history-making convention not only provides the world's largest plein air painting event, it features four indoor stages with over 80 of the world's top expert painters in oil, watercolor, acrylic, and pastel. The 2018 event will be held in April in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and features a giant Expo Hall of art materials suppliers. Learn more at pleinairconvention.com.

Sponsored by Laguna College of Art and Design

Laguna College of Art and Design's Fine Arts department offers students a carefully crafted curriculum offering an efficient learning experience in representational drawing, painting and sculpture. LCAD is one of only a few fully accredited institutions committed to developing highly skilled representational figurative artists. Our alumni have gained acceptance into competitive graduate programs, excelled in the gallery market, gained private and public commissions, work in museum and curatorial art fields and art education.

Our program’s philosophy is grounded in classical traditions which is an integral part of what makes our department unique and is the driving force behind our student’s success. Our curriculum is designed to give students the necessary skills to accurately portray still life, figure, portrait, landscape, group figures and to address concepts and ideas of contemporary, narrative storytelling. In addition to mastering techniques, the business of art is integrated into the curriculum. Students are introduced to professional practices, marketing and presentation to prepare them for the challenges of a demanding and competitive art world.

The LCAD Drawing and Painting major offers BFA programs in Drawing and Painting, Drawing and Painting with an Emphasis in Sculpture and a Drawing and Painting Certificate.

Sponsored by BoldBrush

BoldBrush is a free online art guild for visual artists. We offer a free daily member newsletter, Fine Art Views, which provides information on art, marketing and mastery. Turbocharge your art marketing with free daily ideas from professional artists, gallery owners, and art professionals. We also sponsor the monthly BoldBrush Painting Competition. The BoldBrush Painting Competition offers monthly award packages valued over $25,000. The top awards include $1,000 cash in the award package.

Lastly, our flagship product, FASO Artist Websites, hosts the websites for today's finest painters. By working closely with master artists such as Jeremy Lipking, David Cheifetz, Tony Pro, Mian Situ, and Tibor Nagy, we've developed beautiful, easy and functional websites and have become the leading provider of professional artist websites. All our sites include marketing features and built-in promotion of workshops and classes to our nearly 60,000 members. We offer a special FASO discounted signup rate for artists who are ARC members. Contact us for details.

Sponsored by The Representational Art Conference (TRAC)

From May 1 to May 4, 2018 The Representational Art Conference (TRAC) will be held in the WTC Hotel in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands; The European Capital of Culture 2018.

TRAC provides a community for the discussion of exciting ideas and new developments in 21st Century representational art. It is an extraordinary gathering of artists, lecturers, philosophers, historians, critics, collectors, museum and gallery professionals.

Events include lectures by e.g. world famous painter Odd Nerdrum, Rembrandt Expert Ernst van de Wetering and philosopher Stephen Hicks. Artist demonstrations include: Still life painter Henk Helmantel and graphic demonstrations powered by Grafisch Atelier Friesland. There will also be panel discussions, paper presentations, exhibitions and plein air painting workshops sponsored by The Fine Art Collective.

An unbroken tradition in classical fine art education has survived in the past 70 years in the northern Netherlands. Here you'll find a concentration of well-trained artists from all over Western Europe known as the 'Northern Realists'. About 50 of those artists are associated with the Classical Academy of Fine Art in Groningen (50km distance from Leeuwarden).

The conference language will be English.

We hope to see you in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands from May 1 till May 4!

Enquiries: info@trac2018.com
Web address: https://trac2018.com/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/TRAC2018
Sponsored by: California Lutheran University, Municipality of Leeuwarden, Grafisch Atelier Friesland, The Fine Art Collective.