NEWS

Gloucester, Va. – A picture is worth a thousand words – or so the old saying goes. That’s why the Cook Foundation is pleased to announce its sponsorship of the 37th Annual Virginia Watercolor Society Exhibition.

With the annual exhibition coming to Gloucester for the first time this year, Foundation Vice President Carolyn Dudley said the arts organization felt a responsibility to support the event. “Our mission is to promote the arts for Gloucester County,” Dudley said.

The foundation has allocated $4,000 to cover juror expenses and provide funding toward prizes for the winning artists. The group decided to help fund the exhibition after the society selected Gloucester as this year’s location.

“It’s important for artists of Gloucester to have something that well known in the state come to Gloucester,” said Dudley, who is herself an active area artist.

For more than 15 years, the Cook Foundation has focused on brightening and invigorating the Gloucester community through the arts, funding everything from the annual Virginia Symphony Under the Stars concert to an arts scholarship for graduating seniors at Gloucester High School to sponsoring theatrical performances to numerous visual arts initiatives including the Beehive Project featuring sculptures of more than 50 beehives placed throughout Gloucester County as well as the Pocahontas mural at the Gloucester County Public Library.

The organization also works closely with the Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust to support a vibrant main street corridor in Gloucester. That fit perfectly with the society’s decision to host the exhibition at Arts on Main and Bay School Community Arts Center.

“We are acutely aware of how important things like the arts are to the vitality of a small main street,” Dudley said.

The 37th Annual Watercolor Society Exhibition will be held May 20 – June 25 at Arts on Main, located at 6580-B Main St. in Gloucester, and the Workshop given by juror Mel Stabin will be at the Bay School Community Arts Center, at 279 Main St. in Mathews.

To learn more about the exhibition go to http://www.virginiawatercolorsociety.org/Exhibitions.cfm.

About the Cook Foundation: Named for Adrianne Ryder-Cook Joseph, a local philanthropist and champion for Gloucester County, the mission of the Cook Foundation is to support the arts and arts education in Gloucester County. Founded in 2000, the privately funded organization is comprised of a small group of dedicated volunteers and board members who work to bring quality arts programming and events to the area.

About the Virginia Watercolor Society: Roanoke artists John Will Creasy and Ernest Johnson organized the Virginia Watercolor Society in 1979 to foster interest and participation in the world of watercolor. The society’s inaugural watercolor exhibition launched a year later, in 1980. The annual exhibition is open to all Virginia artists who submit painted works done predominantly in watercolors.