2020 World Art Day
April 15, 2020 – Los Angeles: With a global pandemic as a backdrop, the focus of today’s Artists For A Better World International World Art Day celebration continued to honor artists, albeit via the internet and worldwide postal services.
World Art Day is celebrated on April 15th each year, in honor of Leonardo da Vinci‘s birthday. Long-time AFABW Int member, Becky Mate, founded World Art Day locally in 1998 and has championed the celebration every year since.
World Art Day is dedicated to the arts and artists of all disciplines and a few years ago was independently proclaimed as such by the International Association of Artists (IAA).
This year, IAA President Bedri Baykam held a press conference in Istanbul at the Piramid Sanat art museum. Baykam announced the decision of the Executive Board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which voted “World Art Day” as one of the International Days marked by UNESCO.
In other words, April 15th, after all these years will be recognized globally as World Art Day, which was the intent behind Mate’s original founding of Art Day in the late 20th century and as promoted and supported by AFABW Int.
2020 Mail Art Selections
A highlight of AFABW Int’s celebration of World Art Day is the tradition of reviewing Mail Art from the global submissions. As an additional service to the arts, Becky Mate is also the curator of AFABW Int’s annual Mail Art program, in addition to founding World Art Day back in 1998.
Mate wryly reflected upon World Art Day and Mail Art amid the current quarantine in effect in California and many places around the world: “In these times, many of us are pausing to take a moment to truly connect with ourselves, with immediate family, with our social media friends and with our fellow grocery store shoppers.” She further emphasized, “We can inspire others by creating and sharing artwork through the mail.”
Visit the following link to view April 2020 Mail Art Selections.
2020 “Creating A Better World” Awards
Another highlight of AFABW Int World Art Day celebrations was the announcement of artists selected for the 2020 “Creating A Better World” Awards. A fundamental purpose of the “Creating A Better World” awards is inspiring others to support their community through creative efforts.
Jeannette Hay, founder of Artists For A Better World International said: “The awards speak to the belief that artists can use their artistic abilities to help create a better world for everyone’s benefit.”
Visit the following link for details: 2020 “Creating A Better World” Awards.
2020 Worldwide Call for Poetry
A prominent AFABW Int project is the creation of our next poetry anthology. Just like our prior physically printed books, this anthology will feature poets from around the globe. New for the current project is showcasing certain submissions as poetry-of-the-month selections.
The project is intended to challenge global poets to submit poetry informed by a theme of “creating a better world” and/or inspiring readers.
AFABW Int poetry editor for this project is Dean Blehert who noted, “As one of mankind’s oldest artforms – dating back to prehistoric times with hunting poetry in Africa – poetry represents the language of our past, present and future and offers insights into the tragedies, hopes and dreams of our evolving global cultures.”
Visit the following link for details: 2020 Worldwide Call for Poetry
Other World Art Day Festivities
Following is an IAA video showing how others approached past celebrations, which may inspire your future World Art Day festivities