Art Day 2009 is August 14

July 28, 2009 – Hollywood: International Art Day falls this year on August 14, 2009, the second Friday in August. How will you celebrate artists this year?

For the past three years, the Mayors of Glendale (Home of Art Day) have proclaimed the second Friday in August as “Art Day.” The holiday, similar to Arbor Day, but for the arts, was begun by Glendale resident Becky Mate in 1998.

Mate said, “As you know, it is the artists who carry and enhance the honor and glory of the society. By elevating and supporting artists, by giving them stability and position, aesthetics keep a society alive and thriving.”

In her promotion of Art Day, she has encouraged Marketing Directors to hold arts-related events in their malls (Glendale Galleria in 2007, Americana at Brand in 2008) and has made a tradition of a Founder’s Art and Chocolate Celebration in the gardens of her apartment building. Artists are invited to share their art, poetry, writings–and chocolate. Children do artwork and participate in an Art Hunt.

This year, as one way to celebrate artists, she encourages anyone in the world to send in “mail art” (handmade, hand-decorated postcards or envelopes). This was successful in 2005 in bringing in “mail art” from Malaysia, Brazil, France, Texas, etc. The best of the “mail art” will be displayed at an arts festival and online, thanks to AFABW Int. Publicity for this “mail art” project is sponsored by AB Weddings & Special Events.

“The sending in of ‘mail art’,” said Mate, “captures the insouciance of creativity in a fun, informal way. It is art by and for the masses.”

Mate is a writer who has had four short stories published in 2008 and 2009. She has just completed an adventurous romance novelette, after sending it chapter by chapter via email to her home-bound mother in Colorado as chapters were completed.