October 2009 Newsletter

Why are you doing this? What is the angle? What do you get out of this?

These questions come up when we are talking with prospective participants, and they realize that there is no charge for participating in The National Arts Program®. The answers are simple to us, but they need elaboration for others.

I was raised in an artistic atmosphere: my mother was an active professional artist when I was growing up. From the time I can remember to when I was 17 years old and volunteered in the Army Air Corps for World War II, I was always around working artists.

I saw the frustrations and anxieties, both professional and personal, along with the politics and financial needs that struggling young artists, and advanced seasoned artists, endure.

As I grew older, I always wondered why there was not some way the historic rite-of-evolving-artistic-expression could be made simpler.

My mother not only raised me with a sense of creative, artistic expression, but with a sense of life's meaning. That meaning is that there is a common heartbeat in all mankind. All are created equal. People grow up in different environments resulting in many different values, but all hearts beat the same way. The basic message of nature is positiveness; and therefore there is a creative talent of some level in everyone.

I kept remembering the problems I had witnessed among artists as they tried to bring their creative talents to society.  In time, and with the help of some close friends, I developed the concept and rules of The National Arts Program®, a program freely open to all at no cost. It is an excellent public relations vehicle for participating cities and specialized venues such as large hospitals, airports, and court systems. This wide spread program demonstrates to the general public a human dimension of private and public employees unknown before and absolutely does represent the indigenous art of America.

We give everyone an uninhibited way to publicly exhibit their talent - at whatever level. In doing so, we give them three things: a sense of accomplishment, self worth and positiveness. We at the NAP Foundation get the same three things as the participants, all of us do.

Leonard E. B. Andrews (1925-2009), Founder and Chairman

I have been involved with The National Arts Program® and its sponsoring Foundation since their inception 27 years ago. It has given me great satisfaction to see the thousands of pieces of original “peoples art” exhibited in a professional gallery manner.

The pride, self-esteem, and personal gratification felt by these participants year after year only substantiates that there is creative talent within everyone.

For 27 years now, we have held annual exhibits of The National Arts Program® in more than 450 major and minor cities throughout the United States. Each year brings an extraordinary exhibit of artistic talent in the form of sculpture, paintings, photography, and crafts by people who most likely would not otherwise have had such an opportunity.

I look forward to the continued growth of the program which now includes 86 venues in 44 states and the District of Columbia.

Kathleen C. Jamieson, President