Dear Artists, Please email heartlandartsnet@gmail.com or call 618 713 2896 and let us know which of the events below you'd be interested in participating in. Then, please forward this to your artist friends and groups!

We'll be in contact again soon with more information for those who respond. Please let us know as soon as possible.

These events are an opportunity for artists to get their work out in front of and sell to not only locals but also visitors in town for Homecoming and the Thanksgiving Holiday.

Art Around the Square, October 9, 5-9pm, Carbondale Town Square. This spring, 26 different businesses around the Carbondale Town Square participated in the event which featured work from more than 40 artists. Some businesses will be looking for artists to show work on their walls. Please plan on being present for the event if you want to show your work. Visit www.artaroundthesquare.com for more information about past events. Deadline for artist inclusion in printed materials is September 11th.

Colorfest Art Around the Trail, October 10-11, Shawnee Hills Wine Trail. Numerous wineries will display artwork as part of the "Colorfest" festivities of this busy fall weekend. Artists presence will not be required over the entire weekend but likely for a short 'reception' at some point during the weekend. Visit the HeartlandArts.Net Art Show webpage for more information about last year's event.

2nd Annual Shopping in the Hills, November 27-28, Shawnee Hills Wine Trail. Let's give shoppers a lovely alternative to the busy malls. At least 2 wineries will have art fair-type displays, while some other wineries will offer their wall space. Last year we had a jewelry-themed fair at Blue Sky and a home decor-themed fair at Von Jakob. This year we will mix it up and try to balance vendors at each venue. Please try to consider your buyers who will be looking for unique but affordable gifts for the people they care most about. The event has been on the Illinois Tourism site all year, and is being promoted state-wide in various online and print publications. Click here for information about last year's Shopping in the Hills Artist Lineup, and photos.

Coming up soon, in case you haven't heard:
Carbondale Main Street Pig Out / Fall Craft Fair on the Square, September 19th. Carbondale Town Square from 8am to 2 pm Saturday, September 19th For more information please call (618) 529-8040, or click here for more information and the vendor form.

HeartlandArts.Net is putting out a call to artists for two May events:

1. Art Around the Square in Carbondale, IL, Saturday, May 2, 7-10pm: Looking for artists to show at various locations around the Town Square. Also looking for musicians.

Be sure to get your submissions in today for the Bleeding Hearts Photo Contest! For the rules and steps to enter, scroll down or click here. Thanks!

How can you combine art, Friday the 13th and the annual celebration of Love? The Bleeding Hearts Photo Contest of course!

Photographers, send us your Bleeding Hearts Photos by Friday, February 6 to be considered for inclusion. There is a $10 contest fee. The photos should reflect the Bleeding Hearts theme in some manner, to be determined by the photographer.

Contest Photos will be on display on HeartlandArts.Net and at various location on the Carbondale Town Square starting February 13th, 2009. There will be two votes and two winners: a popular vote and a juried vote.

Everyone can vote online for the popular vote at HeartlandArts.Net starting February 13th, 2009. The juried vote will be cast by a panel of judges. Judges include Chuck Novara, Photo Editor at The Southern.com, Professional Photographer Keith Cotton, and SIUC Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Cinema and Photography, Scott Kemmerer.

Winners will be announced February 20. Winners get a solo show at the First Friday events to be held in Alto Pass in April, participation in the show and coverage in The Southern and online. See official rules here for more information.

Enter Now

To enter your photos for consideration in the contest:

1. Read the contest rules here.
2. Email your photos, up to 3 (the ones you will enter in the contest that are ready to hang) to heartlandartsnet@gmail.com. Please include: your name, address (city, state, zip), phone number, and up to 150 words about your photos or yourself.
3. Pay the $10 contest fee:

By submitting your photos and paying the contest fee, you acknowledge that you have read and understand the rules of the contest and agree to abide by and consent to the rules.


In other news: don't miss The Studio

We have set up our own online art community for artists, galleries, art lovers, businesses, and anyone else interested in participating in the regional art community. Click here to go to the community, called the Studio. It's FREE, and you get your own blog, you can post pictures, video and events, participate in group discussions, and more. Don't have a website? Now you can have an online presence! Already have a website? Link to it from your community homepage. It's visible to all, but you must be approved to participate as a member. So sign up today, and as soon as your identity is confirmed you'll be free to go!

Details about the event for artists, pdf file.

To sign up for HeartlandArts.Net membership, click here.

Dear Artists,

With the holidays closing in, we wanted to let everyone know about some upcoming opportunities for artists to get some exposure and hopefully SALES this holiday season. To get involved with HeartlandArts.Net events, please sign up now if you haven't already. Click here to learn more about member benefits.

We are keeping busy after the big Art Around the Square/Colorfest Art Trail weekend; in case you haven't seen pictures or heard about how it went, be sure to check the HeartlandArts.Net Artshows webpage.

Here's the current schedule:

Thursday, October 30 6-8pm: Artist Social at Rustle Hill Winery
Network with other artists, learn more about upcoming HeartlandArts.Net events, and get tips on selling in a downturn. If you have anything in particular you would like to suggest we talk about, any ideas for artists you think we should share, please let us know ahead of time! We will start the discussion portion of the evening around 6:30pm.

November 28-30, Holiday Art Bazaar
We are still in the planning stages but we are going to be attempting to work with select wineries and other venues along the wine trail to get art out in front of their visitors during their All Winery Open House event.

December 12, 2008
Art Around the Square in Carbondale

More information about these events in November and December to follow!

Regarding the call for art, we are looking for art not only for the events mentioned above, but also on an ongoing basis to place art in local wineries, rental lodging, businesses,etc. We have a lot of empty walls to fill so please let us know if you're interested!

Also, we are going to be doing a fundraiser with the Good Samaritan Ministries of Carbonale over the holidays. Their mission:

Good Samaritan Ministries is a tax-exempt organization, established in 1985 by Carbondale Interfaith Council, to provide services to the needy in the Carbondale area. We provide an emergency shelter, a transitional housing program, a soup kitchen, a food pantry, and an emergency assistance program. For safety reasons, persons using drugs and alcohol are not permitted to stay in the emergency shelter or transitional house.

We are most likely going to be auctioning off 2 or more items, one that will be on display at Art Lovers Trading Company, and one on display at one of the wineries, and we will also be running an online auction of the items, probably on Ebay. We are hoping to get a lot of people involved, so if you would like to participate or if you know anyone who would like to donate some art to be auctioned off for a good cause, please let us know or pass along this information.

Thanks! Again, if you haven't yet and would like to participate, please SIGN UP.

We enjoyed another artist social at the Red Ear in Alto Pass this past Thursday. A small group of artists sat together and got an interactive presentation and demonstration of Easy, Cheap and Dynamic Website options. Topics included:

• Setting up a Gmail account to get access to many excellent and free tools


• Setting up and updating your weblog on Blogger.com


• Easily updating and sharing your photos using Picasa


• Easily updating and sharing your Calendar in your Gmail account


• Pointers for sending commercial bulk email messages

To purchase a copy of the workshop materials, contact heartlandartsnet@gmail.com.