FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Suzanne Cada
PO Box 2506
Knoxville, TN 37901
(865) 523-7543
sc@knoxalliance.com
www.knoxalliance.com

Arts & Culture Alliance Announces Betsy Worden Memorial Artist-in-Residence

(04/07/2010/Knoxville) – The Arts & Culture Alliance is pleased to announce that Rafael Casco, an emerging local artist, has been selected as the next Betsy Worden Artist-in-Residence at the Emporium Center from April through September 2010.  Casco was born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras where he received a degree as an art teacher from the National School of Fine Arts in Honduras and studied psychology at the National Autonomous University.  He has participated in different art events in Honduras, El Salvador, Panama, and throughout the United States.  He uses his art to design pottery, furniture, and to create and install custom murals; his collection also includes carving, molds, caricatures, and drawing.

Casco taught art to at-risk children and adults in Latin America and the U.S., including his work with the YMCA in San Jose, CA, where he used art as a gang prevention strategy with low-income Hispanic youth. After living in Los Angeles for a few years, the destruction in Honduras from Hurricane Mitch compelled him to return to his home country.  He worked with children living on the street and used his skills in art therapy.  He also taught art in the high schools while continually searching for ways to show his own art.  In 2005, he returned to the U.S. to pursue his dream of exhibiting and selling paintings.  Casco sends some of his paintings to the Institute of International Languages in Honduras to be sold for scholarships for children who want to learn to speak English but cannot afford the tuition.  He currently shows work at Earthspeak Studio and Creative Spirit Crafts in Gatlinburg and for the past three years has participated in the Artist-on-Location and Latino Art Exhibition at the Knoxville Museum of Art.

As the Artist in Residence, Casco receives free and exclusive access to a 10’ x 10’ artist studio in the Emporium Center (Suite 105), sponsored membership in the Arts & Culture Alliance for one year, and a solo exhibition of new work in The Balcony at the Emporium Center at the end of his residency (September 3-24, 2010). During each month of the residency, the Alliance will display at least one piece of his new work in the public areas of the Emporium debuting at First Friday receptions.

The late Betsy Worden was an artist, teacher, and Knoxville Civic Leader, perhaps best known for her works in watercolor and weaving, and she contributed greatly to Knoxville’s visual arts community in numerous ways throughout her life.  She received her BA in Fine Arts from the University of Tennessee and did post-graduate studies at Atlanta School of the Art, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, and the University of Tennessee.  A painter, tapestry weaver, and printmaker, she was a longtime instructor at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, and she taught watercolor classes for the Knoxville Museum of Art.  A leader in the Knoxville arts community, Worden served on the boards of many arts organizations, including the Arts & Culture Alliance and the Art Market Gallery, which she co-founded.  She also co-founded the Community School of the Arts in Knoxville.  She served as a past president of the Knoxville Watercolor Society and actively participated in the Tennessee Watercolor Society, the Art and Antiques Gallery, Southern Highland Craft Guild, the Foothills Craft Guild, and Tennessee Women in the Arts.

The next Betsy Worden Memorial Artist Residency period will be October 2010 – March 2011 and is open to college students and other young and emerging artists.  For more information, please contact the Arts & Culture Alliance at (865) 523-7543 or e-mail sc@knoxalliance.com.   

About the Arts & Culture Alliance
The Arts & Culture Alliance serves and supports a diverse community of artists, arts organizations, and cultural institutions.  The Alliance receives financial support from the Tennessee Arts Commission and First Tennessee Foundation.

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