Love Letters 4 VAC
LL4V
An initiative to save a Garden City cultural hub via art, love, and community.
“COVID-19 has ravaged music venues and performance art spaces across the world. Unfortunately, our beloved VAC is no different. The situation is dire and community efforts may not be enough to save VAC. Still, we feel that Sam’s tireless work to create and maintain this important space for the arts should not go quietly into that good night.”
“Love Letters for VAC” (LL4V) is a multimedia fundraiser to capture and present love from the community for the Visual Arts Collective and owner Samuel Stimpert in Garden City, Idaho.
GoFundMe project “VACscene” helped inject some hope (and ⅓ of the funds needed) into saving VAC. Now it’s time to lay on the love and dig deep to save this local cultural hub.
LL4V will be collecting donations of letters and art in all physical mediums on the theme “Love Letters for VAC”.
Love letters can be a simple paper letter spelling out what VAC has meant to the submitter or it can be more conceptual 2D or 3D art. LL4V & “VACScene” are working together to raise the $90k+ needed to sustain the Visual Arts Collective through the uncertainty of Covid.
The ultimate goal of letter and art collection is to permanently archive these affirmations in an art book titled “Love Letters for VAC”, which will be available for purchase in February 2021.
Opening December 5th donated artwork will be poised for bidding in a week-long online art auction and with a hosted online live event on December 12th at 7:30 pm. All proceeds from book sales and auction directly benefit Visual Arts Collective.
Community members can support the preservation of VAC in three ways:
FIRST
Direct monetary donations via: VACscene GoFundMe
SECOND
Donating art or bidding on artworks in the online art auction.
Art submissions will be accepted by scheduled drop-off at VAC on November 29th and 30th. Artists must sign up for a timeslot to submit art in an effort to maintain social-distancing protocols.
Art donations may be photographed for the “Love Letters for VAC” art book and will be included in an online auction on Dec 5th-12th 2020.
THIRD
By writing a love letter to VAC which will be archived into an art book available for purchase. Original letters will be collected and saved for presentation to owner Samuel Stimpert. LL4V book will be available for purchase in February 2021.Love letters can be mailed to VAC at any time, but must arrive before 12/1/20 to be included in the “Love Letters for VAC” art book publication.
Physical standard love letters can be mailed to:
Visual Arts Collective (VAC)
3638 Osage Street, Garden City, ID 83714
LL4V is founded in part by Chelsea Harada, Melanie Radford, Kelsey Swope, and other members of Purring Mantis (a ‘Mostly Muff Legacy’ cover band) alongside Buffie Main, Wendy Fox, James Sharp, Anna Demetriades and many, many friends and longtime supporters of VAC.
Visual Arts Collective (VAC), is a contemporary fine art gallery, performance venue, and cultural center in Garden City, Idaho committed to presenting exhibitions and events for artists working in visual and performance art, film, music, dance and theater. Functioning as a hub and home for local artists and touring acts since September 2005, VAC has hosted countless nonprofit functions, exhibitions, concerts, weddings, memorials and other community events. In their own words, VAC is “dedicated to providing Boise and the Treasure Valley opportunities to explore various disciplines, to engage in interactive art, to participate in special events and to encourage artists and the community to continue in the discovery of artistic expression.”
For the hundreds of artists and community members who call VAC home, imagining a future without this venue feels unconscionable and over 400 VAC-lovers have already stepped up to contribute to its preservation, amounting to ⅓ of the funds needed to ensure its survival thru May 2021.
Thank you for being a part of our community and helping in whatever way you can. We appreciate you very much.
LL4V logo by Julia Green