The 54nd annual Otero Arts Festival is set for March 30 through April 1 at McDivitt Center on the Otero Junior College campus. The Otero Arts Festival is sponsored each year by Otero Junior College, Department of the Arts. For fifty-four years, it has been open to all students, grades seven through twelve. The Festival provides incentive and recognition in the expression of the arts in the Arkansas Valley and South-Eastern Colorado.
Meet the 2010 Otero Arts Festival Judges
Over the years, judges have included outstanding professional artists and art teachers from Colorado’s leading colleges and galleries. This year’s visual art judges include Robert Hench, artist and retired art instructor at CSU-Pueblo and Dennis Dalton, professor of art at CSU-Pueblo. Judging will take place on March 27.
Robert Hench resides in Pueblo Colorado. He has been involved in various activities supporting the arts in this region. Hench, now retired, was a long term faculty member at CSU-Pueblo, where he taught art history, studio series classes and was the director of the University Art Gallery. After his retirement, he has chosen to teach within diverse communities. He is currently teaching art enrichment courses at the Sangre De Cristo Arts Center in Pueblo. Additionally, he is involved in teaching fashion illustration for the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Department. In his personal art endeavors he has exhibited at numerous exhibitions including recent artwork exhibited at the Sangre de Cristo Arts Center. He has juried art exhibitions for the Pueblo Art Guild, high school art exhibitions in Pueblo and throughout the region, children’s art exhibitions at the Sangre de Cristo Arts Center, and exhibitions at the Colorado State Hospital. Additionally, he has been engaged as a consultant for appraisal of artwork for insurance assessments and claims.
Dennis Dalton is a professor of art and drawing and area coordinator at Colorado State University-Pueblo. He has been with the art department for 19 years and teaches beginning through advance drawing and printmaking. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Toledo Museum of Art School of Design and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Colorado and the University of Utah. Dalton has additional education from the Boston Museum School in drawing. Dalton exhibits internationally. Recent exhibitions include Columbia, Europe, South America and Mexico. He has conducted printmaking workshops throughout the Western States region.
Dalton co-wrote the new Bachelor of Fine Arts degree program for CSU-Pueblo and has received numerous awards from the Colorado Council on The Arts for individual artist grants and fellowships. He is the recipient of numerous state-sponsored grants which foster collaborations between educators throughout the state of Colorado. The grants focus on combining new technology with traditional studio skills. He also serves as an advisor for art majors, helping seniors with graduation planning and teaches a senior seminar course for graduating art majors and students admitted into the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree program.
These two professional artists will award over 600 ribbons in a contest that annually draws over 2,000 entries from middle school and high school artists throughout southeastern Colorado. They will also choose the recipients of Best of Show High School and Middle School and Outstanding Senior Portfolio ribbons.
2010 Otero Arts Festival Creative Writing Judge
Lynn Allen, a published author from Cheraw, will be judging the Creative Writing competition for the 54th Annual Otero Arts Festival to be held March 30-April 1 at Otero Junior College.
Lynn Allen is a Freelance journalist, whose local publications include: Ag Journal, Tribune Democrat, and Colorado Country Life. Allen has also published in the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) Journal, Range, Boer Goat, Goat Rancher, and Southeast Horse Review. Allen loves to pass her knowledge and experiences on to other aspiring writers. She has taught several courses including: Writing for $, Writing Your Memoirs, and Self Publishing Basics. Allen does motivational speaking for groups. She presents at writer’s groups and conferences her “Get Out of Your Own Way” motivational talk which gives inspiration and guidance to promising writers.
Lynn Allen has been honored with several journalism awards: two from Colorado Press Association, and one from the Society of Professional Journalists. Allen also received a 5 day Journalism Fellowship to Washington DC. Her book publication Life Out Here was selected as a top five finalist in the Indie Book Awards (sponsored by the Independent Publishing Group) and won a spot on their table at the New York Book Fair in June, 2009. More Life Out Here is in the works, with hopes for a fall publication date.
Lynn Allen grew up on a ranch “too close to the Front Range” says Allen. She married a “local”, and tells us she “Enjoys living far enough out there is no danger of a housing development next door.” Allen chooses to write non-fiction because, “I find real people and real things fascinating.” Lynn Allen’s writing hero is Gay Talese, the newspaper man who created the base for today's creative nonfiction and who's favorite subject was the common man. He had an incredible gift for taking what looked ordinary and exposing the extraordinary in it. And doing it all in 2,000 words or less.
Allen describes herself as “I'm rather eclectic. Horses are very important to me, but I'm not a follower of any one discipline. Driving, riding both English and western, trick training, and stunt work, although I'm getting too old for the last.” Lynn finds trail riding, games, competition, team events, everything has something to offer. Allen said, “I try to find what the horse likes and go that direction – it makes me keep learning. And I like to try new things. If I get my way, sidesaddle is my next challenge.” “I sat in a sidesaddle once, and I'd like to see if I'm rider enough to learn to do it well.” Allen continues her explanation, “I'm at the finding-an-instructor stage - no sense in buying an expensive saddle if I can't ride it!” Keeping busy and maintaining a variety of activities Allen also likes woodworking - particularly pattern design for scroll saw projects; has a ham radio license, but no radio; and loves to fly, but doesn't have a plane. Allen describes herself as a “Rock hound, and can't keep my eyes off the ground. That bad habit has landed me some really nice fossils, some unusual rocks, and a few artifacts.” “And, of course, I like to write. I'm in the beginning stages of a project with a major publishing house, but that's a long drawn out process.”
Contact
Information:
