AFP offers marketing class through PVCC
Augusta Free Press is offering a class on public relations and marketing through Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville.
The Nov. 1 class, PR & Marketing for Artisans, is being offered in conjunction with the Artisans Center of Virginia.
Artists, artisans and small-business owners are encouraged to sign up for the class, which will be led by AFP owners Chris Graham and Crystal Graham.
The fee for the three-hour, 6-9 p.m. class is $45.
AFP, founded in 2002, handles marketing, design and marketing for more than 100 clients in Virginia, the Mid-Atlantic and nationwide. Most recently, AFP has assisted in the development and marketing of a national-TV product for Awesome Wrestling Entertainment, a Waynesboro-based company that made its live-television debut on Oct. 15.
An AFP-led marketing campaign built up a Facebook fan base of more than 126,000 fans and drew more than a quarter-million unique visitors to the AWE company website the week leading into the TV show.
Other AFP clients include the Augusta County Fair, Barren Ridge Vineyards, Mathers Construction, Crescent Development and the Waynesboro Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
For more information on Augusta free Press, go to www.AFPBusiness.com.
About the Instructors
Crystal Graham is a 12-year veteran of the news industry in Central Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley and a graduate of Virginia Tech with a degree in communications. She primarily leads the efforts of graphic design and book publishing clients. She also is the sales manager for all divisions of Augusta Free Press LLC and handles the design of The New Dominion Magazine.
Crystal served as co-host and assistant producer of “Virginia Tonight,” a live news and public affairs program that aired weeknights from 2002-2004. Although the show was cancelled, a program that aired in 2004 on “The Passion of the Christ” was named a finalist for the national Telly Awards competition in March 2005.
In addition to television, Crystal also has an extensive background in print newspapers, having served as managing editor of The Shenandoah Valley Observer and The Charlottesville-Albemarle Observer. She began her career working as the lifestyles editor at The News Virginian in Waynesboro.
Crystal has won 10 Virginia Press Association awards for her design and writing work.
Chris Graham, a 16-year veteran of print and web media, radio and television, is heads up the web-development division at AFP and is in charge of all of the content made available online or in print.
He is also the marketing and web coordinator for Awesome Wrestling Entertainment, the web editor and media and public-relations coordinator for the Waynesboro Generals Valley League baseball team, and the web-content editor for the Waynesboro Family YMCA. He is a regular guest on numerous regional radio programs on both news and sports.
He has as well published two books, Stop the Presses, a humor column collection, and Judge Not, a political thriller. He also co-authored with Patrick Hite Mad About U: Four Decades of Basketball at University Hall. That book was released in September 2006.
Chris is a veteran of The News Virginian, a Waynesboro-based daily newspaper, and The Charlottesville-Albemarle Observer and The Shenandoah Valley Observer, both weeklies.
In 2010, Chris was honored by Mental Health America-Augusta for his work in writing on mental-health issues.
He has won 17 Virginia Press Association awards for his reporting and writing.
Register Online
- Link to PVCC Workforce Services website
- Important: Enter Course Number 50250
AFP to offer marketing, PR class through PVCC, Artisans Center
Augusta Free Press is offering a class on marketing and PR through Piedmont Virginia Community College and the Artisans Center of Virginia.
The class – being offered on Thursday, March 31, and Tuesday, May 3, at The Stultz Center on the PVCC campus in Charlottesville – is geared to teaching techniques for self-promotion and marketing for small-business owners and artists.
The one-day, three-hour class will offer tips for simple and affordable ways to enhance your website as well as time-saving tips for extending your social media channels. Not comfortable boasting? Learn practical tips to help you toot your own horn without blowing it.
Instruction will cover how to position your PR online, write press releases that catch an editor’s eye and create printed materials for events that will draw your audience in.
By the end of the session you will have a sound foundation to begin putting your public-relations strategy into immediate use.
Chris Graham and Crystal Graham from Augusta Free Press LLC will serve as co-instructors for the class.
The class fee is $45 per person.
Register online at www.pvcc.edu/instructional_divisions/workforce_services/register.php.
Artisans Center of Virginia launches education series
The Artisans Center of Virginia and Piedmont Virginia Community College are teaming up to offer a series of business classes for artisans.
ACV Studio School courses are offered at The Stultz Center for Business & Career Development, 501 College Drive, Charlottesville, at the intersection of I-64 and Va. 20.
To register, call 434.961.5354
The course schedule includes:
Creative Ways with Polymer Clay
Instructor: Judy Ligon, ACV Juried Artisan
Five Tuesdays, Feb. 1 – March 1: 10 a.m. to noon
Rigid Heddle Weaving 101
Instructor: Donna Carty, ACV Juried Artisan
Five Wednesdays, Feb. 2 – March 2: 1-4 p.m.
Business Plans for the Creative
Instructor: Robin Hoffman
Four Thursdays, Feb. 3-24: 1-4 p.m.
Design Your Own Fabric Print Repeats
Instructor: Donna Carty, ACV Juried Artisan
Three Mondays and three Thursdays, Feb. 7 – March 24: 10 a.m. to noon
Advancing Your Art with Facebook
Instructor: Katie McCaskey
Monday, Feb. 14: 1-4 p.m.
Shout it Out! – PR & Marketing for Artists
Instructor: Chris Graham, Augusta Free Press
Tuesday, Feb. 22: 9 a.m. to noon
Precious Metal Clay for Beginners
Instructor: Melanie Bentley Shockley, ACV Juried Artisan
Saturday, Feb. 26: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Edited by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.
Busy season for the Artisans Center of Virginia
The Artisans Center of Virginia is having a busy August, announcing this week several initiatives and programs aimed at promoting the work of Virginia artisans.
The Waynesboro-based Artisans Center will be collaborating with the Lynne Goldman Studio located in Barracks Road Shopping Center in Charlottesville. Lynne Goldman Studio is celebrating 18 years of being at the forefront of artisan jewelry and unique shopping. In addition to Goldman ’s custom designs, the studio is known for showcasing emerging designers. Lynne Goldman Studio continues this tradition by adding the handmade jewelry, sculpture, pottery and textiles of the Artisans Center of Virginia.
“Lynne Goldman Studio offers Virginia artisans a unique opportunity to feature their one-of-a-kind artist works in an inviting retail environment that represents the highest quality products to it’s patrons and we are proud to facilitate this relationship between our ACV artisans and such a well-respected artist-entrepreneur,” ACV executive director Sherri Smith said.
Recognized for its stringent artisan jury process, ACV will facilitate from its eligible professional artisan membership, the consignment of exquisite and unique craft items to expand the Lynne Goldman Studio’s repertoire with retail products that represent the highest quality craft that Virginia has to offer.
Virginia artisans interested in being considered for representation by the Lynne Goldman Studio must first be practicing ACV Juried Professional Artisans and members of ACV. All Virginia artisans are welcome to apply to the ACV’s Jury.
The application deadline for the next jury session is Sept. 1, 2010. Visit ACV’s website at www.artisanscenterofvirginia.org to download the application materials.
Another collaboration will have the Artisans Center partnering with Piedmont Virginia Community College to offer classes and workshops in PVCC’s Stultz Center for Business and Career Development in Charlottesville.
“ACV is proud to establish our Studio School program in this strategically state-centralized location and looks forward to working with PVCC to establish accessible entrepreneur-based arts educational programming for students and artists from all over the state.” Smith said. “The artisan industry in Virginia is one of the state’s greatest untapped economic assets. Skilled craftsmen and women, with expertise in design and manufacturing techniques, form the backbone of the creative economy in many communities across the Commonwealth and thus we look to them to help us create a sustainable education program that strengthens and perpetuates Virginia’s greater arts industry.”
The ACV Studio School at its core is a workforce development initiative that focuses on the vocational and trade skills of Virginia artisans while providing them with the business training needed to advance their marketable talents and sell their products and services. In addition to entrepreneur development courses, incorporated in the practical applications that give an artist a broader functionality or transferability of skills, they will be encouraged in an attempt to offer cross-training in skill based trades utilizing similar equipment and procedures.
The ACV Studio School will include educational outreach to the next generation of Virginia artisans, facilitation of programs in a wide variety of artist-entrepreneurial, contemporary and traditional craft courses, establishment of The Artisans Center of Virginia Instructor’s Bureau, for the purpose of offering rural communities satellite education opportunities and the development of an official craft vocational syllabus in support of the Virginia Department of Education’s “Career Pathways” for the arts.
“The ACV Studio School recognizes that artists and craft-persons are a vibrant part of our economy,” said Valerie Palamountain, Dean of Workforce Services. “PVCC is very excited about this new venture, and our involvement in developing this sector. We look forward to offering classes designed specifically for the arts and crafts industry in entrepreneurship, business, and skilled crafts, and are honored to be associated with the ACV.”
Craft courses will be taught by practicing, ACV juried Virginia artisan members, many of whom are nationally renowned. ACV welcomes any Virginia craft artisan not yet an ACV juried artisan to apply to the Sept. 1, 2010 Jury, should they be interested in teaching a craft course at the Studio School.
A third collaboration announced this week will have the Artisans Center of Virginia teaming with Artisphere to open a new ACV Gallery in Arlington featuring professional juried Virginia artisans from all corners of the state.
“This unique gallery will be solely dedicated to ACV professional juried artisans and their work with every piece of artwork hand-crafted by Virginia artisans,” Smith said.
Combining the newly-renovated former Newseum space with the existing Spectrum Theatre next door, Artisphere’s multi-disciplinary cultural offerings will permeate this 62,000 square foot cultural campus seven days a week, 12 hours a day, offering more than 100 events per month.
Recognized for its stringent artisan jury process, ACV, serving as Artisphere’s fine craft purveyor, will select from its eligible professional artisan membership, exquisite and unique craft items to create an inviting retail venue representing the highest quality craft that Virginia has to offer.
ACV’s mission of bringing economic opportunity to Virginia artisans while strengthening local economies is realized in this sustainable alliance that combines ACV’s networking and artisan jury strengths with the retail and marketing reach of the Artisphere’s locality and support systems.
“Artisphere is ‘Arlington’s art space for everyone,” says Mary Briggs, cultural development director for Arlington Cultural Affairs. “To be able to provide a prominent showcase in the DC metropolitan area for artisans from throughout the state of Virginia helps us to fulfill that mission.”
Virginia artisans interested in being featured at ARTISPHERE must be practicing ACV juried professional artisans and members of ACV. All Virginia artisans are welcome to apply to the ACV’s Jury. The application deadline for the next jury session is Sept. 1, 2010. Visit ACV’s website at www.artisanscenterofvirginia.org to download the application materials.
Edited by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.
