PRESS RELEASE:
The Carolina Mountains Literary Festival is delighted to announce the winner of the 2016 Art Contest which searched for an image to accompany this year’s theme Journey Out Journey In. The judges selected a collaborative piece created by the Shortbus Studio artists.
“It made us smile,” the judges said, adding, “We liked how it showed something about the theme in an interesting way, yet still conveyed a book event in the mountains.”
Shortbus Studio is located in Burnsville and began in 2008 when a group of adults with developmental disabilities decided to create an intuitive art and outdoor adventure program. Several of the artists wanted to name the studio Shortbus Studio because they said that the little yellow buses were a BIG part of their reality.
They wanted to help make the symbol of the short, yellow school bus COOL so that they could be proud of it… and it worked! Because of the iconic logo, they have been able to educate the community — especially young people — on how we are more alike than we are different.
When Shortbus director Cassandra Styles announced the win to the artists, they didn’t respond as one might expect. “The thing is,” Styles said, “They never act surprised when they win something. I got a big YIPPEE! when I announced we had won. Then they were all like, Do we get something? Cake? Everything leads back to cake.”
Festival planner Lucy Doll caught wind of their reaction, so decided to have a special cake made and delivered. So, the artists had their cake and ate it, too!
To see some of the other fine contest entries, visit the Carolina Mountains Literary Festival blog at their website cmlitfest.org. Short biographies of the 2016 participating authors are beginning to appear on the website.
Every year the literary festival brings dozens of authors to Burnsville to give readings and presentations which are free and open to the public. This year’s festival will take place September 8-10.
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