West Coast Eisteddfod Lovespoon Contest On!

Reproduced with permission from David Western's Portland Lovespoon Blog

Well, no sooner had we announced the contest to help design this year's Eisteddfod spoon, the ideas came flooding in! We're very excited to get such a positive response and we look forward to seeing lots more excellent ideas!

In case you missed it last week, here is the design for the spoon:

We'll be looking for 3 designs to fit the blank circular sections and are open to any and all ideas at this point. As mentioned earlier, you don't need to be an AmeriCymru member or have the artistic capabilities of a Rembrandt...you just need a desire to have some fun. Scribble down your best ideas and post them as comments at one of three locations:

• Dave Western's Blog
• AmeriCymru members
• Facebook members

You may enter as many ideas as you like but only one design idea per person will make it to the final poll.

The contest is open now and will close for entries on March 31 so you have chance to ammend, improve or re-do your entries you may have already sent or if you think of something better in the six weeks! The final poll to choose three designs will be up on all three sites for one month from April 1st and will close April 30. There are no restrictions to what you can enter -- pictures, photos, poems, whatever floats your boat! Just remember that it has to fit in a 2" inch diameter circle and I have to have a fighting chance of rendering it in wood. So photos of the Sistine Chapel Ceiling or the unedited text of Beowulf likely won't make the cut!! If you are Welsh or have Welsh ancestry, let your pride have free reign, if you aren't Welsh, pretend you are! Everybody is welcome to enter, we don't care if you are kids, grandparents, miserable cranks, wickedly irreverent humourists, capitalists, socialists, fat, thin, incredibly witty, ploddingly dull, even if you are English!! So go on, give it a go and don't use the old 'I can't draw' and 'I don't have the imagination for this kind of thing' routines, because we've already taken those....THAT'S why we're getting YOU to do the work for us!!!

Winners will be selected by public vote during the month of April. Visitors to the AmeriCymru website will be free to vote for their three favourites from 10 possibilities picked by a selection committee comprised of Ceri, Gaabi, Dave and Lorin. The selection possibilities will be chosen after a rigorous protocol of alcohol consumption, intense brawling, arguing and name-calling, in the Welsh tradition, has taken place within the committee.

We even have prizes!!! Fox Chapel Publishing have generously donated three copies of "The Fine Art of Lovespoon Carving" to be awarded for the three winning designs. As a bonus, you will also enjoy the unstinting praise and admiration of all who behold your champion design when they are announced on May 1!

Have fun and be part of the 2011 West Coast Eisteddfod!!! But please remember that the spoon's purpose is to help raise donations to support our event. Please see your way to helping with a donation and you could be the one who wins it!!

2011 West Coast Eisteddfod & Festival, A Welsh American Arts Showcase

HELP MAKE THIS EVENT POSSIBLE: GO TO THIS PAGE:- KICKSTART APPEAL

AmeriCymru in association with A Raven Above Press present the 2011 West Coast Eisteddfod festival, a three-day Welsh festival of arts, on September 23-25th, 2011 at the Barnsdall Art Park in Los Angeles. The festival will include open competitions in poetry, voice, comedy, performance art, and storytelling. The festival will accompany an art show, film screenings, lecture and marketplace.

In addition, A Raven Above Press will develop and produce a book of artwork by presenters in the art show focusing on Welsh mythology and legend. Each piece will be accompanied by an artist bio and explanation and historical significance of the subject in the piece. The exclusive book will be in color and perfect bound.

The West Coast Eisteddfod celebrates Welsh and Welsh American traditions in art, history, language, and oral and literary competition. We will hold an election of our first annual young adult representative and pay tribute to Welsh entrepreneurs and Welsh Americans. The expected attendance is 2,500 through the course of three days and will be open to the public.

The festival is to celebrate Welsh identity and expression. In doing so, it fosters positive self-esteem and creativity for the benefit of the greater community. The public will be encouraged to participate in these classes and competitions displayed in the Welsh tradition. Welsh Americans will benefit from learning about their culture through ongoing workshops and activities. The designated young adult representative will be evaluated on personality, talent, and community leadership. The appointed person will therein represent the West Coast Eisteddfod in the United States for one year as an upstanding role model, assisting in addressing issues important to the community and will help promote a meaningful association with Wales.

More about the festival: http://americymru.ning.com/profiles/blogs/west-coast-eisteddfod

More about the Barnsdall Art Park:http://americymru.ning.com/profiles/blogs/introducing-the-barnsdall-art

West Coast Eisteddfod - Barnsdall Arts Park, Los Angeles 2011

"Biggest Thing Since Sliced Laverbread"

Plans are already well advanced for neaxt year's West Coast Eisteddfod to be held at the Barnsdall Arts Park in Los Angeles in September. L.A. Event Coordinator Lorin Morgan-Richards has said that this will be, "the biggest thing since sliced laverbread" and organizers are planning to host a wealth of talent, some local and some international, at the three day event. With competitions in vocal performance, short story telling, poetry and stand-up comedy already confirmed and others to be announced it promises to be a worthy successor to this years Portland event some of which was preserved for posterity on the 'Night of The Living Bards' DVD.

The organizers who are actively seeking contestants for the 'live' and online competitions as well as vendors for the market area can be contacted via their email addresses at the bottom of this page. There follows a quote from the proposal and mission statement for the event:-

"The Meriwether Lewis Memorial Eisteddfod Foundation (MLMEF) is requesting your presence and support for the West Coast Eisteddfod Festival to be held next year, 2011, in Los Angeles, CA, on September 23rd, 24th, and 25th at the Barnsdall Art Park (at 4800 Hollywood Blvd., CA). The West Coast Eisteddfod celebrates Welsh and Welsh American traditions in art, history, language, and oral and literary competition. We will hold an election of our first annual young adult representative and pay tribute to Welsh entrepreneurs and Welsh Americans. The expected attendance is 2,500 through the course of three days and will be open to the public. Our goal is to raise awareness about Welsh American identity and encourage continued growth between the United States and Wales.

The festival is to celebrate Welsh identity and expression. In doing so, it fosters positive self-esteem and creativity for the benefit of the greater community. The public will be encouraged to participate in these classes and competitions displayed in the Welsh tradition. Welsh Americans will benefit from learning about their culture through ongoing workshops and activities. The designated young adult representative will be evaluated on personality, talent, and community leadership. The appointed person will therein represent the West Coast Eisteddfod in the United States for one year as an upstanding role model, assisting in addressing issues important to the community and will help promote a meaningful association with Wales.

The West Coast Eisteddfod will be held at the Barnsdall Art Park, in Los Angeles, California. This location was chosen for its beautiful vista of Griffith Park, named after Griffith J. Griffith a Welsh philanthropist. The park sits atop a hill with a home built by Frank Lloyd Wright, an esteemed Welsh American architect, and is open for tours. Isolated from the urban sprawl, the Barnsdall Art Park is a quiet getaway with a historic theater amidst the Art Nouveau scenic grounds.

Los Angeles provides the best visibility for Wales through media outlets and presents it equally amongst other Celtic Nations. Additionally, it is the home of many notable Welsh figures including Patricia Arquette and Anthony Hopkins, as well as Welsh American film legends like Bettie Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Bob Hope, among others. In 1926, Los Angeles was the place for an Eisteddfod where local authors presented one-act plays to the public. To hold such an event in Los Angeles would bring back a historical Welsh tradition.

The MLMEF will be acting in accord to our non-profit status; volunteers directed by the Meriwether Lewis Memorial Eisteddfod Foundation and its members will run the event. All revenue will go towards funding future events and paying expenses incurred.

The Meriweather Lewis Memorial Eisteddfod Foundation is an Oregon non-profit corporation recognized by the IRS as a 501 (c) 3 public charity. MLMEF was organized to raise public awareness of Welsh heritage in North America, to celebrate American-Welsh culture and preserve its works and to foster and encourage art and creativity in the Welsh tradition."

The full schedule will be available soon. Watch this space for details..

Foundation contact: Ceri Shaw americymru@gmail.com