<sh>MCC Names New Board Members
<bt>Members of the McLean community center governing board elected new officers for the 2005-2006 fiscal year at their first meeting May 25. Patricia H. Velander was voted chairperson, Edward Eitches was elected vice-chairperson, Evelyn Fox was elected treasurer for a second year and Laurie Hilburg was elected secretary.
In addition to electing new officers, Governing Board members also elected committee chairs. Edward Eitches will chair the Capital Facilities Committee. Laurie Hilburg will chair the Elections Committee. Edwina Rogers will chair the Communications Committee. Nyka Jasper Feldman will chair the Program Committee. Evelyn Fox will chair the Finance Committee. Holly Harmuth Clement will serve as the board liaison to the Friends of the McLean Community Center.
<sh>Call for Art
<bt>Artists living within a 75-mile radius of Leesburg are invited to submit work to the fourth annual "Something Hot" juried exhibition hosted by Gallery 222, 222 S. King St., Leesburg. Artists may submit two pieces of original artwork for a $25 fee. Artwork will be accepted at the Gallery on Saturday, July 30, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The exhibit will be juried that afternoon by Lisa Semerad, a member of the Art League. Semerad will provide a critique in the evening, beginning at 7 p.m. Work that is selected will be displayed in Gallery 222 between August 3 and 27, and an opening reception will be held on Friday, August 5 during Leesburg's First Friday event in the downtown historic district.
For more information, contact Gallery 222 at 703-777-5498 or gallery222.com.
<sh>Portrait Competition
<bt>The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery announces the first-ever Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2006. Named for Virginia Outwin Boochever, a former Portrait Gallery volunteer whose gift has endowed this program, this competition aims to launch a new direction for the Gallery as it welcomes figurative art into the 21st century.
The inaugural competition will run from June 1 through Sept. 6. Entries will be accepted online at the gallery’s Web site and will be initially judged using an online jury system. Jurors include the artist Sidney Goodman; Thelma Golden of The Studio Museum in Harlem, N.Y.; independent scholar and curator Trevor Fairbrother; and art critic and scholar Katy Siegel.
Painted and sculpted portraits are being accepted. All finalist portraits will comprise the lead exhibition for the Gallery’s July 2006 reopening. The grand prize of $25,000 will include a commission to create a portrait of a remarkable living American for the Gallery’s permanent collection. Other cash prizes will be awarded for selected works. Additionally, entrants may be featured on “Portrait of an Artist,” an online diary which will allow millions of Americans to come face-to-face with the artists’ work, or even win a People’s Choice Award.
For more information, visit www.npg.si.edu.
<sh>Host an East European or Middle Eastern Exchange Student
<bt>Local families can take in high school-age foreign exchange students next year through two grants from the U.S. Department of State. Aspect, one of the larger and most respected high school exchange student programs in the United States, has been awarded grants for the Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) Program and the Partnership for Learning Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Program.
The goal of FLEX and YES is to provide an opportunity for international high school students from Eurasia, the Middle East and Asia to experience life in a democratic society and learn about volunteerism and free enterprise. Foreign exchange students who participate in the two programs come to Northern Virginia to live with host families, attend school and engage in activities to learn about American society and values. They, in turn, educate Americans about their own countries and cultures.
The FLEX program is funded by Congress under the Freedom Support Act and administered by the Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. FLEX participants are high school students, ages 15-18 who come from the countries of the former Soviet Union — Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
The Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs also funds the YES program, which provides full scholarships for a year or semester of living and studying in the U.S. to a select group of young people, ages 15-18 from Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Sudan, Tunisia, Syria, and Yemen.
The Aspect Foundation is also looking for families to host regular exchange students for the upcoming school year in the United States. These students come from Western Europe, South and Central America and Asia.
To learn more or to host a student, contact Robert Rawls at 703-409-9776, 703-433-0362 or coyote1437@yahoo.com.