The Verdes Art League History
The Rio Verde Art League was organized in 1985 by Verna Alexander, Mary Lee Eger and Hazel Peterson and the first art show was held the following year. Monthly art displays were held with each artist displaying one piece. The fifty members paid dues of $10. In 1987 the League held a get acquainted party and called it an Art Walk. In 1989 the Art Walk was held in Verna Alexander’s home and the annual meetings were held there for many years.
By 1990, there were two Art Walks; the following year a raffle was held to raise money to buy grids for the shows. A speaker from the Heard Museum came in 1992 and the dues rose to $20 if you were a displaying artist but just $10 if you were not. In 1992 the fall sale was held in conjunction with the CRC bake sale but the next year it was held on the patio on the north side of the Country Club. In 1995 one class of membership was established and dues were raised to $25. During the following year Tonto Verde artists were invited to join in classes and workshops.
Dues went up again in 1997 to $30 where they remain today. By 2004 a new Community Center had replaced the Oasis and it included an Art Room. The name of the organization was changed to Verdes Art League to be inclusive of all the Verdes. In 2007, Jane Lewis designed, organized and oversaw the painting of the Art Room Mural by members of the VAL.
At the 2013 general meeting the Verde River Artisans, the Tonto Verde art group, announced that they were disbanding and bringing their membership and their remaining funds to the Verdes Art League.
As of the date of this short history, 2014, the Verdes Art League has sixty-two paid members. The Newsletter, which began in October 2011, is distributed to over one hundreds persons by email.
Written by Connie Lewis, May 2014
The Verdes Art League has offered excellent art classes and workshops from its early years. By 1987, two years after its founding, the VAL had organized weekly art instruction given by Eddie Lopez. Throughout the subsequent decades it has continued to offer weekly classes by Eddie Lopez and weekly and occasional classes and workshop by other VAL members including Lori Coue, Connie Lewis, Robin Hoyt, Marz Doerflinger, Linda Berck, Antonia Lowden, Margaret Sullivan and Kathy Morgan and occasional classes and workshops taught by artists coming from the greater Phoenix area and from out-of-state.
Open Studio and Draw Studio provide fixed times for artists to meet and “do art” or talk about art. The Verdes Art League has organized visits to local museums such as the Heard Museum, the Museum of the West in Scottsdale, the Contemporary Art Museum in Mesa and the Desert Caballeros Western Museum in Wickenburg. Beginning in 2013, the Val sponsored an ongoing series of four lectures each spring given by docents of the Phoenix Art Museum. This series, which has been organized by Chris Demma, Robin Hoyt and Valerie Holton, is open to all members of the Verdes communities.
The display and sale of the work of VAL members at the Spring Art Show and Sale is an outgrowth of the original “Art Walk” a tradition which began shortly after the League’s founding. The Fall Craft & Art Show, which began in conjunction with the CRC Bake Sale, is now a stand alone event which gives Verdes artists an additional opportunity to display and sell work. Members also have the opportunity to display their work throughout the year in the Community Association Building display areas.
This directory was compiled by Antonia Lowden and Marjorie Barritt during the pandemic months of fall 2020 and winter 2021 at which time the Verdes Art League had approximately 60 members. The programs described above have been greatly curtailed but some classes and workshops have continued and small groups have met in the Art Room or outside on various members’ patios. General membership meetings and art talks were held on Zoom. The Phoenix Art Museum docent lecture series was suspended.
We look forward to a full Verdes Art League program beginning in the fall of 2021.
