More than you ever wanted to know about Alabama native Joe Watts
Ann and I always love to go to the Garden Art Party every spring. We seem to manage to come home with more great stuff every year. (Last year, we got a great 3 night vacation to Florida and several really nice pieces of original art from local artists–all at a bargain price.) And the best part is that ALZCA uses their money as well as any other nonprofit I’ve seen.
Here’s the Save the Date card I just finished (complete with art painted by Alzheimer’s patients):
Wow! 2009 has been a pretty great year, overall. I’ve gotten to work on some fun projects, meet some interesting new people, reconnect with others and basically have a lot of fun.
Some of the projects I’ve spent a great deal of time on in the last few years are finally starting to show some real progress: notably the Alabama Scenic Byways Program. The 10 year anniversary of the creation of the program is this spring and we now have 10 scenic byways in our state, including the brand new nationally recognized Coastal Connection, named a National Scenic Byway in October of this year. I’m really proud to have played a small part in seeing that project move forward! (Even got interviewed on the radio about it–not a big fan of hearing my own voice, much to the shock of anyone who has been in a car with me–but it turned out to be less painful than I thought.)
Other projects include the following:
Some fun work on the Lower Cahaba River. We’ve installed signs in several locations pointing out the many attractions in a four county region (Bibb, Dallas, Hale and Perry Counties). A website has been developed to highlight the attractions and to bring the many resources together into one location–www.lowercahaba.com.
I continued to work on the Alabamafrontporches.com website and some brochures to go along with it. The most exciting part of this in 2009 has been the great Ghost Stories work done by Linda Vice and some filmmakers. (I did a brochure to go along with the videos.)
And, of course, the fun trips friend Ben Burford and I went on down into the Black Belt to take photos, eat the food and see the area from the eyes of a tourist.
Well, I must admit that, although I love to talk, I’m not sure I’ve ever been crazy about hearing my voice once recorded. It was with a great deal of reluctance that I went to Montgomery a couple of weeks ago and took part in a radio interview with my friends Joey Brackner of the Alabama State Council on the Arts (the instigator of this whole interview) and Colette Boehm of the Gulf Shores/Orange Beach Visitors Bureau (who I worked with on Alabama’s Coastal Connection–the byway that was recently named a National Scenic Byway).
Anyway, here’s a link to the interview. The first half is me talking about the Alabama Scenic Byways program, what it is about and a little history. The second half is Colette talking about the Coastal Connection.
http://alabamaartsradio.blogspot.com/2009/11/alabama-arts-radio-podcast-joe-watt-and.html
I’ve been working on this project for several years, now. We’re in the process of putting together a website, we’ll be erecting several signs throughout the area and this small rack card (hopefully, several additional brochures in the next few months as well) will be distributed to rest areas and other locations. So many things to see and do in the Lower Cahaba–from the Cahaba lilies and canoeing down the river to touring Brierfield and Tannehill–and, of course, one of my favorites Old Cahwaba. Check it all out! Website should be up and working in about 3 weeks.
This has been a hectic few weeks. The ALZCA newsletter is complete and off to press. Happy to have that one off my plate–though I think it turned out pretty good this time. Their big fall fundraiser is the first Saturday of November: Walking to Remember. Great way to help folks with Alzheimer’s and their families.
Anyway, here’s the newsletter:
Put these two brochures together for Southwest Alabama Tourism right before heading for Paris. It was a quick job, but I think they turned out looking pretty good!
