Letter of Endorsement From
Alliance for Young Artist & Writers, Inc.
To: Jennifer Baldwin - Executive Director, Art Machine
From: Chuck Wentzel - Associate Director, Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, Inc.
Date: March 19, 2004
Click here for a photocopy of the letter retyped below.
To whom it may concern:
We are pleased to offer this letter of endorsement for Jennifer Baldwin, who in addition to her many other arts education activities, serves as the regional director of the Southern Ohio/Northern Kentucky region of the Scholastic Art Awards. Jennifer has distinguished herself among our network of 75 regional affiliates as capable, tenacious, resourceful and passionate in the fulfillment of her responsibilities on behalf of The Scholastic Art Awards over the past 10 years.
In 1993 when the previous sponsor chose not to renew its support of the local program, the participating teachers served by the region were disappointed and upset. Jennifer was the only one, however, who stepped forward to assume the responsibility for finding a replacement and keeping the local program alive. She assumed the leadership role, and through her efforts, new funders and new venues for the exhibition and awards ceremony were secured. The local program remained in place without interruption, providing the added value of continuous service to the young artists and their teachers of Southern Ohio and Northern Kentucky.
In order to enable the regional program of The Scholastic Art Awards to evolve, expand and improve, Jennifer established ART MACHINE, her own not-for-profit arts organization. ART MACHINE not only administers The Scholastic Art Awards locally, but also provides additional arts programming and activities for the community. The Tall Stacks Mural project and a robust, rotating schedule of exhibitions of student artwork are among the ongoing projects that Jennifer executes through ART MACHINE.
Jennifer has accomplished these substantial achievements because she has been able to generate excitement for these programs and then leverage support from within the community. Jennifer has made an "art" of asking for in-kind donations of goods and services to support her local program. In fact, she is so skilled and successful at this, we asked her to present a workshop to other regional sponsors of The Scholastic Art Awards so they could learn from her expertise.
We have learned from working with Jennifer that she is the kind of person who makes things happen. Her outlook is always positive, and she sees the potential for growth and improvement in every situation. Her commitment and enthusiasm has enabled her to provide programming in support of the local arts education community. She is an inspiration for us in the national office as well as for her colleagues across the country.
We are delighted to work with Jennifer as an affiliate of The Scholastic Art Awards and are pleased to support her and ART MACHINE as she moves to the next milestone for her region. Please feel free to contact me at (212) 343-7738 or at cwentzel@scholastic.com if I can provide any further information.
Sincerely,
Chuck Wentzel
Associate Director
557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012-3999