Houston's Art Colony Association Donates Record-Breaking $129,501 Back into Community Thanks to Success of Bayou City Art Festival Memorial Park; 16 Houston Non-Profit Partners Benefit

    HOUSTON, TX, June 08, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Houston's 2009 Bayou City Art Festival Memorial Park's record-breaking tickets sales and sponsorships generated the greatest proceeds ever from one Festival -- $129,501 -- to distribute to its 16 Non-profit Partner organizations, emerging artists program and the City of Houston and its parks department this spring. The Houston Art Festival's appreciation payments were made recently at a Double Rewards reception hosted by the Art Colony Association and Capital One Bank at Capital One Bank Plaza in Houston.

"Bayou City Art Festival Non-Profit Partners provide the volunteers -- more than 1,100 this spring -- who help run the Festival, including the Capital One Bank Creative Zone," said Joe Pogge, president of the Art Colony Association, the 501c (3) organization that produces the Bayou City Art Festival juried fine art events in Houston. "We thank our Partners, our sponsors and the arts patrons who help us make this event one of the most prestigious art festivals in the country."

Spring 2009 attendance was 34,857 for the Bayou City Art Festival Memorial Park, ranked the #3 art festival in the U.S. by readers of AmericanStyle Magazine earlier this year.

The Art Colony Association now will surpass the $2.6 million mark in monies donated back into the community over the past 38 years, according to ACA Executive Director Kim Stoilis.

Art Colony Association donations to its Non-profit Partners totaled $62,000. Recipients are: Art League Houston; Bering Omega Community Services; City ArtWorks; Diverse-Works Art Space; Downtown YMCA; Houston Center for Contemporary Craft; Houston Center for Photography; Lawndale Art Center; MECA (Multicultural Education and Counseling through the Arts); Memorial Park Conservancy; Museum of Fine Arts Houston; Orange Show Center for Visionary Art; Several Dancers Core; Spay-Neuter Assistance Program (SNAP); Spark Parks; and Texas Accountants and Lawyers for the Arts (TALA).

Funds may be utilized to cover operating expenses or in the case of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, to help acquire decorative art pieces for the Museum's Department of Modern and Contemporary Decorative Arts.

The City of Houston, Budweiser, Capital One Bank, Legacy at Memorial, Houston Parks & Recreation Department and KTRK-TV are the Festival sponsors. The Festival is funded in part by grants from the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance.

The 2009 Bayou City Art Festival Downtown will be held October 10-11 in downtown Houston in and around City Hall.

For further information on the upcoming Bayou City Art Festival Downtown, visit www.bayoucityartfestival.com or call (713) 521-0133.

Houston's Bayou City Art Festival Non-Profit Partners provide the volunteers -- more than 1,100 this spring -- who help run the Festival, including the Capital One Bank Creative Zone. To volunteer for the next Bayou City Art Festival, which is in Downtown Houston October 10-11, go to www.bayoucityartfestival.com.

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