As many of you know, the deadline for the Contemporary Art Month print calendar was yesterday. But we got some calls and emails from folks who didn't realize the deadline was coming up, so we've decided to extend it until this coming Friday, January 27. Please help spread the word that this is the new deadline for the print calendar, which will be published as a pull-out in the San Antonio Current. Any events submitted after this deadline will be included in the online calendar only.

If you still need to get your event into our system, go here to sign up:
http://contemporaryartmonth.com/user/register

You will see instructions for creating event listings. When you are done creating your listings, go here to pay:
http://contemporaryartmonth.com/pay

If you'd like to see the approved events so far, you can see the latest version of the 2012 CAM Calendar here:
http://contemporaryartmonth.com/calendar/2012-03

WelCAM Back! Contemporary Art Month returns March, 2012, uniting art spaces and art makers throughout San Antonio for a month of exhibitions, performances, studio tours and other events.

CAM couldn’t happen without the efforts of the vibrant arts community here.  As ever, there are several ways to participate. Read on to discover how you fit into CAM 2012.

Include your event in the CAM Calendar

The heart of CAM is the easy-to-use online calendar which endeavors to list all San Antonio arts happenings occurring in March. Here’s how it works:

• Visit our signup page (or just click "2012 sign up" below the tractor) to login or register.
• Be ready with your event information: title, venue information, dates and times, names of participating artists, up to three lo-res images (for the website), one hi-res image (for media - eight mb limit), facebook event link, and description. Once the event is created, you can still login to edit if necessary.
• Pricing remains the same as previous years -- $15 for artist-run spaces, $30 for commercial galleries and businesses, $50 for institutions. These fees help us maintain the calendar and fund our public relations and community outreach.
• The Open Studio Tour will be on Sunday, March 25 -- these listings are free.
• Events submitted (and paid for) by Friday, January 13 with hi-res images will be prioritized in our public relations (such as articles in regional magazines and listings in national arts calendars).
• Events submitted (and paid for) by Friday, January 20 will be included in the CAM Calendar insert in the Current.
• If you need help, don't hesitate to contact us at info@contemporaryartmonth.com.

Become a CAM Sponsor

• Contemporary Art Month seeks to promote and raise the national profile of San Antonio contemporary art and artists by organizing and facilitating a month-long celebration of contemporary art, providing marketing support, and by organizing and facilitating public education programs.
• CAM is dependent on the energy of participating artists, organizations, and institutions to make each Contemporary Art Month something exciting, inspiring and new. To help that message reach far and wide, CAM seeks financial backing beyond what is provided by the modest calendar listing fees.
• To lend your support, visit our support page to make individual contributions through Paypal or e-mail us at info@contemporaryartmonth.com.

The winners of the 2011 Cammies:

The Best of Contemporary Art Month: "New Image Sculpture" at the McNay Museum of Art

Alchemic Reactions Award for Collaborating Artists: Lázaro Valiente and countless passersby

The R. Mutt Award for Novel Mediums: Brian Jobe, "Blank Tides," Blue Star Contemporary Art Center

Art is Life and Life is Art Award: The Unexpected Venue: SMART Art, "Invading Spaces II: X Marks the Spot"

The Big Boal Award for Participatory Art: Randall Wallace, "Times and Other Serial Studies," Luminaria

The Through the Looking Glass Award for Bending Perceptions: "Video Jam Greatest Hits," organized by Utah Snyder and Michael Stoltz, Invading Spaces project, at the El Tropicano Hotel

I Am Not Spock Award for Doing the Unexpected: Cathy Cunningham-Little, "Breathing Light," Blue Star Contemporary Art Center

The Studio Tour is coming up!  Saturday is the big day. If you're an artist, and you're opening your studio but you are not on the calendar, sign up NOW! It's free and easy!

If you're taking the Tour, check in here on Saturday morning to plan your route.  Look for CAM balloons outside open studios!

http://contemporaryartmonth.com/openstudio

Contemporary Art Month 2011 is shaping up to be a hotter than a quarter soaked in kerosene left out in the July sun. The calendar is now online, for your perusal.

Art makers and organizers: In case you are a member of that special breed of human known as a "procrastinator," take comfort knowing that the online version of the calendar will remain open for submissions and edits throughout February and March. However, you missed the window to be included in the print edition of the calendar, which is the price a procrastinator pays to be so special.

Art lovers: In case you were worried that there would be no art this year to challenge your jaded tastes, look no further than Contemporary Art Month. There will be art inspired by the fractals of astrocytes and other glial cells (...um?) and at least one exhibit featuring a set of real wisdom teeth. There will be some sculpture made from zip ties, and at least one exhibit reinterpreting the history of the Alamo afresh--through the eyes of a child.

Looking forward to March, kids?!

If you're an artist, a curator, an educator, a director, a gallerist, a supporter or in any way associated with the San Antonio arts community, please come and lend your voice and your ideas and your energy to the Contemporary Art Month Planning Session this Tuesday.  We'll be making big announcements about what's happening in March, talking about ways in which you can pitch in, and convene a community discussion about CAM 2011 and beyond.  Come to the Blue Star Contemporary Art Center on Tuesday, January 18, at 7pm.

2011 will bring the 26th perennial CAM, grassroots as ever, with art events of all kinds springing up all over San Antonio.

Help support Contemporary Art Month! Every little bit goes a long way.  This year we're trying a lot of new things, and your sponsorship is crucial to making it all happen.

Visit the Support page to find out how.

The CAM Calendar will be published in the March 2nd issue of the San Antonio Current, available for free at restaurants, bars, clubs, retail outlets and news boxes citywide.  To have an event included in the hardcopy version of the calendar, submit before Wednesday, February 2nd.  Events submitted after this date will be included in the online calendar only, and rates are the same regardless of registration date, so take advantage of this additional opportunity to publicize your events in one of our city's most-read papers.

Click here to sign up.  Once you register, you can access your account anytime between now and CAM to update your entries.

The Contemporary Art Month calendar is open for submissions of March 2011 events. Open to all San Antonio area artists, curators, directors, club owners, producers, events managers and arts organizations to announce and promote Contemporary Art Month events, shows, and exhibitions.

The annual CAM kick-off will take place on First Friday at Blue Star.  The Neo-Automatic Open Studio Tour is scheduled for Saturday, March 19th.  The famous Dignowity Push Cart Race will be held Saturday March 26th.

Check out the all-new CAMMIE Awards!  All events on the CAM calendar are eligible for these awards.  No award is discipline-specific.  Prizes and awards will be given during the Closing Ceremony (TBA) for the Best of CAM!

Artists!

If the cosmos really is folding in on itself in 2012 as many are predicting, then it's safe to say we're all going to be busy saying farewell to loved ones if we're even still around in March 2012.

That means there is only one Contemporary Art Month left, really, in March 2011, and that's only six months away!  So, there's no more time for your aimless wanderings along the paths of self-discovery, no more time seeking your "voice," and definitely no time to learn how to work in new mediums.  You need to figure out what you're going to share with the human race, and get it out there!  Loud and clear!

At the end of the world, "contemporary art" loses all meaning, and becomes part of the great Singularity, along with your pets, your possessions, your box of old poems and love letters you've successfully kept hidden all this time, and everyone of your friends, whether real or just FB.  All sucked into the black hole of whatever-follows.  We have one last chance to attach a definition to this thing.  We all have one last chance to be a part of it.

Unless, of course, the doomsayers are wrong, in which case, nevermind.  Carry on.