Help Bring Effie's Art & Story to a New Audience

Steven Carlson is organizing this fundraiser.

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4 Arkansas exhibits are FIRST EVER in her Birthplace - a pandemic delayed 150th Birthday Anniversary celebration & Effie's first exhibits outside Arizona since 1931 !

Hello again! I’m Steven Carlson - a great-grandnephew of the artist Effie Anderson Smith, and curator of the E.A. Smith Archive.

Through our EffieAndersonSmith website and the many exhibits of Effie's paintings that I have curated over the past decade with the help of so many great supporters, Effie has re-emerged from the shadows of time back onto the art scene in Arizona. Many, many new friends welcomed me into their homes to show me the E.A. Smith paintings their families have treasured for generations - loaning paintings for exhibits - and even gifting them to our E.A. Smith Archive!

I’ve experienced the joy of being part of this growing Effie ‘fan community’ in Arizona and beyond - helping museums re-discover the raw natural beauty of Arizona's deserts, mountains and canyons as Effie Anderson Smith first saw it all as a pioneer settler - and fell in love with Arizona - beginning in the 1890s.

From our displays and exhibits in Pearce, Douglas, Flagstaff, Willcox and elsewhere, we were eventually able to mount a Retrospective Exhibit in 2019 of 46 amazing Effie paintings at the Tucson Desert Art Museum for Effie's 150th birthday anniversary.

LET’S BRING EFFIE'S ARIZONA ART HOME TO HER ARKANSAS ROOTS…

NOW - We have an amazing opportunity to share our love and growing understanding of Effie's iconic Arizona art with a NEW AUDIENCE - in the place of her birth and formative first 25 years as a young woman and aspiring artist.

Four Art Centers and Historical Societies in the towns of Nashville, Hope, Historic Washington State Park, and Arkadelphia, Arkansas have expressed interest and enthusiasm for presenting a series of exhibits devoted to spreading understanding and appreciation of Effie Anderson Smith's Impressionist desert landscapes in September and October.

These will also be the first exhibits of Effie’s paintings outside Arizona since 1931 !

We tried to present these exhibits - several times - at the time of Effie's 150th birthday celebrations in Arizona - 3 years ago in 2020 - but the pandemic stopped us - again and again.

And yet - the curiosity and enthusiasm for Effie's art and inspiring life story in Arkansas among art lovers in Effie’s original home communities has remained strong.

Now - I am excited to take a group of 20 Effie paintings as our traveling exhibit with storyboards and photos of Effie’s early life to Arkansas that we are now calling...

Effie Anderson Smith: The Life and Art of an Arkansan in the Arizona Desert.

Of course, as much as Effie loved Arizona, she was happy being referred to in newspaper reviews of her exhibits in the 1920s and 30s as "a Southerner by birth, but a Westerner by adoption."

TO SHARE EFFIE’S ART WITH NEW AUDIENCES - WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Will you help us Bring Effie's Art Home to Arkansas? To the towns she knew in her youth. To the places where her life and journey as an artist began. Where she painted her first landscapes in oil in the early 1880s. And where today - EFFIE’S ART HAS NOT YET BEEN EXHIBITED - but is just now becoming known - over a century since her first Arizona exhibits in the 1920s

YOU CAN HELP SPREAD AWARENESS OF EFFIE’S ART!

What better way to honor Effie and her Arizona art legacy than with a gift to spread knowledge and appreciation of Effie's art in the towns & counties of her birth and formative years.

Please JOIN US in our journey to Bring Effie's Art Home to Arkansas this Fall!

The cost of bringing an exhibit of 20 fabulous paintings and all the exhibit storytelling elements and support materials with me as host and curator of her life and art - for the 3 weeks at 4 different galleries - and - transporting it all to and from Archives, Museums and Private Collections in Arizona and California to the Four Galleries and Museums in Arkansas is $ 5,500.

To make all the exhibit tour arrangements in time…

We need to raise $ 5,500.

Your gift of $ 25, $ 50, $ 75, $ 100, $ 500 or MORE to our GO FUND ME campaign will be a tremendous help and will be acknowledged at each of our exhibit locations (unless you prefer to remain anonymous - just mark your donation accordingly at check-out). ANY amount is welcomed!

Let's BRING EFFIE'S ARIZONA ART HOME TO ARKANSAS THIS SEPTEMBER & OCTOBER.

Effie belongs equally to both Arizonans and Arkansans in a special way, and it's time to raise Effie's profile in Arkansas through this wonderful opportunity to share her art in a concentrated way through this rare exhibit tour !!

AND…in addition to contributing, you can help us greatly by telling those in your family and extended network of FRIENDS about our Exhibits and this GoFundMe campaign by SHARING this message.

PLEASE SHARE OUR CAMPAIGN with your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other Social Media networks. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT.

Effie's ARKANSAS Exhibit Tour Schedule…(exhibit hours & talks to be announced)

NASHVILLE - Fri. Sat. & Sun. - September 15th to 17th

ARKADELPHIA - Tues. Weds. & Thurs. - September 19th to October 5th

HISTORIC WASHINGTON - Fri. Sat. & Sun. - September 22nd to 24th

HOPE - Fri. Sat. & Sun. - September 29th to October 1st

For Gallery / Museum Hours visit https://www.effieandersonsmith.com/exhibits

Again - In order to make all the exhibit tour arrangements in time…

We need to raise $ 5,500.

Please make your gift of $ 25, $ 50, $ 75, $ 100, $ 250, $ 500 or MORE to our Effie GO FUND ME campaign, TODAY - and be part of this amazing new journey to expand appreciation of Arizona's Effie Anderson Smith in Arkansas, and beyond!