It’s that time of year again for an annual celebration of both Santa Barbara arts education and working artists: the VADA Draw! This art lottery and cocktail party supports the Visual Arts and Design Academy (VADA) from Santa Barbara High School (SBHS). For the past 11 years, VADA has hosted this important fundraising event, with this year marking the 25th anniversary of the VADA program. Impressively, the VADA Draw raises more than 40 percent of the art academy’s annual budget, which funds art resources for more than 300 public school students. The Draw — an amazingly interactive evening with local food, beverages, music, and community supporters — will be held at The Community Arts Workshop (CAW) on Saturday, March 15, from 7-10 p.m.

This event celebrates the students and educators of VADA, participating artists, and the local community. Participants in the raffle will have the opportunity to be called up individually, one by one, to choose from a wide variety of art pieces to take home with them. Tickets range from general entry without participation in the lottery ($55), up to the “Mine, All Mine!” package at $1,500 which entails a pre-selection of art as well as entry for two. Packages with a “Ticket for Art” are included in the lottery, and participants may choose a single piece of displayed art according to their lottery ticket number. Party-goers wait in anticipation for their tickets to be called next, and everyone with a “Ticket for Art” goes home a winner! This year’s generous participating artists are just as intriguing as the event itself, because they use many different mediums, and are a deeply admired and collected group.

Daniel Barnett, Program Director and Educator at VADA, says this year’s collection showcases “such a great group of artists. The artists are like big brothers and sisters to the students in the program because this event is where local professionals show their support for younger artists.” 

Barnett further illustrated that this event is growing yearly since more and more local and national artists are willing to support VADA’s mission of encouraging artistic exploration and a future in the arts. He says that they raise an impressive “40-50,000 dollars a year,” and these funds are also a “meaningful way to give back to new artists.” Barnett emphasizes that the featured artists are welcomed as honored guests and are a “cross-section of supporters,” because their work is as varied as their origins.

You can still get tickets to this event to instill support for an arts education for our community’s youth on VADA’s website. You can also donate through their website if you can’t make it this year — however, VADA encourages the Santa Barbara community to give back to those with expansive creative dreams and minds.

The talented participating artists in this year’s event include: Nell Campbell, Celia Foss, Bob DeBris, R. Anthony Askew, Ginny Brush, Pedro De La Cruz, Virginia McCracken, Casson Demmon, John Baran, Wallace Piatt, Karin Shelton, Betzhi Walton, Erika Carter, Sylvie Rich, Priscilla Fosek, Barbara Parmet, Ruth Ellen Hoag, Jessica Bortman, Maria Rendon, Lynda Weinman, Karen Folsom, Amber O’Neill, Scott Anderson, Sherry Wetzel, Rod Lathim, Brad Betts, Kevin Gleason, Ginny Speirs, Nika Vaeshun, Eric Saint Georges, Garrett Speirs, Brian Woolford, Kendall Pata, Carey Caulfield, Seyburn Zorthian, Karen Bezuidenhout, Sarah Arnold, Jessica June Avrutin, Larry Vigon, Rebecca Stebbins, Josie Rodriguez, Hugh Margerum, Jennifer LeMay, Bill Dewey, Erik Lucero, Brad Nack, Brandon Teris, Lanny Sherwin, Claudia Bratton, Benjamin Brode, Lisa Slavid, Kit Boise-Cossart, Doug DaFoe (in care of Jacque Gehrich), E. Lovelace, Jeremy Harper, Dug Uyesaka, Kathy Leader, Edward Beall, Karin Aggeler, Eden Andrulaitis, Rosemarie Gebhart, Kellen Meyer, David Mark Lane, Havilah Abrego, Duane Laurabee, Merith Cosden, Felice Willat, Andie Adler, Stephanie Ingoldsby, Myla Kato, Barbara Cronin Hershberg, Steve Shelton, George Goyer, Mary Williams, Olivia Joffrey, Diane Arnold, Warren Yip, Wendy Brewer, Forest Stearns, Mary Dee Thompson, Jesse Allen, Nini Swift Seaman, and Joe Rohde.

For more information on the VADA program see vadasbhs.org.