Local Veterans chosen to attend the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival

U.S. Army Veteran Krystal Anspach has been selected as a first-place winner in the 2023 National Veterans Creative Arts Competition, Art Division.  Anspach took first-place for her Diorama, Mini She Shed.  U.S. Marine Corps Veteran Lori Ceder has also been selected as a first-place winner in the Art Division under two categories. Ceder took first-place for her Original Design in Needlework, Illusion of Movement, and for her Leather Kit, Retro Classic. U.S. Air Force Veteran Terrance Blair took first-place for the second year in a row with a Figurine Painting Kit entry, Hometown News. U.S. Marine Corps Veteran William Howrilla took first place in the Art Division for his carving, Special Friends Deserve Special Care. 

Local Veterans were also selected for second-place and third-place recognitions. Veterans Allan Cochenour and Charles Jennings took second place in the Art Division and Veteran Lindsey Anderson took third place in the Music Division.

Co-presented by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the American Legion Auxiliary, the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival is the culmination of VA facility competitions in art, creative writing, dance, drama, and music for Veterans enrolled in the Department of Veterans Affairs national health care system. Veterans exhibit their artwork and original writings or perform musical, dance or dramatic selections in a live stage show performance. All Veterans invited to participate are selected winners of a national creative arts competition in which thousands of Veterans enter from VA medical facilities across the nation.

VA medical facilities incorporate creative arts into their therapy programs to further the rehabilitation goals for both inpatients and outpatients. This annual competition recognizes the progress and recovery made through that therapy and raises the visibility of the creative achievements of our nation’s Veterans.

The first-place winners are invited to attend the national festival hosted in Denver, Colorado, May 11-18, 2024. Please join us in congratulating these fine artists for their amazing talents and accomplishments!  For more information on the Veterans Creative Arts visit: www.creativeartsfestival.va.gov.  

For information on Butler VA Veteran Creative Arts classes and workshops, please contact the Veterans Creative Arts Festival Coordinator, Karen Dunn, 878-271-6484. 

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The National Veterans Creative Arts Festival originated as two separate competitions. Muriel Barbour, then chief of recreation therapy at the McGuire VA Medical Center in Richmond, Va., created the visual arts competition, VET ARTS, in 1981, as an observance of the International Year of Disabled Persons. Shirley Jefferies, a recreation therapist at the Waco, Texas, VA Medical Center, initiated the performing arts competition, The National Music Competition for Veterans, in 1981. The premier live winners’ stage show was held in 1981 at the VA Medical Center in Tuskegee, Ala. The second show was staged in 1982 at the Coatesville, Pa., VA Medical Center.

In 1984, the live stage show was presented in Washington, D.C., and the music competition was renamed “The Music Festival.” The following year, the stage show took place in the historic Constitution Hall.

The Music Festival and VET ARTS merged and drama and dance divisions were added, to create the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival in 1989. Designed to spotlight the four creative arts therapies of art, music, dance, and drama, this landmark Festival was performed to an audience of 4,000 in the Fox Theater in St. Louis, Mo. In 2005, a fifth creative arts division, creative writing, was added to the Festival roster.

The National Veterans Creative Arts Festival continues to evolve each year as it showcases the artistic achievements of Veterans from across the country in each of the five artistic divisions. Each Festival features an art exhibit showing the first-place artwork from 50 categories. A live stage show, complete with orchestral accompaniment generously provided by the Music Performance Fund, is performed by Veterans who have achieved medal-winning status in a variety of categories from the performing arts divisions of music, drama, and dance, as well as creative writing. Workshops are offered during the Festival week for participants and staff, educating them in a variety of artistic modalities by utilizing the talents of local community artists. There is no competition at the Festival itself, as it is a showcase for previously judged medal winners.

The Department of Veterans Affairs and the American Legion Auxiliary present the National Veterans Creative Arts Competition and Festival in a new city annually to raise the visibility of the creative achievements of our nation’s Veterans. The program is also supported by many other organizations both locally and nationally.

Paula McCarl, Public Affairs Officer

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