Chairman's Message

This year the ARC Salon™ has continued to rapidly grow in popularity. More artists are submitting works and on average each participant is entering more examples of their work.

This year's ARC Salon has been unbelievable. There were so many high quality works, that at first each of the 4 judges chose entirely different works, which was one of several causes of the unfortunate delay that took place, and for that we are deeply apologetic. I know the anticipation that has been building ever greater each year, and I'm sorry if any one was inconvenienced. We also hit head on with the holidays, and since most of the work is done on a volunteer basis, we had little choice but to adapt to people's schedules.

However, the wait was worth it. This year's Salon is better than ever, and apparently so many of the entrants are doing so well now selling their works, that virtually every choice we made for a purchase award, was already sold, or we believed to be much too expensive for our not-for-profit Foundation to justify. Other items are currently being explored and if any purchase awards are made, they will be added to this announcement as soon as possible.

Please also note that there are more finalists included than in prior years. It was just not possible eliminate any more items. when those remaining were of such high quality.

2007 was a remarkable year for the return of Traditional Classical Realist fine art. Several more schools are closing in to achieving ARC Approval. Even the world famous Rhode Island School of Design has asked to be considered for ARC Approval as more and more would be students demand accountability and the reasonable expectation that they will be taught skills in exchange for their education dollars. Three ARC Living Masters were accepted into the all important Secondary Market and sold, all three of them for nearly double their high estimates between $34,000 and $45,000 per item. ARC's Scholarships were doubled to $20,000 this year by a matching grant from a kindred educational foundation. And more entries, nearly 2,000 of them were entered in the ARC Salon.

I want to thank everyone who participated as well as our volunteers, staff and judges for the important parts you have all played in ARC's continuing growth and success.

So I would like to extend my sincere congratulations to the winners of this year's competition and my thanks to those who entered and all those who helped administer the ARC Salon, for their participation in this fundamental change in the art world and the real world.