Throughout the course of the 2015-2016 school year, Art on Board's Ben Weigher has been conducting an Entrepreneurship Through the Arts program at PS301, Satellite East Middle School, in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn.  The program took a group of students through the stages of creating their own small business.  After eight months of hard work, the students are ready to present their very first product: the Kid Awesome tee shirt.

After settling on super heroes as a common theme for their first product, sixth grader Alexzander Robinson created the hero who has come to be known as Kid Awesome.  In the students' words, "Kid Awesome represents fun, creativity, intelligence, and youth empowerment".  After the initial design was created, the group reached out to longtime AoB friend Brian Zager to help make their creation digital.  For the back of the tee shirt, students tasked Boston-based typographer Jack Byers with creating a comic-book inspired graphic featuring the name of their school.

After designs were finalized, the group sourced materials and printing through Syracuse-based The Merchery.  Upon receiving their merchandise, marketing plans were created, and a retail account was opened at nearby Sincerely, Tommy.  We are excited to bring Kid Awesome to the entire country!  Please support the continuation of Art on Board's Entrepreneurship Through the Arts program with the purchase of a Kid Awesome tee shirt- now available through the AoB web store.

OVER A FIVE-DAY PERIOD IN AUGUST 2015, ART ON BOARD AND THE MAIN IDEA TRAVELLED WITH NEW YORK CITY STREET ARTIST MITCHELL SCHORR AS HE ADDED SEVEN NEW INSTALLATIONS, TOTALING OVER 10,000 SQ. FEET OF ARTWORK, TO HIS NOW-ICONIC DA RACE MURAL SERIES.

For Art on Board's first public arts initiative, the organization partnered with artist and longtime collaborator Mitchell Schorr to provide a colorful and cultural boost to the New York City and Vermont communities.  Schorr joined the Art on Board family prior to the organization's summer '14 community art gallery in Brooklyn, New York, and has remained a close friend since-- contributing his time and artworks to multiple events.  This public arts initiative aims to engage community members, both online and in-person, while simultaneously giving back to the cities that have helped shape Art on Board as an organization.

Da Race is a street art mural series, created by artist Mitchell Schorr, that whimsically pits race cars against a homely, generic New York City ice cream truck, as they exchange leads in advancing depictions around the city. Each successive location serves as a snapshot of the ever-progressing nip-and-tuck auto race, mimicking the race of everyday life and keeping the viewers in suspense about the eventual winner.  Schorr's protagonist ice cream truck, an instant fan-favorite, represents the common man-- up against the daunting task of overtaking much more aptly equipped sports car competitors.  

Inspired by childhood memories, a love for automobiles, and a desire to fully immerse his audience through art, Schorr began taking Da Race to the streets nearly ten years ago.  Since then the series has seen over 50 installations throughout New York, Michigan, Vermont, and most recently, Hong Kong.

Art on Board is thrilled to present Da Race as the first installation of their public arts initiative.  The organization produced the project with the help of the talented team at The Main Idea as a way to leave a lasting thank-you to the cities that have contributed to the current success of the organization.

A very special thank you to everyone who helped make our first public arts initiative a success!  we look forward to producing more great projects in the near future.

ABOUT THE AWARD

Art on Board was founded in 2013, since then we have received overwhelming support from local community members, business owners, artists, volunteers, and countless others from our communities. Thanks to those who have backed Art on Board, we have built a strong foundation upon which our organization will continue to grow and thrive.

To thank the individual, organization, or group that has gone out of their way to show dedicated support to Art on Board, we are pleased to introduce the 1st Annual ACE Award. ACE stands for: Active. Creative. Engaged. -- the three pillars that Art on Board aims to pass along to our communities, and the traits most exemplified by our award winner. 

this year's recipient

Brian Zager

The recipient of the 1st Annual ACE Award is Brian Zager.  Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, Brian Zager has been involved with action sports and the arts since day one. An avid skateboarder and snowboarder, talented artist and designer, and all around great human being, Brian is well-deserving of this year’s ACE Award. In addition to painting a snowboard for all four Art on Board shows to date: Burlington, VT 2013 & 2015, New York City 2014, and Seattle, WA 2014; Brian has also been Art on Board’s (un)official Art Director since the beginning. Whether designing our logos, website content, event posters, stickers, or apparel, Brian has been a creative wizard for Art on Board. He truly embodies the Active. Creative. Engaged. lifestyle that this award is meant for. Congrats Brian!

Brian's Art on Board gallery submissions.

Brian's Art on Board brand identity.

Brian's Art on Board graphic design.

The Future of the Award

The ACE Award is an annual tradition we look forward to carrying on for years to come. As Art on Board grows into a nationally respected organization, we are excited to continue honoring our supporters through this yearly recognition. The ACE principles are the foundation of our mission and what will continue to guide our growth.  We couldn’t be more thankful to have so many great supporters as our cornerstone.

Art on Board’s first collection of apparel and accessories celebrates the success of the organization's inaugural series of community events.  Designs from Brian Zager, Cody Hudson, and Hemetic Trading Co. highlight products designed for your active, creative lifestyle.  New York City creative Ryan Nicholls photographed the collection’s lookbook over a two day period in Queens and Harlem.  Shop now to support active, creative community engagement within action sports and the arts.

On May 21st, 2015, Art on Board's Ben Weigher had the chance to speak with Mary Williams of NPR's Vermont affiliate, Vermont Public Radio.  Ben spoke on topics such as the conception and roots of Art on Board, as well as the organization's ties to graffiti, and plans for the future.  Read the story below, and listen to the audio version here.

By MARY WILLIAMS • MAY 21, 2015

What happens when action sports meet art? If you're Ben Weigher, it has something to do with painted snowboards. Weigher is the co-creator, with Tim Andreasen, of Art on Board, an organization focused on creativity, entrepreneurship and youth engagement.

"We’ve actually funded over a month of local programming with Burton’s Chill Foundation through our events," Weigher says. "We’ve also been able to give back to Burlington Community Arts.”

Both Weigher and Andreasen are graduates of the University of Vermont. Weigher joined VPR to talk about the story behind the colorful snowboards, some of which will be up for auction Saturday at ArtsRiot in Burlington. 

On the origin of the organization

“Art on Board started as a senior year capstone project in our entrepreneurial leadership class. It was a semester-long project that actually only had two direct guidelines. Number one was to do something that would make a positive impact within your community and number two was that something that you choose to do should be able to be carried on once you graduate. I remember Tim looking over and whispering to me, ‘Let’s do an art show.’ It sort of snowballed from that point into an organization that has since done three galleries on the national scale and getting ready to come back to Burlington for the first time since graduation.”

On what happens at Art on Board events

“The main attraction at our Art on Board events is a silent auction for snowboards that are donated to us by Burton ... We then find artists that we’re fans of, or we’re friends with, that are members of our community to create these boards. We’ve seen everything from house paint to broken glass to bronze patina and everything in between. Such awesome creative ideas ... We auction them off and the money goes back in to support active engagement for young kids in their communities and action sports and the arts. These events also always feature some sport of live music, some sort of culinary involvement from community members. Just fun for the whole family is what we try to promote."

On incorporating graffiti

“We’ve actually worked with quite a few graffiti artists, at least one at each event so far. I guess that maybe stems from personal interest, maybe it stems from us just having grown up as fans of that community … but that has been a common theme to our events so far.”

On the relationship between action sports and arts communities

“We’ve come to the conclusion that there are two simple bonds that bring them together. Number one is creativity. Most people immediately understand that from the artist side of things. But when you look at creativity from the action sports it can be something as simple as trying to find a new skate spot or trying a new trick on the hills on your snowboard.

"Number two is a sort of do-it-yourself, figure-out-how-to-make-it-work entrepreneurial spirit that is so intrinsic to both action sports and the arts. When you’re first starting out, you usually have nothing more than a skateboard or a paintbrush and tablet – any type of creative instrument – and you don’t really know how to use it. But as you go through the process of figuring it out, or doing it yourself, or learning it yourself … The whole entrepreneurial process really fascinated us and was something that we wanted to help push and encourage within our own communities."

On returning to Burlington

"We’ve done this national tour with very little funding, and we’re really hoping to use our homecoming in Burlington as sort of a message that, ‘Here we are, we’re back where we started and we’re here to stay.’ We’re going to make it a big point to really push our future plans … Hopefully that will lead to some financial backing."

On what's next

"We are working on two big things right now. One is a traveling mural project with an artist from NYC by the name of Mitchell Schorr. He does a series called “The Race” and he was actually involved in our gallery in Brooklyn last July. After he saw that we as Art on Board were traveling to these different cities … he approached us and said, ‘Hey, I do this mural series. Wouldn’t it be cool if we could take that to wherever Art on Board goes as a sort of thank you to the community for coming out and supporting us, give back through community beautification.’ So that’s one thing we’re working on and that is actually that is going to be happening in Vermont this summer after our gallery ... That’s going to be the first stop on the Race tour.

Number two that goes hand-in-hand with that is youth engagement. We’re going to be doing our second youth engagement series in Burlington this summer as well.