FREE Newsletter--See the new issue of AirbrushTalk at www.airbrushtalk.com with articles by Janean Thompson, A. D. Cook, and Bradley M. Look. And be sure to sign up for your free e-subscription!

NEA News--Grants have been announced to eight Florida arts organizations to assist them and their members in recovering from hurricanes in the 2004 season. A total of $100,000 has been designated to support needs such as facility assessments and special programming.--Recipients of the 2005 NEA National Heritage Fellowships, the country's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts, have been announced. Twelve fellowships, which include a one-time award of $20,000 each, will be presented to honorees from 11 states. Recipients included a Norwegian American rosemaler, decorative building craftsman, Navajo weaver, and paper-cutting artist, among others.

Legacy Preserved--A letter of intent has been signed by the Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation and the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum that would transfer all of the Foundation's assets to the Museum. The Foundation's collection of more than 1,000 O'Keeffe artworks and extensive archival materials would be conveyed to the Museum, as would the artist's house and studio in Abiquiu, NM.

Memorial Planned--Westchester County, NY, is requesting support for construction of "The Rising," the county's memorial to 109 residents who died on 9/11. The memorial, designed by internationally renowned Manhattan architect Frederic Schwartz, will be 80 ft. high with 109 intertwining stainless steel strands rising together and reaching skyward. Built at the Tallix Foundry in Beacon, NY, it will be assembled onsite at the Kensico Dam Plaza. 914-995-2951.

Sketches Sold--A former mistress of Picasso has sold 20 of the artist's sketches at a Paris auction. Genevieve Laport, now 79, appears in the sketches (circa 1951), which sold for $1.87 million.

Exhibitions:

Baltimore, MD -- Baltimore Museum of Art and Walters Art Museum -- The Essence of Line: French Drawings from Ingres to Degas features renowned collections from both museums that are the subject of a major joint exhibition on view at both venues. Featured are more than 150 drawings and watercolors by some of the most influential French artists of the 19th century, including Delacroix, Daumier, Cezanne and Degas. Through Sept. 11. Travels to Birmingham and Tacoma.

San Diego, CA -- San Diego Museum of Art -- Maxfield Parrish, Master of Make-Believe features approximately 80 works of superlative design and sumptuous beauty by Parrish, including his beloved calendar and book illustrations, his signature classicized paintings, and rarely seen murals. Through Sept. 11

Chicago, IL -- Art Institute of Chicago -- Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre aims to place Toulouse-Lautrec in the wider context of his time and place and to include for comparison and contrast a selection of works by his contemporaries--painters, printmakers, and poster artists--to evoke the life and art of Montmartre. The focus includes dance halls, the circus and the maisons closes, integrating major avant-garde paintings, topographical canvases and posters and caricatures. Through October 10.

Copyright ARTtalk Vol. 15 No. 10 -- August 2005