October is National Arts and Humanities Month.  This year will be extra special as Polk Arts Alliance presents its inaugural Heart of the Arts Festival. Fondly referred to as HotArts, the Heart of the Arts Festival showcases the arts and cultural events, exhibitions and happenings all around Polk County. In addition to arts events and exhibitions throughout the month, Polk’s arts and cultural organizations are widely represented at the First Friday event on October 7th in Lakeland. Stop by Arts on the Park, Explorations V Children’s Museum and the Polk Theatre to say hello and to sign up for a chance to win fabulous arts prizes.

Polk Arts Alliance is truly grateful to the Polk Advertising Federation (AdFed) for adopting the Polk Arts Alliance HotArts Festival as a beneficiary of their precious gifts of time and talent.  The awesome logo was designed by the expert graphic artists at Smart Creative.  Woohoo and thanks to Smart Creative for creating a beautiful artistic image for the Festival.

What is National Arts and Humanities Month all about.  Check out the winning video from American’s for the Arts sponsored “Why the Arts Matter” video contest during last year’s National Arts and Humanities Month (October 2010).  Below is the winning video.

Winner: Starting Artists, Inc. Marisa Catalina Casey, Executive Director
Read Marisa’s guest blog post on ARTSblog
Grand Prize: Video shown on the MTV 44 1/2 screen in Times Square and Flip UltraHD Camcorder
Video: Art is…