PRESS RELEASE
For IMMEDIATE Release
Media Contact: Laura Abrams, 214-232-2206

Art in the Hood Studio Tour
Returns on Feb. 2, 2008

DALLAS, TEXAS (Jan. 4, 2008) – Now in its sixth consecutive year, a diverse collection of artists from southeast Dallas open their studios and invite the public to step out for the ‘Art in the Hood’ Studio Tour and Sale on Saturday, February 2, 2008 from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The self-guided studio tour is free and visitors of all ages are welcome. Maps to the studios south of Interstate 30 and east of Fair Park are available at the Art in the Hood web site, www.artinthehood.com. The site also has information about the individual artists and photographs of their work.

Art in the Hood showcases the work of artists living in the southeast quadrant of Dallas which includes several neighborhoods - Parkdale, Urbandale, Pleasant Grove, and beyond to Highway 175. These ‘working class’ neighborhoods have never been particularly trendy by Dallas standards. In fact, for many years, this quadrant of the metroplex has generally gone unnoticed. It is this very reason, as well as the area’s close proximity to downtown, affordable abundance of older, well-built homes with large treed lots, that artists have quietly flocked here for years.
Original works on display will range from sculpture, painting, ceramics, glass, fiber arts, photography, more. New to the tour this year, but most long-time resident of the neighborhood, is painter Gene Allen. Mr. Allen, 82, has lived in his Parkdale home since it was built in 1950 and has been depicting local landscapes and nature scenes since he began painting in high school in Dallas.

Artist studios’ featured on the tour are those of Michael van Enter, Robyn Lark Wakefield, Nancy Thompson, Valery Guignon, Roy Cirigliana, Mark Epstein, Niyada Crossland, Laura Walters Abrams and Brad Abrams. Also showing at several of these stops are the talents of a myriad of local guest artists.

For more information call 214-232-2206 or visit www.artinthehood.com.

PREVIOUS RELEASES:
Art in the Hood 5 (2006 Press Release)
Art In The Hood 4 (2005 Press Release)
Art in the Hood 3 (2004 Press Release)
Local Artists' Showcase Returns (2003 Press Release)
Welcome to the Neighborhood (2002 Press Release)