We are hatching new ideas, new vendors and artists left and right! We are both LUCKY to Live in San Angelo and LUCKY to be part of The Chicken Farm Art Center and the phenomenal art community in this town. Like many of you, we also believe it's you, the people here, that make this town such a great place. We very much appreciate your passion for the arts, your patronage and your belief in us to carry on the legacy of Roger Allen and The Chicken Farm Art Center!

Now, check out what's hatching this month!

Non-Profit: The Roger Allen Foundation

Our eggs are lined up and are rolling right into our Non-Profit status! We are thrilled to announce we have approval from the Texas Secretary of State on our status and are awaiting the final approval from the Comptroller! This means we can now start taking donations for The Roger Allen Foundation. Our mission is to ignite and nurture a lifelong passion for arts in the Concho Valley community by providing attainable, and inclusive artistic educational experiences. This will allow us, and you, to "Share the Art Spirit" just as Roger Allen did! With your help, we'll be able to create and host low-to-no cost art classes, workshops, First Saturday activities, host artist residencies and possibly even art scholarships! This will support all forms of art including but not limited to ceramics, fine art, painting, fiber arts, performing arts, musical arts, glass, blacksmiths, sculpting and so much more! A special shout out to Kimberly at The Gold Beacon for helping to make this dream a reality! Her expertise and get things done mentality truly streamlined our thoughts, hopes and brainstorming into a simplified and well organized application. Thank you, Kimberly!! Stay tuned - more to be announced next month.

Now for the new chicks on the block in March!

Wildflower Art Studio in Coop 5 & Bri In Bloom in Coop 7

Alyssa Rios is a proud veteran and now owner of the Wildflower Art Studio in Coop 5! She's passionate about being hands-on in art through her poured acrylic paintings and handmade jewelry. As a veteran, she is also passionate about creating mental health outlets for our military and veterans through art. Come check out her Coop on First Saturday! Pour yourself into her art by following @WildFlowerArtStudio5 on Instagram!

Bri Hord is the creative stitch behind Bri In Bloom! She's bringing back the art of the stitch through modern quilting, repurposing old quilts and sewing projects. She's invested in 5 new sewing machines to teach and host classes. Follow @Bri.InBloom on Instagram to sew her studio into life!

Partners and Consultants: Last Summer we were LUCKY enough to meet Gary Kosmas and Sylvia Perez. They have been hiding in the background mentoring us, helping us and advising us on all things in the art world which we have limited knowledge in. They have owned and run their own businesses and have managed and operated the Potters on Cotter in Port Aransas in the most recent past. They are both artists themselves: Gary a potter and Sylvia an artist of all things small and tiny. We are so very LUCKY that they wanted to uproot and move to San Angelo to be closer to family and be apart of our Chicken Farm Family! Come meet them on First Saturday and check out Gary's pottery at his booth!

More typical Chicken Farm chicken scratch below:

• Check out Brunch with Roots at the Silo for First Saturday! March features cuisine from Mexico (and we're not talking about TexMex)! Mexico was the third country to 'own' Texas, thus the third flag to fly over the state of Texas.
• Frothe is featuring LUCKY mini cupcakes, green spritzers, cinnamon rolls, street corn and cookies!
• Green Apple Music is back for 2024 and bringing awesome singer/songwriters to the farm!! We've had a peak at some of the line up and it's going to be an awesome year of music you don't want to miss! The first two concerts at the farm are 3/30/2024 (Summer Dean) and 4/27/2024 (John Fullbright).
• Chicken Picking every Saturday at 10am in the middle courtyard will resume as the weather allows.
• Kid's Coop will be open for First Saturday and more...check our Facebook pages for more info!

Lastly, we will bid farewell to our music muse and founder of the Chicken Pickers, David Alexander. David will be moving closer to his family in Tulsa, Oklahoma to enjoy time with his chickees and grand-chickees. Please note David's farewell newsletter below. The Chicken Farm owes a lot of its spunk and life to David and his ability to bring people together through the art of music. He will be greatly missed! We are excited that the Chicken Pickers want to continue David's legacy with Kim Snell stepping up to coordinate music and Kyle Wusterbarth continuing to manage sound.

Please join us on First Saturday at 1PM

for a tribute to David Alexander!

Hello Chicken Pickers and Listeners:

Well, I'm moving to Tulsa this month, so this will be my last 1st Saturday and last newsletter. Never fear, Kim Abel Snell will be doing the newsletter and Kyle will continue with what he does so well-set up and sound. Both will serve on the committee that organizes other Chicken Farm music events, including selecting performers. Owners Chasity and Juston have a vision and plans for creating more opportunities and activities for lovers of the Chicken Farm culture to participate in...and the art of music and songwriting is an important part of the vision for the future. This March 2024 1st Saturday is an example of new activities.

The precipitating reason for my move to Tulsa is the loss of my Lynne to cancer in December. We kept one another moving in the right direction. My son and his wife want me in Tulsa. There I will be able to be a better grandfather to my four granddaughters and three great grandchildren. Moving away from my birthplace and where I was raised, and all those who have been important in my life here, is not an easy thing to do. But it is the right thing for me to do.

We started our music circle in February, 2000 after Roger Allen was bemoaning to me about the inability to get 1st Saturday going consistently. I had only met Roger once before, but seeing the opportunity for my music picking buddies to relieve our significant others of putting up with us, I offered us to Roger. He enthusiastically accepted, and the rest is history.

Our first picking group was Terry Mills, Larry Ward, Roy Don Scott, Coy Moses and me. Don Gabbert joined later and got the concerts going to showcase our Chicken Pickers. Larry Ward and I got the Songwriters-in-the-Round going in the Silo House that served to spur interest in songwriting. Charis Worden got the Shady Grove Old Time Music bunch going. And the Chicken Pickers got the music going for the After-Thanksgiving Open House by volunteering to perform, in appreciation of the opportunity the Chicken Farm played in creating a music community that Chicken Pickers say has been a positive part of their life. It certainly has been for mine.

So, C'mon out Saturday for a good day at the good ole Chickenfarm. ~David