My Special Project

National Veterans Creative Arts Festival

Since 2000 the American Legion Auxiliary has played a key role in NVCAF as one of three $100,000 cosponsors of the event, along with Department of Veterans Affairs and Help Hospitalized Veterans. In addition to raising funds, Auxiliary Departments also provide volunteers who assist with everything from punching meal tickets to stuffing programs to ironing costumes for the stage show. Best of all, Auxiliary members have the opportunity to meet and develop relationships with the veterans who participate.

History of the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival

The National Veterans Creative Arts Festival, the foremost creative and performing arts competition for U.S. military Veterans in the world, originated as two separate competitions. Muriel Barbour, then chief of recreation therapy at the McGuire VA Medical Center in Richmond, Va., created the visual arts competition, VET ARTS, in 1981, as an observance of the International Year of Disabled Persons. Shirley Jefferies, a recreation therapist at the VA Medical Center in Waco, Texas, initiated the performing arts competition, The National Music Competition for Veterans, in 1981. The premier live winners’ stage show was held in 1981 at the VA Medical Center in Tuskegee, Ala. The second show was staged at the VA Medical Center in Coatesville, Pa., in 1982.

In 1984, the live stage show was presented in Washington, D.C., and the music competition was renamed “The Music Festival.” The following year, the stage show took place in historic Constitution Hall.
The first National Veterans Creative Arts Festival, held in 1989, was the culmination of the Music Festival and VET ARTS, with drama and dance divisions added. Designed to spotlight the four creative arts therapies of art, music, dance and drama, this landmark Festival was performed to an audience of 4,000 in the Fox Theater in St. Louis, Mo. In 2005, a fifth creative arts division, creative writing, was added.
The National Veterans Creative Arts Festival continues to evolve each year as it showcases the artistic achievements of Veterans from across the country in each of the five artistic divisions. Each Festival features an art exhibit showing the first place artwork from 53 categories. A live stage show, complete with orchestral accompaniment generously provided by the Music Performance Fund, is performed by Veterans who have achieved medal-winning status in a variety of categories from the performing arts divisions of music, drama and dance, as well as creative writing. Workshops are offered during the week-long Festival for participants and staff, educating them in a variety of artistic modalities by utilizing the talents of local community artists. There is no competition at the Festival itself, as it is a showcase for previously judged gold, silver, bronze and special recognition medal winners.

In 2010, 3,625 Veterans from 123 VA facilities entered the competition nationwide, with 143 of the medal-winning Veterans earning an invitation to participate in the 2010 National Veterans Creative Arts Festival, hosted by the VA Medical Center in Tomah, Wisconsin. This year, the event takes place October 17-23 in Fayetteville, Arkansas hosted by the Veterans Healthcare System of the Ozarks. The art exhibit will be held from 12:30 until 1:45 p.m. and the stage show performance at 2 p.m., on Sunday, October 23, 2011.
The Department of Veterans Affairs, Help Hospitalized Veterans and the American Legion Auxiliary present the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival, and it is also supported by many other organizations both locally and nationally. The staff and volunteers of the Veterans Healthcare System of the Ozarks take great pride in welcoming the 2011 Festival participants and their guests.