12th International Art and Design Symposium

AUSTIN, TX – March 17, 2009 – ConceptArt.Org, a leading international art community and foundation supporting the arts, today announced Reverie ( www.conceptart.org/reverie), The 12th International Art and Design Symposium featuring more than 50 top professionals from the Film, Game, Toy, Fine Art, and Special Effects industries. At Reverie, these visionaries collaborate, demonstrate and help students and professionals develop their creative skills. This momentous event, partnered with the AFI Film Festival in Dallas, is set to inspire artists and designers from around the globe. Film and videogame industry powerhouses Massive Black Inc., SMU, Wacom and ReelFX. are top sponsors for the event.

Reverie will feature more than 150 live art demonstrations as well as design, creative theory, and business talks. The event kicks off with a multimedia party organized by the ConceptArt.Org team which is internationally known for blending live art creation and performance in a truly unique way.

"Reverie is A unique and highly influential educational event that has been attended by hundreds of major companies, art schools and independent creators,” said Massive Black Inc. and ConceptArt.Org President Jason Manley. “Our program was designed by many of the best Game Developers, Film Makers and Fine Artists in the business with the goal of inspiring creatives from around the world seeking inspiration, jobs, and improved skills.”

"Everyone who attends these events takes home concepts and input that can change their creative lives in ways they do not expect,” said Massive Black and ConceptArt.Org co-founder Coro Kaufman. “This is about more than learning, it’s about bringing opportunity to people and changing the art and entertainment world for the better. We have pulled out all the stops.”

"Given how tough the times are nowadays, we really wanted to do something to help foster continued growth and creativity,” said Massive Black and ConceptArt.Org co-founder. Andrew Jones. “Artistic hearts and minds create opportunity when they come together like this. I expect many lives to be changed. We are really focused on teaching and showing the latest ways artists and world designers can be successful right now."

All important information and full details can be found at www.conceptart.org/workshop and www.conceptart.org/forums

About the International Art and Design Symposium ConceptArt.Org Art and Design Workshop was formed to be the stimulus creatives require to see growth at accelerated rates beyond what normal working and learning environments allow. The entire program is volunteer-based and has been attended by more than 7000 creatives and hundreds of important companies to date. Instructors are here to help participants of all levels learn and improve in ways never thought possible and to apply those skills in the lucrative, booming entertainment industries and related fields. The workshop opens doors to companies looking for talent with knowledge in the latest production techniques and provides immediate opportunity for people who are ready to work in the fields of art and design. For those already in the industry, or companies looking to educate their teams in the latest idea development and creative techniques, this event is an ideal solution.

Companies with employees attending will see immediate and long-term improvements in the creatives working on their important projects, and also have the option to recruit from hundreds of quality job seekers looking for great companies during the jobs fair and portfolio review day.

Since 2003, The ConceptArt.Org and Massive Black Inc. Artist’s Workshops have given guidance to students and professionals from the fields of video games, film, toys, Fine Art, illustration, and comic books toward improving their skills and techniques. Through this program, attendees have discovered information and received the input they needed to find growth in their art, improvement in their careers and momentum for the projects they put their daily passions toward.

More than 100 major entertainment companies have attended the Symposium Job Fair. Companies like Blizzard Entertainment, Sony, EA, Activision, NCsoft, Nintendo/Retro Studios, Microsoft, Valve Software, Bioware, Ubisoft, Rockstar Games, Fisher-Price, Hasbro, Warner Brothers, Ensemble Studios, LucasFilm, LucasArts, ILM, Massive Black, Sega, id software, Weta Digital, Sidhe Interactive, Krome Studios, Midway and many others have had their employees attend to learn, meet artists, and even recruit veteran and entry level talent!

These events have been previously held in San Francisco, Austin, Seattle, Montreal, Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam, Wellington NZ and Bucharest. Besides bringing in thousands of talented individuals and companies from around the world, each conference highlights local and international entertainment and art industries to encourage and support their artistic culture. No matter who you are, where you come from and where you go, these workshops have proven to be life changing events.

Video footage from previous events can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_iQVCij2Z4 (International Art and Design Symposium: Seattle 2008)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGfmxPv_3vI (ConceptArt.Org Events Inspires Siggraph)

Videos, event photos, and all the information can be found on www.conceptart.org/workshop

About Massive Black Inc.

Massive Black is a field leading entertainment development company with veteran teams in San Francisco, Shanghai, and Bangkok. Massive Black contributes to many of the biggest films, toys, comics, TV shows and games, and is heavily involved in industry art and creative education. Massive Black creates concept art, 3D, animation, marketing art, greenlight materials and illustration for global clients. Massive Black Entertainment creates exciting new intellectual properties, rich stories, and beautiful film, toy, graphic novel, and video game content. For more information, please visit: www.massiveblack.com

About ConceptArt.Org

ConceptArt.Org is an international art community and foundation supporting the arts. ConceptArt.Org has been a great place to showcase art, learn the latest digital and traditional techniques related to all entertainment and art fields. ConceptArt.Org has an award winning school of digital and traditional art in San Francisco and has millions of visitors each year. Currently more than 150,000 registered artists and nearly every entertainment company in the industry participate in the community. For more information, please visit: www.conceptart.org

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Contact

pr@conceptart.org