April 21, 2009
For immediate release

Society of Decorative Painters brings international conference home to Wichita

(Wichita, Kan.) The Society of Decorative Painters (SDP) has chosen to hold its 38^th and 39^th International Conference and Expo in 2010 and 2011 in Wichita. The conferences will be held at Century II Performing Arts and Convention Center and Hyatt Regency Wichita. Wichita competed against Des Moines, Kansas City, Oklahoma City, Omaha, St. Louis and Albuquerque, N.M.

The SDP international headquarters are located in Wichita, Kan. SDP is a membership organization with members throughout the United States, Canada, Japan and 42 other countries. It has more than 300 affiliated chapters that actively promote the art form through community service projects and other painting-related activities.

"Wichita is a great arts community, so it makes sense to bring our annual conference and expo to our society's home city," said Linda Biedermann, SDP board president.

The SDP International Conference offers more than 130 watercolor, oil, acrylic and colored pencil painting classes for skill levels from beginner to advanced painters. Internationally known decorative artists teach painting and art theory classes, and participate in community service projects such as the Treasure Boxes for Kids program for patients at Shriners Hospitals for Children. SDP's Permanent Collection, which recently returned from a tour of Japan, will also be on display. The SDP Expo offers the opportunity to purchase hard-to-find painting supplies from more than one hundred favorite retailers' booths. An annual opportunity for SDP members to gather from across the globe, the conference and expo are also open to the public.  

"This gives us the opportunity to showcase the impact art has on our city," said John Rolfe, Go Wichita president and CEO. "We had a great partnership with Century II and the Hyatt to win this conference. We are so pleased to bring this conference home again to Wichita."

More than 1,000 SDP members typically attend the annual event. Holding the event in Wichita two years in a row is expected to generate an estimated economic impact of more than $1 million.

Decorative painting is a teachable, diverse art form that uses a variety of techniques and media to decorate functional and non-functional surfaces. Decorative painting is often done on common items we use every day, but many of SDP's artist-members also paint on traditional art surfaces such as canvas and watercolor paper. For more information about the Society of Decorative Painters, visit decorativepainters.org.

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