Some of the artists who are part of the exchange program between China and the United States

The American China Oil Painting Artists League presented a major exhibition of realistic paintings by Chinese and American artists in May 2011 at the National Arts Club in New York. Now ACOPAL, whose mission is to build a creative and philosophic exchange between realist artists in both nations, is raising money to support 20 of the 40 American artists who will exhibit 100 paintings in Beijing.

To support its mission, ACOPAL is seeking funds to pay the expenses of the American artists who want to travel and participate in scheduled events. For more information on the organization, visit www.ACOPAL.org, and to lend your support, visit  HYPERLINK "" http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1831416227/exhibition-of-contemporary-american-realism-0.

Paul W. McCormack recently responded to some questions about the fundraising effort for artists making the trip to China. Here's part of Paul's response: "Many of the artists will be paying their own way, but a trip like this is very expensive, and for some of the younger artists it will be prohibitive. We'd like to get a good cross section of our members over there, not just the older, very established artists. Also, this project has been entirely funded by artists so far. I personally have put a lot of my own money into this, and it has taken up an enormous amount of my time. There's only so much the organizers can personally do. All of the members have paid in their own way, with personal monetary donations, award donations toward our online competitions, the expense of shipping and insuring their work to the prior exhibits, and the current donations to the Kickstarter fundraiser. The thing that most people do not realize is that ACOPAL is not about a group of realist artists simply showing their work in China, it's all about getting realism to a level where it's as respected here in the U.S. as it is China."