Fall is a busy season if you're a cheerleader. Even if you're a thirty-something cheerleader with arch supports in your sneakers, social satire in your cheers, and you're rooting not for quarterbacks to complete a pass but for artists to get the respect (and funding) they deserve.

In early September 2009, the Art Cheerleaders—founded by painter Rebecca Goldberg Oliver (BFA '97)—began shaking their black-and-red metallic pompoms at gallery events all around Richmond, Virginia, chanting cheers like "What Can You Be With An Art Degree?" and "Why Don't You Get A Real Job?" In the next few weeks they showed up at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, joined Vermont's Bread and Puppet theater company in an outdoor performance, opened a film screening of animator Bill Plympton's work, participated in a performance by the emerging Richmond company XF Dance, and led a parade at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond. Good thing they had those arch supports.

"We really want to make an impact," Oliver says. "We want respect for the arts in our communities to grow, yet we live in a time where 'art' is almost a dirty word. So how do you bridge that gap? Through humor. Through community involvement." And through cupcakes. "Bake sales are part of our performance. They're part of the cheerleading persona," Oliver says reassuringly.

The Art Cheerleaders are a reincarnation of the SMFA Cheerleaders, a student group that high-kicked around Boston in the mid-1990s. Back then the act was more of a guerrilla-style self-portrait, Oliver says. "Our loosely-defined goal was to satirize art and the art world, but it was mostly a form of self-expression and our audiences were often other artists." Today, Oliver and her fellow cheerleaders—who include painters, actors, singers, writers, and musicians—recognize the need to appeal to a broader audience.

"One of our goals is to bring people together in support of the arts," Oliver says. "While we want to use humor to convey our message, we don't want to offend people. We're not poking fun at ourselves so much as reinforcing our worth as artists in society and celebrating the creative process."

For details about the Art Cheerleaders' performances, go to www.oliverfinearts.com.