Hi all,
I hope everyone had a great summer.
Alive & Well! In case you’re wondering what the arts council is up to and what happened to the newsletters, our first meeting following this year’s Festival of Art was in September. The arts council’s directors took the summer off, but have been extremely busy over the past two months; working primarily on the new gallery (the Fort Edward Art Gallery) in Windsor Home Furniture.
Fort Edward Art Gallery - update
First solo exhibition: the first solo exhibition, which launched the Fort Edward Art Gallery, featured Guenter Burr’s paintings. He opened the show with a short but nice talk, commenting on the dynamics between art and everyday life. This was well received. The show was a great success; sales and feedback both being strong. Guenter’s large, colourful works filled our new display space well and brought it to life. Congratulations again to Guenter on a show well done.
Second solo exhibition: the second solo exhibition is of yours truly. I’d like to thank all of the members who attended the opening. I never realized it could take three people almost three hours to hang twelve paintings. My show runs until November 17. We are learning and improving as we go. From now on we will have standard signage on the main wall for the artist having a solo exhibition.
Next solo exhibition: The next show is Jaki Durocher’s. Jaki’s opening is November 18 from
7 PM to 9 PM. It would be great to have as many members as possible be there in support of her show. Jaki’s show runs until December 15.
Group Show: Tacha has been handling all of the applications for the Group Show and upcoming solo exhibitions. The deadline for the group show is October 29. Application forms for this event, along with solo exhibitions, are on our website. www.hantscountyartscouncil.com Thanks to all the artists that have responded to the request for applications for the show. We have eight so far.
Gallery Sign - We still do not have our main gallery sign. This is out of our hands though it is being worked on.
- We will be having our binder with members biographies in it on permanent display at the gallery.
- We will also be taking our guestbook so that we can develop a mailing list for our events.
- We have decided to put up a cork board display panel. This will be for artists having a solo exhibition to use to promote themselves and their artwork throughout their show. Some ideas for starters: you could promote your studio or galleries you are with, other exhibitions you are having, additional works or prints for sale, etc. How about starting a mailing list if you haven’t already got one! This is your space. It should read as a professional display space.
Andrew Harvie will be updating our website soon. Photos from the first two showings will be posted.
I’d like to thank Tish (Patricia) Jackson (with Windsor Home Furniture) for her help with the arts council and the gallery. She has been very helpful, great to work with and has given wonderful short introductory talks prior to each opening.
We have just learned that we will not be able to have wine at any future openings as alcoholic beverages cannot be served during store hours. Anybody heard of punch and cheese?
If you haven’t seen our new gallery space I would urge you to check it out. Jeff Redden has had professional hanging hardware installed and lighting that is actually better than most of the track lighting I have ever seen in any commercial gallery.
Festival of Art - as we now have a gallery space to work with year-round, we will be having a discussion in the near future regarding the future of this event. Stay tuned!
The Hants County Arts Council did receive a $350 grant for Events and Festivals Marketing from the Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage.
Our own calendars: At our meeting last night, Kristie Sheehy pitched the idea of the arts council putting out its own calendars using the artwork of our members. A vote was taken on this and we decided to move forward with it. Kristie has put together a framework for this project and now, with Tacha’s help, is going to pursue this further getting some hard numbers for us. This will not be replacing our Arts Digest. It is intended to complement it. They will have very different audiences and serve different purposes.
Arts Digest: We will need funding to put out an Arts Digest. Pat Gould-Thorpe has looked into this for us. Pat has a copy of our original application for the Cultural Activities Program…which we intend to use as a template for a future application for funding. It is uncertain as to the timing of the release of the next digest due to what is involved in putting it together/out. We will soon be contacting artists regarding their interest in advertising in it. Further discussions on the exact format of the next Arts Digest need to be sorted out before any specifics can be given. This is a big project and if any members would like to get involved, helping put it together, we can certainly use the help.
John Webb has stepped down as a director. A big thanks to John for handling our annual PR for the Festival of Art.
Any ideas or suggestions, please let me know. Why not write an article or start a dialogue.
Next Meeting: Our next meeting is at Craving’s Café in Upper Rawdon on November 24. Our meetings start at 6:30 PM and members are invited to join us. This is a great time for members to learn more about what the directors are doing from month to month and to get involved.
Visit our site: www.hantscountyartscouncil.com
A reminder that all past Newsletters can be seen at: http://hantscountyartscouncil.blogspot.com
Happy creating!
Cheers,
David
