Borderland Arts Monthly Meeting – March 1, 2018 – Bay College
Attendees: Linda Calcari, Melisse Carr, Jeff Gurchinoff, Kathy Kuczek, Barbara Marden, Cyndi Safstrom, Sharon Schmeltzer, Audrey Smith
Introduced new member Linda Calcari.
Minutes from February were read and accepted.
Treasurer reported new balance of $2488.00.
Jeff will be following up with Jesse Land, the new owner of Downtown Plaza, tomorrow. Mia Tavanotti is looking into doing a mural inside the building. As of now, she is planning murals for two buildings in connection with her Power of Words project: putting a splash of color near Greenway Books and the backside of Blackstone pizza. Next week, she’ll have a full media announcement about projects in Iron Mountain, Gladstone, and Manistique.
Jeff attended a grant-writing class about how to put together a well-thought-out grant application.
Tamara Jewell is in charge of the Dickinson Area Community Foundation. We could ask her to be our 501c3 organization and request grants on our behalf. We are looking for potential ideas to use $2400. Jeff would also like to connect the owners who have agreed to use their building as a canvas to DACF to give them some priority for development in Iron Mountain.
Audrey said that the community theatre has applied for this arts grant in the past, which they used for a specific production. Sharon said something for the parade might be interesting.
Trying to drive people to FB and Website. As discussed previously, Jesse’s Facebook page has a following of 75,000 people. Jeff with discuss this when they meet tomorrow. Jeff asked Sharon if we were still doing anything with TV announcements. Sharon said we are not currently doing this. Jane from Greenway is promoting her mini gallery on the radio. Jane is working with an individual who incorporates work of other artists into funeral urns. He pays $20-30 per piece if he decides to use the art. Jane has a couple of sample urns at Greenway books.
Jeff will be part of a dinner theatre production at the Encore Dance Hall in Florence, April 6-7 and April 13-14. Caring House handles ticket sales for the event.
Melisse handed out poems that we could choose from to use as inspiration for art between now and the next meeting. Members of poets’ group will be part of our after-meeting program in April.
For our after-meeting program today, Cyndi Safstrom acted as our model for sketching or painting.