Borderland Arts Monthly Meeting – November 2, 2017
Bay College
Attendees:
Phyllis Carlson Melisse Carr Terri Doepker Jeff Gurchinoff Amy Hall Lori June Houle-Pascador Christine Kionka Kathy Kuczek Jane Landwehr Barbara Marden Terry O’Connor Cyndi Safstrom Joe Santi Sharon Schmeltzer Darlene Strand Carol Zechlin
Meeting was called to order at 6:02 p.m.
Flowers and a gift were presented to Melisse Carr by Jeff on behalf of Borderland in recognition of her presentation and follow-up workshop on relief printing at two of our meetings.
Jeff reported that the members’ gallery was successfully shifted from Stitch-It-Up to Greenway Books. There will be a “grand welcoming” reception at Greenway on the 10th of November from 2-4 pm. Additional member work was installed at our second location. Savage Mane. There is room for a little more art at both places. We will also be installing art at the new organic coffee shop when it opens.
Congratulations to Darlene, who sold our first piece which was installed in the Savage Mane gallery.
For the time being, check with Jeff about installing any other work at either place. We are working on creating a standard tag format in different platforms so everyone can use. We ask that members not pull any works out of a gallery without replacing. Darlene mentioned that the consignment agreement has a space for the duration of time we are to leave the work at the respective gallery.
Jeff asked for volunteers to be “gallery reps” who will act as the main contact point for the store owners. Phyllis Carlson agreed to be the rep for Greenway Books, and Lori Pascador agreed to be the rep for Savage Mane.
Jeff told the group about his trip around the UP with Mia Tavanotti to identify additional locations for murals. One of the projects scheduled is to put a small splash of color on the wall between Greenway Books and the neighboring State Farm office.
Jeff also advised us about various artistic/business development activities under way. Towns that have galleries and antique shops are a draw for tourists. CUPPAD has a mini-grant of $2261 specifically set aside for art. Jeff plans to coordinate a meeting with various local non-profit and not-for-profit groups to educate them on what grants are available and how to apply. Les Artistes obtained a $250 grant they used for easels to display work at exhibitions. Borderland Arts may pursue a similar grant.
At some point, we want to create a map of the Borderland Arts gallery locations that can be housed on our website. We can also show locations of the murals and historic sites.
A new Gallery setup is being created on the Borderland Arts website. Once it is set up, Kathy Kuczek will send out an e-mail about how to send your images and information needed to link to your online presence. The upgraded Borderland Arts Gallery will be exclusive to Members only.
Sharon Schmeltzer made a recommendation that a list of members contact information be shared with each member. Barb will send out a note to all members asking permission to share that information.
The group decided that the next meeting will be a holiday celebration at Maple Creek. One of the items for discussion will be ideas for topics and/or art practice to take place at meetings in 2018. Another session with a live model has been suggested so far.
At the January meeting, the group agreed that attending members would bring miscellaneous items that we could set up for still-life drawing and/or painting practice.
At this time, we concluded the business portion of the meeting and members spent the rest of the time sharing their sketchbooks with the group.
Submitted by Barbara Marden, Secretary