Newsletters

First and foremost, a heartfelt congratulations to the top three award winners in our Spring Show at Project308 Gallery, in order, first to third: Joan Shaw, Michele Agosto, and Norma Joy. Likewise, I applaud those who didn’t win, but who were accepted into the exhibition, and my condolences to those who were not. I say that, of course, tongue-in-cheek, because yours truly fell into that latter category. Such is life. Somehow, the exhibition managed to be very good despite the absence of my artwork. Just in case any of you who don’t know me very well think I’m seriously wallowing in my sorrows over the rejection (sniffle), as we all know, far better artists than any of us have faced similar results from simply trying…

Well, after a four year hiatus from the BSA presidency, I’m ba-a-a-c-k (thunder, lightning, heavy rain, ominous music). I’d hoped that my successors from my previous tenure would inspire such large numbers to serve that I’d never be needed to do this job again: members would trip all over themselves to fill this organization’s highest office. But, in addition to the perceived workload, burnout plagues every group: some volunteers can handle it longer than others; some do such intense work over a short term that the burnout rate is faster; and for still others, life just gets in the way. Whatever the reason, the Buffalo Society of Artists, coming into its 125th year in 2016, welcomes, and deeply appreciates, all the help it can get,…

I am happy to report that as we move into our summer season, we are doing so with a full itinerary of shows and events for our membership, courtesy of the good work of our Boards of Directors and Trustees. We have our collaborative show with ELAB at Silo City for “Reclaimed City”; our Summer Picnic; our Open Members Show — to be held at the Theodore Roosevelt Historic Inaugural Site — running six weeks through August and into the beginning of September; our Catalogue Exhibition and Eye Candy II art auction and social event to benefit the Artist Portrait Series Video Archive Project, both likewise to be held in September. To address the first of these, “Reclaimed City”, I would ask any artists who…

Along with Spring comes the promise of growth and the opportunity to develop creative potential. This has certainly been amply realized in our very successful Spring Show currently on view at Buffalo Arts Studio. (See the ArtVoice review: http://artvoice.com/issues/v13n15/art_scene and see the award winners on the next page.) The work displayed in this exhibition demonstrates, yet again, the great strength in the diversity that the Buffalo Society of Artists welcomes and promotes to art lovers in Western New York and beyond. I would like to thank Artistic Director, Cori Wolff, and the staff at BAS for providing a fantastic venue for us to show the wonderful work of our membership. Our sponsorship of young artists can also be seen in the Daemen College and Kenan…

Despite the mind numbing and cocoon inducing cold of this grueling winter, our volunteer committees and Board of Directors have, not surprisingly, been working tirelessly counter to any expectations of seasonal inertia (doubtless in an effort to stay warm!) In addition to the impressive amount and quality of independent shows from our membership, and following the end of last year’s meeting between the Boards of Directors and Trustees to discuss fundraising strategically, we have seen the very successful drop off and jurying of work for consideration for our upcoming Spring Show to be held at Buffalo Arts Studio, deftly managed by Vice President of Exhibitions, Mark Lavatelli and his Exhibition Committee (a special thank you to BAS Artistic Director Cori Wolff for opening up that…

With the 2013 year drawing to a close, I feel a great pride and satisfaction in presiding over an organization that has accomplished and continues to accomplish so much, given our diverse membership and volunteer composition, along with a desire to continue to develop and offer more to our membership and the greater Buffalo arts community beyond. Instrumental to this has been the Board that I have been lucky enough to have worked with this past year. I thank all of our Directors, but wish to give special attention to the four members who have just gone off of the Board: Richard Tomasello, Norine Spurling, Catherine Tillou and Paula Sciuk. The dedicated volunteer work that they have accomplished for this organization over their time on…

With the end of summer and another successful completion of the Open Members’ Show at the Carnegie Art Center drawing near, we look forward to our juried Catalog Exhibition, Frank Lloyd Wright Fontana Boathouse Art Show and Auction, City of Night and jurying of prospective new members in the fall. The current uploading of images for entry into the 2013 Catalogue Exhibition at the Kenan Center has been vigorous and promises to give the exhibition’s Juror, George Afedzi Hughes, Associate Professor of Visual Studies at UB, a great deal of extraordinary work to consider. I would ask our membership to likewise consider becoming Patrons for our exhibition themselves and to ask others to do so if they might be so inclined. The importance of funding…

For our membership, summer has always been more than a period of down time between our Spring Show and Catalog Exhibition. For artists, summer is a time for growth and experimentation in our work and further development as professionals. Accordingly, my message to you at this time focuses on the professional development initiatives that the Board of Directors has cultivated and is still creating for the BSA Membership. First though, I would like to thank Mark Lavatelli for the great work that he has been doing as Vice President of Exhibitions: first for the Spring Show and now with the Open Members Show at the Carnegie Art Center. It is also in the nature of this job to plan well ahead for shows and exhibitions…

Spring is here, and with it, our 2013 Spring Show! Many thanks need to be extended to Vice President of Exhibitions, Mark Lavatelli, for the wonderful work he did in putting such a great variety of styles and work together into such a beautifully cohesive and coherent show. Likewise, much gratitude is extended to Past President Beth Pedersen, Vice President Paula Sciuk, former Board Member Patti Harris and Jamie Card for all of their help during the jurying, intake and installation, and the opening itself. We are also extremely grateful for the generosity of Christopher Kelly and the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museums for the use of their beautiful space, and to Zerbe Sodervick, Director of Gallery r and the Extended Studies program within the College…

Since first joining the BSA five years ago and then coming onto the Board of Directors over three years ago, I have had the pleasure of serving an artistically diverse and historic organization as it has grown and adapted itself to remain vibrant and relevant while still embracing its great history. It has been this balancing between complementing values which has always seemed to me to be the greatest strength of our group; our capacity to respect and promote all of our styles and approaches to art making while also providing the means to display and integrate our knowledge and talents with our desire to work within a larger, contemporary art community. To this end, we will be continuing our efforts to collaborate with other…