Newsletters

Friends and Fellow BSA Members, It has been a privilege to serve you in the role of president this past year. I could not have done so without the committed support of a talented and tenacious group of Board Members as well as all the other volunteers who served in various capacities to make this year a success. Three well received exhibitions, a renovated gallery, notable public and press attention, the unveiling of theVideo Archive Project, and a significant report with recommendations for the BSA’s growth and stability are all among the hallmarks of this past year. However, for my final message as president, I would like to focus my remarks on the report entitled, “A Vision for the Future” that was prepared by Ted…

I last wrote to you in the beginning of the summer encouraging a greater commitment and involvement of members as volunteers in the initiatives and leadership of the Buffalo Society of Artists and in leading the organization into the future. I continue to extend that invitation and look forward to your response. In the meantime, however, I would like to report on two significant actions that the Board has initiated designed to build the organization, make it more responsive to members and more relevant in the Western New York arts community. As the BSA has focused on its mission and strategic planning over the past few years, the organization’s structure, programming and day?to-day tasks have grown in sophistication and complexity. Changing technology, local economics, members’…

An Important Matter for Every BSA Member to Consider For more than 120 years the Buffalo Society of Artists has been a voluntary association of local artists committed to supporting one another and to exhibiting high quality artwork in the Buffalo region. To be an exhibiting member of the BSA has carried a certain distinction over the years. However, the actual significance and meaning of membership in the Society has been as diverse and varied as the members themselves. For many, belonging to the BSA has been about the juried exhibition opportunities offered twice a year, for some it has meant a chance to network, form friendships and fellowship with like-minded art makers, others have found in the BSA the opportunity for professional growth, and…

In recent years we have held a Spring Members Meeting to update the BSA membership on the state of the organization and about new initiatives that were in the works. After reviewing the potential agenda items for such a meeting, and after consulting with other Board members we decided that it would be more efficient to bring you up to date through the newsletter. To that end, I would like to summarize some of the of BSA activity over the last few months. The Board held its reorganization meeting in December of 2011, electing its new officers. I agreed to fill the role as president once again as long as every Board member would take on a task and that those officers and committee chairs…

February, 2012 BSA Newsletter (PDF) Once again I have been asked to fill the role of president for the Buffalo Society of Artists. Fortunately for me (and for all of us) our organization has a talented, committed and active Board that will continue to move the BSA forward. I am excited to work with these seasoned veterans, new Board members, Trustees and you, the membership, to help the BSA grow both qualitatively and quantitatively. Read full contents of the newsletter here.

September, 2011 BSA Newsletter (PDF) There is never a dull moment on the Buffalo Society of Artist’s frontline. We, the board, are still marching to the beat of 120 years of history in the making. September marks our “Eye Candy” Fundraiser, a first for BSA, which takes place on Friday, September 23, 2011 from 6 to 9 p.m. at Vern Stein’s Art Gallery in Williamsville. We are expecting a crowd and have about 85 artworks to display in a very impressive lineup. I have seen them all and there are many very beautiful small gems that will be placed for auction. You must tell your family, friends and art aficionados about an art party they should not miss. No dancing girls, but we will have…

We had our Annual General Membership Meeting on May 7th and I am wondering where you were. I thank those of you who did attend and wish many more of you were there.

March 2011 BSA Newsletter (PDF) I just read recently that Mark Stevenson’s book “An Optimist’s Tour of the Future” borrows from Abraham Lincoln’s message in 1862 to Congress and speaks of disenthralling ourselves of ‘the dogmas of the quiet past’ in order to ‘think anew’. The article indicates that a key lesson of adulthood is the need to unlearn and to pose the question how many other false nostrums still infect my brain, unexamined, obstructing the arrival of fresh thoughts? We think that we know certain things to be true, but these things may turn out to be false and until we unlearn them, they get in the way of new understanding. It made me think of the so-called BSA Endowment. Many felt for certain…

I am honored to have been elected the 77^th president of Buffalo Society of Artists, an organization composed of many creative and artistic individuals.

September 2010 BSA Newsletter (PDF) This being my last President’s message, I want extend my thanks to all of the Board members and volunteers I worked with to meet the incredible challenges and changes that we faced the past few years—not only the website-development, but also a reorganization of the BSA into five major components: Exhibitions, Artpark, Membership, Programming, and Communications–the stark reality being we simply could not operate any longer in the simpler, 20th century mode if we hoped to survive and flourish. The past few years we have shown ourselves to be nothing if not adaptive. Organizations that get complacent die. Over my two terms, we reined in our budget, identifying problem areas and working out cost-cutting solutions; raised thousands of dollars through…