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 local arts organizations to both increase our exposure and offer a broader scope of services and opportunities for our membership, and maintain our standing within the Western New York culturals and beyond. This will include the implementation of approved recommendations from a study commissioned last year through Ted Pietrzak’s consulting firm to increase the efficacy of the Board in serving our members.
With a new year comes a new Board as well. We have expanded the Vice Presidency to two distinct officer positions: Vice President and Vice President of Exhibitions, with Paula Sciuk and Mark Lavatelli elected to those positions, respectively. Andy Russell has been kind enough to stay on for another year as Treasurer, as has Elaine Kessel as Corresponding Secretary. Betty Leader has been likewise elected to Recording Secretary. We are also lucky to have our Committee Chairs continue on in the positions they had come to define last year: Paul Rybarczyk and Candace Masters as co-chairs for Publicity, Richard Tomasello in Membership, Deb Stewart in Education, and Sara Zak who has taken on the newly minted Chair of Fundraising position, with help from Stephen Houseknecht. Thanks also to at large members Norine Spurling and Catherine Tillou. Thank you also to Beth Pedersen for her continuing work chairing the Video Archive Project, and to Gary Wolfe for his ongoing sage advice for this Board.
I would also like to thank Richard Hill for all of his work and advice over the years as Chair of the Trustees, and to Stanton Hudson for his willingness to step into this position. We look forward to working with Mr. Hudson closely as we foster in a new era of increased collaboration between the Boards of Directors and Trustees.
Through greater fundraising efforts, reviewing and revising the way we operate and promote ourselves, increasing services and opportunities for professional development offered to our members and an in maintaining a sensitivity to our members’ concerns and suggestions, that we will do all that we can to continue to move this great organization ever forward and upward! I am honored to have been given the opportunity to work for you as your President, and look forward to doing so throughout the year!
Sincerely,
Richard W. Christian II
