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 into the coming year, which Mark has been doing beautifully. I must again recognize Paul Rybarczyk for the magnificent job he has done in maintaining our Facebook page, sending announcements to the membership, creating prospectuses and handouts for prospective new members and of course producing the newsletter we are now enjoying.
Creating and cultivating opportunities for professional development for our membership and friends has been a constant and productive thread through the work of this board and to that end I would like to thank all of its Directors. I have been fortunate to work with members of our newly formed Programming Development Committee—Deb Stewart, Paula Sciuk, Sara Zak and Gary Wolfe—in creating a framework for presenting workshops that can further inform members and non-members alike of practical business concerns for working artists, demonstrations in the use of specific mediums and techniques, and artists’ and art professionals’ lectures on their own formative experiences with all the wisdom that can be gleaned therein. These educational opportunities, ideally at least one of each of the three types, will be available in the fall, and with their success, should be offered seasonally thereafter.
To this end, I want to also thank Dr. Anthony Bannon, Director of the Burchfield Penney Art Center, for his continued support of the BSA through not only his generous offer to provide a home for our developing programming but also for future collaboration with us as we go forward with our Video Archive Project, wonderfully stewarded by Beth Pedersen, and now through both her and Len Kagelmacher’s efforts, available on our website’s homepage.
Special recognition should be offered to Paula Sciuk for her hand in glove work with the Western New York Land Conservancy to provide additional opportunities for our membership and her outreach to the Niagara Power Authority for the Annual Earth Day art event and to Larry Kinney for the volunteering of his time and expertise to curate and judge the high school environmental sculpture show held for a second year at that same venue. Through their efforts, we can look forward to exploring the growing possibilities at this location for next year and hopefully beyond.
The fall will provide for us, then, not only this programming, but also our Catalog Exhibition and the Frank Lloyd Wright Boathouse Art Show, to be offered in late October; details of both to be presented to you soon through release of their respective prospectuses.
So it is with great enthusiasm that I expect great things from us all this summer, as individual artists and professionals and as an organization that fosters opportunities to suit our needs as professional artists!
Sincerely,
Richard W. Christian II
