October 2009 BSA Newsletter (PDF)
First, our heartfelt congratulations to all the award winners and accepted artists in the Annual Catalogue Exhibition at the Kenan Center, which will run from October 18 to November 15. I need first to thank the fine work done by Chairperson Beth Pedersen and the Exhibition Committee for making this run smoothly. The catalogue, published by Patti Harris’s daughter, Erin, promises to be something special. Every member who attends the exhibit will be entitled to a copy.
Well, our long-awaited web site is here, and as far as web sites go, it’s a Porsche. I invite our members to test drive it, if you haven’t already. It’s got all the news from the beehive of activity that has become the Buffalo Society of Artists—the educational programs, seminars, exhibitions, fund-raisers, social gatherings, our annual jurying, membership applications, studio visits, our annual dinner, our new members reception. If you don’t have your representative image and bio posted on it, if you are an Exhibiting Member and haven’t a web site to link to, get going! There’s a world out there. Let’s bring them to us, now that we’re here. We have a face to present to the world. And what a pretty face!
I cannot say enough about the work done by our Website Committee, and especially Web Administrator Jennifer Kursten in conjunction with Ingenious, Inc. There were literally thousands of details, over hundreds of hours, to be hammered out, and they did it. The proof of the pudding for our site was whether the digital uploads of works for the Catalogue Exhibition, juried by the Director of the Cranbrook Art Museum, 400 miles away, would work. I’m happy to report it went pretty much without a hitch. For those of us who needed help uploading, both Jennifer and Gary Wolfe were there. Our most profound gratitude to them.
Although the price tag was about $8700, it was an investment in our growth. We will need to replenish the funds. To meet this need, we have been running fundraisers—creative dinners, and an autumn flight over Letchworth in a restored WWII fighter plane for one lucky raffle winner. So far, we’ve raised about $2000. We still have a ways to go, but I am confident we will get there in the next one to two years. Our thanks to Katherine Tillou, Paula Sciuk, Gerry Mead, and Steven Housenecht for their efforts, and Nancy Cerny for coordinating these events. Check out the other fundraisers we have planned, and by all means, join in the fun.
A video archive project, documenting the many outstanding artists in our region was proposed years ago, at least as far back as Victor Shanchuck’s presidency, in the early 90’s. Nothing came of it—until this year. In August, Larry Kinney, Mr. Shanshuck, and yours truly, drove out to Colden to do our first interview, of Joe Orffeo. I am looking forward to the day when the screens of the Burchfield-Penney begin showing our interviews.
Our season at Artpark in its fourth year soared to unprecedented heights under the direction of Helen Russell. Sales at the gallery pretty nearly matched last year’s, before the recession. This was good news for our artists, and for the BSA treasury. Our other Artpark programs—the pre-gallery talks, the Poets Write about Art, and “What were they thinking?” seminars featuring talks by Rita Argen Auerbach, Lynn Northrup, Shirley Rosenthal, George Palmer, Joe Whalen, and David Vitrano were quite successful, often drawing standing-room only crowds. These latter seminars are going to be included in our video archive project.
Also in conjunction with the Burchfield-Penney is a blockbuster series of seminars on estate planning for artists. This started as Rita Argen Auerbach’s pet project, and with invaluable input from Helen Russell, we are amassing quite an array of panelists and speakers. Want to know about the pitfalls of not leaving a will, detailing who gets your art? What kind of record-keeping should you do to help the executor of your estate? What’s the difference between a trust and a foundation? Stay tuned. These seminars are planned for early next year at the BPAC, and they will be fascinating and extremely informative for artists at all levels of their careers.
In other major news, Education Committee chair Fotini Renzoni has been collecting donated art supplies for school art programs. She has also put together a fine program of gallery talks at our Catalogue Show at the Kenan Center on Saturday, November 7 and Sunday November 8, running every half hour, from 2-5…Mary Kinney has linked our website with Facebook to increase our social networking and, as of this writing, her efforts have garnered hundreds of hits. Unfortunately, she has had to resign her post as Publicity Director owing to health. We extend our thanks for what she has done, and our good wishes for her recovery.
The annual dinner and membership meeting, at Fanny’s Restaurant on Sheridan Drive on Thursday, October 29, will cost $30.00 per person. Nominating Committee chair Bill Maggio has put a slate together of five candidates for the Board for our fall election. If you don’t vote via the enclosed ballot, you may vote at this meeting. We have quite an impressive slate of candidates, so choose wisely. This, incidentally, is a far cry from the years when we were taking onto the Board just about anyone with a central nervous system (myself included).
Though in the ebbs and flows of all-volunteer organizations, you do get burnout, I am elated to report that volunteerism is running very high. We want to keep it that way. To paraphrase Mae West, if you’ve got nothing to do, and lots of time to do it, there’s room for more dedicated volunteers—especially now with Publicity. Exhibitions could always use more help. We need more, imaginative, fundraisers. If you’d like to show off your studio and talk about your work, step forward. And we want to train people in the use of our video cam, to tape interviews with area artists, for use at the Burchfield-Penney.
On September 18, Rich and Joyce Hill hosted a meeting of the Trustees. At this meeting, the main topic concerned the question of our going for not-for profit status. The Trustees unanimously recommended against it at this time, and for the foreseeable future. Why? Because 1) we have existed for 118 years as a for-profit group; 2) as such, we don’t have to jump through the hoops not-for-profits have to endure to gain the few benefits such a status provides, with all the strings involved; and 3) it’s been found that 501(c)-3s tend to suffer a drop off of volunteerism and lose creative control of their organizations. This case was made to the Board of Directors the next day, and they agreed with the Trustees. This issue can always be reviewed in the future, should our circumstance change. I also want to welcome Peter J. Heffley as a candidate for the Board of Trustees. He will be a great asset to the BSA, and I urge all members to vote for him.
Finally, as I come up on the end of my first year as President of this organization, I want to express my gratitude to my Board, to all committee members, and the Trustees. If my administration ends up looking good by the end of this, and my second year, it will be because of their commitment of time and hard work. Though at times the going has been rocky, I look at it as the strains and pressures of an organization going through major changes and growing pains. Two years ago, you, our membership, told the-then Board what you thought we needed to do, not only to survive, but to grow. This was a huge year of transition. Our Board faced the challenges and workload passed on to us by my capable predecessor, Gary Wolfe, and I like what I’m seeing. I hope you do too.
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