February Meeting notes.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009


Art and About met at the Rahr-West Art Museum at 6:00 P.M with 22 current and / or new members present—one of our biggest meetings so far.

Chairs for Charity
§ We discussed this year’s up and coming Chairs for Charity event on November 21st, 2009 at the Rahr-West.
§ Chairs should be delivered to the museum NO LATER THAN November 9th and will be on display until the time of the auction. HOWEVER, please start those chairs now! We would like to have them on display throughout the spring / summer / and up till November 9th. The more we have out—the more successful the event will be.
§ All Manitowoc county high school art departments are invited to have their students design a new logo for this year’s Chairs for Charity event. The logo / poster contest will offer a $100.00 cash prize to the winning design and a companion prize of a $50.00 gift card to Hobby Lobby to the winning designer’s teacher / mentor. Contest committee members include Jo Woodcock, Amy Zander, Bonnie Loeh, and Paula Radl.
§ At this point there are two main committees needed for the Chairs for Charity event. The first is a press / media committee—to handle press coverage of the event including newspaper advertising, radio, et cetera; and a contacts committee—to contact local businesses to participate in the event by either donating items such as refreshments for the reception, possible matching funds, or offering their business for chair display. There was a sign up sheet passed around for at the meeting—there were many volunteers thus far however, if you were not at the meeting but would like to be a part of a committee, please consider what you will be willing to do for this year’s event.
§ By next month’s meeting, Heather and Kim will provide each group with a more complete list of committee expectations.
§ We also discussed the reception and would like to lengthen the reception time as well as offer free wine along with the hors douvres. Free wine makes for holey pockets!
Spring Tour:
§ Brenda Ricky will be the host for the spring tour on May 15th and 16th. She would like commitments by next month as artists and studios that will be participating. If there are any artists who do not have a studio but would like a display space please contact Brenda at 920-553-2787 and matches will be made.
§ The fee for studio participation in the tour is $40.00 the first year to cover sign costs and $25.00 thereafter. There was some discussion whether or not independent artists should pay a fee to display at someone else’s gallery and it was decided that each artist could discuss the issue with their host and work out something on a case-to-case basis.

Fall Tour:
§ Just a note that the fall tour is on October 23, 24, 2009.
§ No one has yet to volunteered to host—anyone interested?

Farmers Market:
§ Exciting news for the farmers market—there will be a Tuesday evening slot this year! The Tuesday time slot will be from 3:00 to 8:00 PM and will run from June 16th to October 20th.
§ Saturdays will remain at 7:00 AM to 1:00 PM and will begin May 15th.
§ One of the great perks of being an Art & About member is that any paid member may sign up to exhibit at the farmers market—free of charge! The club pays the $100.00 yearly fee and Art & About members may use the space.
§ We would like as many, if not all, of the time slots to be filled—you may have the space to yourself or you may share with another member. Just remember to display the Art & About sign at your booth / table.
§ Sign up will begin next month, as Barb will bring a sign up sheet to the next meeting. Please see Barb for any questions about the farmers market and PLEASE do not just show up to the market—make arrangements with her. She is our spokesperson and all assignments must go through Barb.

Directory:
Heidi Dahlberg has been kind enough to put together an Art & About directory--which looks great, by the way! If you haven’t already contacted Heidi with your info—please do so. Thanks!

Dues
§ Art & About dues is due at anytime. Please either pay your dues at our next meeting or send the yearly fee of $25.00 ($15.00 for students) to Bonnie Loeh. You can contact Bonnie at: bnloeh@lsol.net

Other news:
§ Amy Zander’s new studio is up and running. It is located in her backyard! Her husband built it for her—what a nice guy!
§ Also, Tom Chermake, who organizes Metro Jam, would like to have an art component to this year’s Jam. It is usually around the second weekend in June. If anyone would be interested in doing something like that—contact Tom Chermake or speak to Kim.
§ The Bead and Button Show will be in Milwaukee on June 14th. According to Kim it is a lots of fun and just plain crazy-good if you are a bead lover. A number of people already said they would like to go—we are planning to have several van-fulls of people. If you’d like to go, or drive, let us know. Still lots of time before June, but according to Kim, you better save up now!
§ Paula Radl brought up a very cool thing she has come across—using old cigarette machines as art vending! What a cool idea! She is going to look into finding one that the group can purchase / restore and maybe we could do something with it!
§ Kim is looking into buying the group a domain name so we don’t have to have such a big handle for our blogspot—which is: www.artandabout54220.blogspot.com I’d personally like to see the zip code removed—as many of our members do not actually live in the city of Manitowoc.
§ Go to Stump-Jack’s to see Nate Walkner’s show—opening this weekend. Something with the word ‘orama’ in it—should be good.
§ Also, if you’d like a little night music—go to the Courthouse Pub on February 20th beginning at 10:00 PM to see Adam Morantez per his wife Dani who will hopefully be a new member of the group. Also, they will both be at the Health and Wellness fair.
§ Art & About will have a booth at the UW extension on April 18th from 10 – 2. The booth will be about recycled art and there will be a recycle-type art project for people to make—paper beads.
§ Kim was invited to participate in the “All things Strange and Wonderful” event at Horrace Mann middle school. She’ll be doing some cool art.

Next meeting:
§ Wednesday, March 11th at 6:00 at the Rahr-West. See you there!

That’s all for now.

Note: if there are ever any corrections or additions to be made to these notes—please let me know or feel free to email the group with the corrected information. Thanks!

Respectfully submitted by:

Jo of Art