Monday, November 14, 2011

Overview

November 2011
LAKE TOXAWAY ESTATES ART GUILD

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE: For the LTEAG to provide members with access to workshops, art appreciation, field trips, demonstrations, and a means of exhibiting and selling their work. Also, to promote art and good will among artists in Lake Toxaway Estates.

OVERVIEW: We had 41 paid members in 2011 and seem to be steadily growing in number. Annual dues are currently $20 per year. A person must be a property owner in LTE to belong. Our activities are seasonal from May to October, although member artists who live here year round might have some art related activities. Our activities fall into five categories:
--Monthly Meetings
--Formal Art Workshops
--Monthly rotating member exhibit in LTCC
--Annual Art Show in early October
--Periodic informal small group painting and learning sessions

DETAILS ON THESE FIVE CATEGORIES:

1.MONTHLY MEETINGS
--Third Thursday of the month, May-October, 9:30am-11:30am
--Meet in the community room at the Methodist Church
--Short business meeting
--Guest artist to present, discuss, and generally demonstrate various aspects of painting (oils, pastels, etc.)
--Program topics in 2011 included pastels, landscape in oils, transparent glazing techniques, illustrating children’s books, and painting portraits

2. FORMAL ART WORKSHOPS
--Generally 3 day workshops, Tuesday –Thursday or Wednesday – Friday
--Try to schedule them on the second week of the month to avoid conflict with
the Garden Club meeting or the LTE Art Guild meeting
--Cost is usually $50-75 per person per day, so the instruction is very reasonable
--All of our artist instructors are non-members, usually form WNC or Atlanta
--Workshop topics in 2011 included two on pastels, painting landscapes in oils,
and multi-media techniques
--Workshops tentatively scheduled for 2012 include pastels, painting landscapes
in oils, and drawing and sketching

3.MONTHLY MEMBER ROTATING EXHIBIT IN LTCC
--With the help of LTCC we exhibit 15-20 paintings each month
--Each month we try to have 4-5 members present their work to give everyone a chance
--We (and LTCC) have received very positive response from members during this season, which was our first with this program.

4. ANNUAL ART SHOW IN EARLY OCTOBER
--The show is a 2 day show with a formal opening reception on Monday evening
which will be October 8 in 2012
--Approximately 25-30 LTEPG members will exhibit 125-135 paintings
--The show fills the entire main dining room at LTCC
--The Guild members provide heavy appetizers and wine for the guests
--For any painting sold, the Guild member contributes 15% to charity

5. PERIODIC SMALL GROUP PAINTING AND LEARNING SESSIONS
--Several days each month 5-6 Guild members will get together at the church or at someone’s home to paint
--Also, 3-4 times per season, Mrs. Coningsby conducts one day workshops,
usually on pastels for both beginners and advanced artists.
--In 2012 we hope to have several more of these small group learning sessions on
such topics as selling your art on the Internet, downloading photo images to your
computer, using Adobe Photo Shop, etc.

Minutes of the October Meeeting 2011

October 13, 2011
LTE ART GUILD MEETING NOTES—2012 IDEAS

ACTION/TOPIC/IDEA

IMPORTANT NOTE: Many of the ideas are just that—thoughts to be evaluated and discussed before deciding what and how to change things in 2012. We plan to discuss and decide on potential improvements early in our 2012 season.

A. 2012 FALL ART SHOW –The Monday date is OCTOBER 8 (not Oct. 1)
1. Physical arrangement—definitely keep the 2011 layout of screens and food tables, and the separate Title cards posted by each art piece.
2. Extend art show hours from Sunday afternoon (3:00pm) through Tuesday (5:00pm)
Sunday 9am-11:30am—team sets up display screens
11:30am –artists deliver their work and team hangs art
3:00pm—Shows opens as “preview” for anyone to come see art
(Idea: invite Greystone management to host a special
preview event for an hour during this period)
Monday 9:00am-5:00pm –preview continues for anyone to visit
5:30-7:30pm—official reception with food, etc.
Tuesday 9:00am-5:00pm—art exhibit continues to be open for visitors
Wednesday 9:00am-11:00am artists pick up their work
11:00am Team dismantles display screens
3. Food- at official opening reception on Monday evening
Consider having only wine and cheese and not food to be discussed more as a possibility
4. Publicity—significantly expand the pre-show publicity and add more posters in and around the exhibit. We will continue to have the challenge of expanding our
attendance with selected audiences without really opening it up to the general public (since we are furnishing food and drink and not charging admission).
(a) Posters (2 ft. by 3 ft) at a few key locations at Lake Toxaway—announcing the show, highlight description of our guild, and our charitable contributions aspect of the sales at the show.
(b) Publicity Flyers (8x10) announcing the show, describing who we are as an art guild, and mentioning the charitable aspects of our show.
Posting these flyers in such locations as:
--Pro shops at LTCC, Burlingame, Sapphire Valley
--Greystone (main room and spa)
--Cedar Creek (toward Cashiers)
--Outdoor Resorts office
--Brown Trout and Amore)
(c) Art show announcements in July, August and September LTCC newsletters and LTCA newsletters
(d) LTCA Email “broadcast” in September emphasizing the show and dates.
(e) Postcards –the idea is to form a “mailing committee” and have each member mail 5-10 postcards to many or most LTCA members (coordinating so there is no duplication)
5. Outside Special Guests
(a) Invite 3-6 interior designers from Brevard, Cashiers, and Highlands to attend;
maybe provide each with a name badge and designation of “Special Guest”.
(b) Invite 3-6 leading real estate brokers in Brevard, Cashiers, and Highlands to attend;
maybe with special name badges also. When these people sell someone a house, their
customers often want to purchase new artwork for their new “mountain house” and may
want to contact our Art Guild (maybe a designated contact person?) to buy art
(c) Invite 3-6 artists who have done programs and/or workshops for our guild in last
three years to participate by exhibiting one painting each for sale.
6. Raffle a Painting
(a) Maybe 4-6 Guild members volunteer to donate a very good painting, and then we
draw one name out of a hat to impartially select the one Guild member to donate.
(b) At a special table at the door (s) sell raffle tickets for a nominal amount ($5 or $10)
and then draw a winning number at 7:30pm at the Monday reception so someone wins
the painting. This might add a modest degree of sizzle and be something new.
7. Size of Title/Price cards—last year badge size vs. slightly larger size for ease of reading??
8. Art Show Master List—Create a Show Master List (locate at reception desk with all entries arranged by artist
9. Welcome Door Strategy (not two doors)—currently people enter the show through
the front door and the 19th hole door. We can consider placing a sign on 19th hole door a along the lines of “Please Enter Show at Front Door” so we can have welcome
information, raffle sales, taking checks for sale of art, etc., at only ONE point.
10. Lake Toxaway Charity Banner /Poster—in welcome entry or in room to thank the Art Guild for donating 15% of sales to their charities.
11. Price split with charities-explicitly state in the show application how much each artist will give to charity or to specific charities—Lake Toxaway or other non-profit. In other words, make this a formal agreement rather than an informal understanding.
B. 2012 GUILD COMMITTEES
(1) At May and June meetings, Judy pass around 3-4 signup sheets, one for each of major committees, to get more participation in Guild activities of our 41 members
(2) For each committee Chairman, have one person serve as Asst. Chairman to provide
backup and share the workload
(3) Consider forming a 4-5 person Telephone Committee—each one to call
6-8 Guild members a few days before each meeting to remind them of the meeting
(4) Publicity Committee Chairman—this is a key role responsible for designing and
implementing our expanded publicity program along the lines mentioned in A-4 above.
Improved collaboration with the LTCA is very important rather than just relying on
LTCC newsletters since many property owners do not belong to the club.
C. COLLABORATION WITH LTCC OWNERSHIP / LAKE TOXAWAY CO.
(1) Prepare a “Value of the Art Guild to LTCC /Lake Toxaway Company” to educate and increase their appreciation of the art community here. We should be viewed as a valuable recreational aspect in the same spirit as golf, croquet, and back porch bible study. Our cost to them is basically zero and many prospective home buyers might find our outstanding Art Guild activities and workshops as a big attraction.
(2) Increase their support of our joint activities such as the Monthly LTCC/Guild exhibit and the Annual Art Show.
--Commit to the Sunday through Wednesday Art Show schedule
--Continue to actively help set up the Monthly Guild /LTCC exhibit
--Improvements in Monthly Guild Exhibit such as:
-Installation of “art lighting” to improve the lighting on the artwork in the hall
--Adding the price or NFS to each of the title cards beside the artwork
-Or, a master list of each month’s art being displayed on the table with the artwork and not in the other building—for the 15-20 pieces the list would show
name of artist, title of painting, medium, size and price.
--Perhaps a 2ft x 3ft poster on an easel with highlights about the Guild and the
exhibit.
NOTE: This was done on Oct. 20—Judy and Jim met with David Dew, Bruce Furman, and Laura Johnson to discuss in detail our two cooperative programs (monthly exhibit and annual show) and how we and LTCC might work together to make both even better in 2012. It was a very positive meeting with several next steps identified to be worked on during the winter

D. 2012 TOXAWAY SPECIAL SHOW IN BREVARD AT TCARTS
We will have a special All-Toxaway Guild show in the Transylvania Center for the Arts (TCARTS) in July 2012. We can exhibit work by all our members similar to the Annual
Art Show. We need to work with LTCA to make all our residents aware of this show.
E. 2012 INVITE BURLINGAME RESIDENTS TO BE ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
(1) Invite any Burlingame resident to join LTE Art Guild in 2012 as an Associate Member,
which is a new, restricted membership category.
(2) Annual fee would be $15.
(3) Assoc. Members can attend all LTE Guild meetings, sign up for any Guild workshop with
equal priority to regular members.
(4) Associate members cannot participate in 2012 in the Annual Art Show, but would be
encouraged to attend and enjoy the event.
(5) Maybe someone like Barb Milford could serve as the “Burlingame point of contact”.
F. 2012 LTE ART GUILD WORKSHOPS –TENTATIVE SCHEDULE
June 20 or 22 1 day To be determined Drawing and Sketching
July 18-19-20 3 day Bill Jameson Oils-Landscape
Aug 8-9-10(?) 3 day Elsie Dresch Pastels
Sept. 12-13-14 3 day Paul deMarrais Pastels

G. 2012 LTE ART GUILD PROGRAMS—POTENTIAL TOPICS
Jim Hefley is sending a list of 17 topics as potential programs (discussions and demos) for our 2012 program. He is asking each guild member to rank his/her top 10 topics according to each one’s individual interest. At the Oct. 13 meeting eleven members did this on a paper form. Karen has just forwarded an email from Jim asking the other 30 members to do the same electronically. He then can prioritize based on this member input, and work this winter to line up appropriate subject matter artist
experts for our 2012 programs. He communicates with the program chairperson(s) of the Art League of Henderson County, Appalachian Pastel Society, and the Connestee Falls Art Guild to exchange ideas on art programs.