A talkative July 2009 meeting of Whitchurch Arts; That's Jude in the purple jacket.
Most of this month’s meeting at the White Hart was taken up talking about Off the Walls (OTW). Paintings and pictures are now on the walls at White Hart, Watership Down and Serenity. More venues will be decorated in the coming weeks. The Gill Nethercott Centre was to get one hung but concern about hidden electrical wiring has delayed it — Geoff offered to help by using his detector.
Consideration needs to be given to having a venue-crawl or at least a grand opening / unveiling once most of the paintings/pictures are on the walls.
Andrew tabled a motion, it was seconded by Geoff, to elect Jude Price to head up the Off the Walls project – the vote was unanimous (8 votes, not including Jude). Jude presented some of her ideas, including one for a general info brochure about Off the Walls – which was decided a good idea; and perhaps to expand it into a more general brochure about Whitchurch Arts and its activities. John will go and have a play with that idea.
Meanwhile, the paintings that are hung need some kind of description nearby: Artist name, Whitchurch Arts name/logo, and price (there was debate about whether to put a price or just a reference number; price won out). John already had a play with that idea and a variety of sizes is possible: 5×7″ frame, 2×3″ (approx) frame, or just a business card sized paper. Consensus was around business card size so it doesn’t distract from the photo/painting, and if just blue-tack is used to hold it to the wall then it can be repositioned without having to bang more holes in the wall when the painting/photo is changed for a different sized one. The paper should have a printed frame, rather than an actual frame. A template could be developed and filled in by Jude (then John or Andrew could print a bunch out).
A set of rules for OTW is required; and should be published on this website. e.g. to make clear who owns the works, how they are to be sold, how long they will remain on the walls (3 months, then reviewed to see if should move to a new venue). A mailing list for off the walls should also be set up.
Other things (it was a long meeting!):
- The annual general meeting for Whitchurch Arts will be Tuesday Sept 22 at 7:30pm (venue either White Hart or Gill Nethercott Centre – to be confirmed)
- Our draft constitution needs to be finalised and voted upon at the AGM
- The dates for the next meetings were set:
- Wednesday, Aug 19, 7:30pm (White Hart)
- Tuesday, Sept 22, 7:30pm – AGM (White Hart)
- Wednesday, Oct 21, 7:30pm (White Hart)
- Tuesday, Nov 17, 7:30pm (White Hart)
- Wednesday, Dec 16, 7:30pm (White Hart) – perhaps a Christmas arty dinner?
- Jude mentioned an art rental company called LittleVanGogh might we worth contacting regarding renting some of our members art to offices.
- No official news (Eric wasn’t present) about last Thursday’s steering group meeting for the Art Project, so John doesn’t know the latest on the Bollards proposal. It is heard that Whitchurch Association, and not Whitchurch Arts would administer any funding from the Art Project SEEDA funding (can you believe that project has been kicking around for TWO YEARS already without awarding any local artist!? Perhaps its time for Whitchurch Arts to consider doing its own thing as well?)
- Graham’s garden at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show was a stunning success — his garden, which included art from numerous Whitchurch residents and Whitchurch Arts members, won a bronze medal. Congratulations!! A feature on it will be in the Hampshire Chronicle in the weeks to come.
- Display stands are needed for shows – a decision from Graham and Eric is required
- Earth Hour takes place on 27 March 2010 — there was agreement that Whitchurch Arts shall do another event. There is talk of having a sustainability conference / show either on the same date or the week before (Beth who runs a monthly sustainability meeting is talking with John about all this)
- Hallowe’en and Guy Fawkes – there is early-stage investigation going on for having a fireworks evening in Whitchurch around Hallowe’en / Guy Fawlkes night. Whitchurch Arts is interested in doing a pumpkin carving and Guy competition
- The Gill Nethercott Centre manager is keen to have people hold workshops there – Jude was thinking of giving a workshop on lantern making; Andrew is considering a beginner’s guide to online photography using Picasa and Gallery3 plus how geo-tagging photos is done (and how to put them into Google Earth)
- Recycled Art on the Meadow is being planned for Wednesday 26th August
- Creative Sleep-over on the Meadow (and moon-watching) is being discussed for early September — some kind of creative, artistic input require — John
- Whitstock music show coming on Fri/Sat Aug 28/29
- Look for the Open Studios around Whitchurch again this August
- A road-trip to visit the Royal Academy of Arts at Picadilly, London was suggested by Geoff
- Rob, a poet, is keen to work with Andrew to combine photos with poetry. Andrew is keen too!
Tags: Meetings, Scribbles, White Hart