• Present: Mari Emori, April Zilber, Cheryl Costantini, Susie Rubenstein, Sean Alcala, Ren Lee, Emil Yanos, Barbara Prodaniuk, Iver Hennig, Lee Middleman, Vicki Gunter, Britt Jensen, Pierre Bounaud, Piper Christine, Jan Schachter, Tamara Danoyan, Julie Taber, Haley Tessler, Chris Johnson
  • Absent: –

The meeting began at 5:15 PM and ended at 6:50 PM.

Welcome (Mari) 

  • Mari welcomed everyone
  • Show announcements: 
    • Jan and Lee both have Open Studios May 2 – 3
    • Barbara has a solo show at the Pence March 13 – April 26
    • Many ACGA members have pieces at a show in Davis April 3 – 27 : “Menagerie” at The Artery

Financial Report (Julie)

  • $170k in the bank, but a lot of this will be used for Festival 
  • $42k in fidelity investments
  • -$8k income in March because most money came in during Festival registration (December- February)
  • Total operating revenue for this year $33k and we budgeted $8k – likely due to the fact that Festival income came in earlier this year
  • Julie finished tax returns 
    • Any board member who received a 1099 should be listed in the tax return 
  • Julie looked into moving money over to a CapitalOne investment account, but decided it was not worth it – they have a 3 month promotional rate (3.8%) and then it goes way down (~2%)
  • Julie thinks maybe we should do a CD ladder to give us a little extra income and we can do this at Bank of America so it doesn’t require the hassle of moving banks
    • We would qualify for the nonprofit account, but it’s really not very different from a regular account 

Presentation of RFP for new website (Julie)

  • On our current website the membership system and payment systems do not communicate well; Pam has looked into a lot of different options for us with WordPress, but there isn’t really any good option
  • Julie has drafted an RFP that we can put out in our newsletter and on our website to have someone design a new website for us with membership and payment systems that are well integrated; she also noted that it would be great to have Festival and jury registration all in one place
    • Mari, Emil, Ren, April, Piper, and James have all reviewed the RFP
  • The board voted and unanimously agrees we should redo the website and circulate the RFP 
  • Discussion on member profiles: 
    • Julie wonders if we need to have a member profile login or if we can just have something populate with their website, social media, etc. when they first sign up to be a member
    • There was general agreement on this strategy, but April noted it would be important to clarify to members that not ALL contact info would be shown to public 
    • There was also discussion of how helpful it would be to be able to find members based on region 
  • Vicki brought up that the Clay Studio in Philadelphia seems to have everything in one place all connected and that it may be worth contacting them to learn how they did that

Google drive update (Britt)

  • Britt presented the new structure for the board’s shared Google Workspace, but needs to do some more work to make sure files that get transferred into these folders are “owned” by the board’s workspace for posterity and to free up Google Drive space on everyone’s personal drive. 
  • An email will be sent out next week with more details on accessing the drive and instructions on how to move files over

Festival Report 

General updates (April)

  • 136 artists in show and 3 on waitlists
  • 10-11 community groups 
  • Approved MegaJewell’s first press release 
  • April received the contract from Palo Alto Art Center and will review shortly 
  • Mari clarified that board members are exempt from doing festival jobs
    • April said she emailed Laura about making sure board members are not included on festival jobs list, but has not heard back
    • Anyone who did sign up can cancel using the same link  
  • Mari encouraged everyone to be active on the board 
    • Pierre said he would like to organize an exhibition next year in Southern California 
    • Hayley is interested in exhibitions as well 

Festival treasurer’s report (Piper)

  • Finances are going well, nothing new to report 
  • Cheryl asked if we’re leaving money on the table with the 10×20 booths, but April clarified that there isn’t enough space right now, so we’ll consider offering them later if people drop out 
  • Piper said more people registered for premium spaces who didn’t receive them and Piper will refund or offer waitlist for premium space 

Throwdown update (Mari)

  • We had 20 people on waitlist from last year
  • We have a new throwdown coordinator – Jennifer Henning
  • Jennifer sent out an invitation to first 12 people on waitlist from last year and will continue working down the list if some of those people can’t do it
  • We already have a great trophy that Iver made last year as backup 
  • Clay People is donating all clay for clay-related activities as well as 2nd- and 3rd-place prizes for throwdown  
  • Iver brought up that it would be really nice to have a wireless headset so it’s easier for MC to walk around and measure while still announcing – Chris said he has one we can use 

Gift for Forrest Merrill (April)

  • Mari proposed we use Ren’s idea from last meeting to thank Forrest Merrill
    • An ACGA clay award at ACGA-hosted exhibitions in his honor of Forrest Merrill 
    • We could also add a glass award in honor of James Meyer who donates $1000 to ACGA ACGA-hosted exhibition 
  • Jan asked how we would select a juror for the award – April clarified it would be the same person who chooses 1st, 2nd, and 3rd at each exhibition where the award is given 
  • April wants to make sure it’s clear that the award isn’t being given by him, but in honor of him – will need to come up with a good name 
  • Potential names
    • ACGA’s Forrest Merrill Award for Clay
    • ACGA’s James Meyer Award for Glass 
    • Note: Ren feels strongly that we not use the apostrophes 
  • Alternative ideas: 
    • Cheryl points out that we should check with Forrest about using his name and wonders if a gift certificate to a nice meal would be better 
    • Lee proposes we invite him to the party on Saturday at the festival and someone speaks about his contribution 
    • Mari proposed a gift certificate to purchase work at the festival 
    • Susie proposes planting a tree somewhere in his honor 
  • Conclusion: Cheryl will reach out to Mark Goudy who knows Forrest well and will discuss what would be appropriate to honor him

Festival Jury (Tamara/Britt)

  • Tamara and Britt have set up monthly meetings to begin planning the jury process for this fall and Scott Jennings will be joining the next meeting so they can pick his brain
  • Tamara and Britt met with Randie about doing a Zoom mentoring session before the application is due, but Randie can’t take this on so they will organize a jury mentoring session themselves for sometime in August and may invite others to join and offer their guidance

Exhibitions Report

NuMu in Los Gatos (Vicki)

  • No updates, but Emil and Vicki are working on it

SILICA SiO2: Northern California Ceramics in Santa Cruz (Iver)

  • 10 more days to apply to the show
  • Iver will be helping Stan Welsh with the jury process in May 
  • Mari brought up that the description was confusing – accepting up to 3 work samples, but what does that mean
    • Can submit up to 3 pieces and 1-3 images per piece 
  • Susie is concerned about the fact that it says only Northern California artists even though we’ve discussed the geographic boundaries and that is not the case. She’s also concerned about shipping situation for those not in the Bay Area
    • Iver is willing to arrange a drop-off at ACGA festival for artists who are not in the Bay Area – he thinks there’s storage in the museum basement 
  • Iver reiterated that CaFE has some limitations and Vicki mentioned that EntryThingy has really improved 
  • Ren will post about the call for entry this week and next 
    • Jan suggests that Ren add a sentence about work transportation for artists not in the Bay Area (i.e. that they may be able to drop work off at the Festival) 

FINELY CRAFTED in Sebastopol (Cheryl)

  • Cheryl had dinner with a number of potters recently and discussed all chipping in to make awards more substantial – $3-5k
    • Note: ACGA doesn’t need to chip in more right now, but Cheryl may come back at some point and ask if we’re willing to contribute more
  • The Sebastopol Center for the Arts wants this to be a big deal show
  • Cheryl is looking for suggestions on glass jurors – email her if you have ideas
  • Show is clay, glass, wood, and metal – they’re choosing the jurors, but are trying to partner with existing orgs like ACGA to each do a specific award 
    • Previously agreed upon ACGA award among $100
  • They will showcase 80-90 pieces 
  • Timeline/details:
    • Call open June 1 – Sept 1
    • Jury sept 2-8
    • Jury results Sept 11
    • Show opens Oct 16
    • In-person drop off Oct 18-20 (but also fine with work being mailed) 
    • Opening Oct 24
    • Take down Nov 30
    • Entry fees $35, $5 for 2 additional entries
  • Ren requests information for May newsletter including explanation of how this is a national show, not just ACGA

Handwork2026 Requests

  • If you want Handwork to announce an event on their social media, announcements are due by 15th of month prior to actual event
    • Can submit through portal or through Barbara 
  • Handwork would like more videos for their website (1-3 min vertical format mp4 files)

Board of Directors Page (Mari)

  • Mari asked James to update Board of Directors page and he suggests highlighting new board members and maybe showing how long board members have served 
  • Everyone agrees we should keep it simple with photo and name, but change the way the link works so that it goes directly to personal website, not ACGA profile 
    • Emil points out that the button will have to change so it isn’t an “About Me” button, but name itself is a hyperlink to instagram or website depending on what the artist wants 
  • Ren called out this is not a high-traffic page and it’s work to keep it updated, so we should keep it simple 
  • Susie thinks we shouldn’t make a big change to this page if we’re going to redesign the website soon 

Mari will be out for her residency during the next two board meetings. Britt and Julie will work together to compile the agenda and Julie will conduct the meetings for May and June. 

Date of next meeting is May 18th, 2026

Minutes prepared by Britt Jensen, ACGA Secretary.