Present: Mari Emori, Sally Jackson (recorder), Julie Taber, April Zilber, Cheryl Costantini, Lee Middleman, Emil Yanos, Sean Free Alcala, Jan Schachter, Ren Lee, Susie Rubenstein, Tamara Danoyan, Barbara Prodaniuk, Iver Hennig, Scott Jennings, Piper Christine.
Absent: Vicki Gunter, Chris Johnson. Guest: Barbara Savage.
The meeting began at 5:15pm.
Welcome (Mari)
Mari and Jan are working to update the ACGA Mission Statement on our website. They will share a revised statement for approval by the Board in the coming weeks. Mari asked the communications team to keep the homepage up-to-date at all times. Mari asked whether the registration form on the website could require physical addresses and digital marketing links such as Instagram or Facebook to help with regional mapping and grouping, since many addresses are missing from our proprietary membership database. The Board discussed how publishing personal information such as address, email, or phone number could have implications for privacy and it was suggested that requiring only city and zip code might be sufficient for the artists’ profiles. Ren emphasized that we need all the data for where our members are located in our proprietary database and that there is no plan or suggestion that we should publish personal information. Emil will follow up with our website administrator to update requirements for the registration form and artist profile pages.
Mari let the board know that Piper is preparing the 2025 Festival Sales Report and will share it with the membership as soon as possible.
Nomination/Self-Nomination for the Board of Directors 2026 (Mari)
There will be four seats open on the Board at the end of the year. Nominations for new Board Members are open until November 23. The election will take place December 1-28 and results will be announced by December 31. Mari introduced guest Barbie Savage and announced that she would like to be on the ballot. Barbie is a ceramicist, retired from many years teaching high school ceramics, and now teaches at Clay Hands Studio in Fresno. Several other ACGA members have also expressed willingness to be nominated.
Jury Update (Scott)
The Fall 2025 jury is underway. Of the 31 applicants, 30 work with clay and one works with glass. The five jurors will make their decisions in time for an announcement in our November newsletter. Scott noted that he’s been able to help several applicants with their presentations. He also expressed his appreciation for Tamara Danoyan’s help in getting things organized.
All-Member Meeting – January 2026 (Mari)
The Board discussed whether to have the All-Member Meeting as a hybrid meeting like our last one, or explore other models like in-person only and Zoom only. The general consensus was to conduct a hybrid meeting from the Palo Alto Art Center as we did in January 2025.
Exhibitions: General
Mari proposed an honorarium for those who organize exhibitions since it’s such a huge amount of work. The exhibition committee will meet to discuss and propose a policy. Cheryl will contact Sebastopol Center for the Arts, following up on a proposed exhibition that Jan and Sally discussed with them earlier this year. Jan added that ACGA member Pierre Bounaud will be organizing an exhibition of Southern California member artists in the coming months at Studio Door, a gallery in San Diego.
Exhibitions: “Fiber & Fire” Update (Jan)
The show “Fiber and Fire” is coming together in collaboration with fiber/Dimensions, a Bay Area organization of fiber artists. ACGA member Deb Sullivan is working on the logistics and all that goes with that. The deadline to apply is mid-November and the show will be February-March 2026 at the Sausalito Center for the Arts.
Exhibitions: Santa Cruz Show (Iver)
Preparations continue for an exhibition of California ceramics at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, to be held September 2026-January 2027. The show will include 20 invited artists and about 40 juried artists. California potters and sculptors are encouraged to apply between April 1-May 1, 2026.
Exhibitions: Arts of Fire (Mari)
“Arts of Fire”, organized by Board Member Vicki Gunter, earned $3290 in income. Expenses were $2391 and ACGA’s net income was $898. Eight pieces sold during the exhibition, totaling $7305, an excellent outcome. The exhibition added 8 new ACGA members.
Financial Report, Moving Funds, 2026 Budget (Julie)
ACGA’s assets as of September 30 are $159,000. Julie will send each committee a report of its income and expenses for the year-to-date so that they can generate their budgets for next year. Julie is looking into moving some of our assets into higher interest-earning accounts and will report more at the November board meeting.
The meeting adjourned at 6:45 pm
Next meeting: Monday, November 17, 2025 via Zoom
