ACGA BLOG

I have sad news to share with the ACGA community. Chris Esparza passed away unexpectedly during the first weekend of August. Many ACGA artists will remember Chris as the head of Giant Creative. He and his team worked with us to produce the ACGA Clay & Glass Festival in Palo Alto for nine years, from 2013 through 2021. I learned a lot from working with him and appreciate the ways he and Giant Creative helped us to improve the event over time.

More about Chris and his contributions to local culture can be found here: San Jose cultural leader’s death shocks community

Present: Mari Emori, Chris Johnson, April Zilber, Julie Taber, Sally Jackson (recorder), Jan Schachter, Susie Rubenstein, Lee Middleman, Trudy Chiddix, Barbara Prodaniuk, Ren Lee, Vicki Gunter, Emil Yanos, Scott Jennings, Tamara Danoyan, Iver Hennig, Cheryl Costantini    Absent: Sonja Hinrichsen

Guests: Sean Alcala, Piper Christine

The meeting began at 5:20pm

Welcome (Mari)

Mari introduced two guests for this evening’s meeting, ACGA members Sean Alcala (glass) and Piper Christine (clay).

Promoting the ACGA Google Group (Jan)

Jan uses our ACGA GoogleGroup frequently to post news and other items of interest to our members.  She finds it very easy to use and encourages all of us to take advantage of this great resource.   Instructions for use are posted at the bottom of every issue of our newsletter, but we will post them more prominently occasionally to bring more members on board as users.

Regional Exhibition in Fresno Update (Ren)

The deadline to apply to “Above Board”, a regional exhibition in Fresno, has been extended to encourage more entries from ACGA artists.  Ren will arrange collection points for accepted work in the Bay Area for those who might be unable to deliver or pick up their work in Fresno. Mari has offered to transport the collected work to Fresno. Ren encourages all ACGA artists to apply as we are currently underrepresented in the applicant pool. She will send out reminders this week and next.

Festival Reports

1. Overall Festival Report (April)

Reconciled sales totals are not in yet, but total sales in 2024 (with 124 artists) were slightly lower than in 2023 (with 110 artists). However, both years have been great overall.  The new throwdown competitions were popular and well-attended, while the 10 a.m. demos were poorly attended.  We’ll move them to 11 a.m. next year.  The Giveaway Table did not receive any donations, but the Language of Clay booklets that April brought from ACGA storage were all taken. The new checkout arrangement needs adjustments next year to run more smoothly.  Annie of Messenger Events will remeasure the festival grounds next year to improve the layout and spacing of booths based on input from the Palo Alto Art Center.

2. People’s Choice Award (Barbara)

The QR code that allowed visitors to vote for their favorite booths was visible at each booth, but many artists were hesitant to mention it, or they forgot to mention it, or they simply weren’t worried about whether people vote. In any case there were only about 70 votes total, fewer than last year.  The Board discussed whether this award is important enough to continue – does it engage the public, boost attendance or sales, connect artists?  What is the best way to get more people to vote? Further discussion is needed.

3. Pottery Throwdown (Mari)

Mari gave special thanks to Vicki and Iver for volunteering to emcee the throwdown competitions.  Both of them did an excellent job making the event lively, fun, and interesting for the audience. Mari also pointed out that all but one contestant were non-members, making this a good outreach opportunity for ACGA.

4. Zoom Workshop: Festival Jury Application & Festival Participation (Mari)

Mari proposed Zoom meetings to help artists prepare for the jury application process and for the festival when they become eligible.  She envisions meetings with experienced festival members mentoring those who have questions.  Several Board members agreed to help set up a meeting ahead of the next jurying deadline on October 15.

Defining Collaborative Membership (Emil)

The current draft of ACGA’s Collaborative Membership definition reads, in part, “Two artists whose individual contributions interact to create the artistic identity of more than 50% of a body of work. Assisting or working under the direction of the artist does not qualify as collaboration . . . .”  The Board discussed small edits, and Vicki volunteered to reword the definition to make it clearer.  A revised version will be presented to the Board for further review before it is approved.

Membership for Larger Businesses, Membership Leniency (Sally for James Aarons)

The Board received a letter from member James Aarons on August 18 advocating for a clear and broad definition of membership status and eligibility for festival participation.  He urges a measured degree of flexibility for members whose dues lapse. More importantly, he urges the Board to come up with a clear, broad definition of festival eligibility that includes larger clay and glass studios with helpers.  The Board will discuss these issues further at a later meeting. In the meantime, Mari requested that Board members carefully review the letter and share their thoughts before the next meeting.

Financial Report (Julie)

We currently have over $100,000 in bank accounts with total assets at $148,000.  Festival expenses are still being reconciled, but currently we show $28,000 net revenue for January-July 2024.

Best Use of Donation by James Meyer (Chris)

ACGA has received a generous offer from James Meyer to donate $1000 annually. The Board discussed possible ways to use this gift, but agreed that concrete proposals need more time and thought.  We will address this again at our next meeting.

The meeting adjourned at 6:55pm

 Next meeting: September 30, 2024   (NOTE: This is not the usual 3^rd Monday)

ACGA BOARD MEETING – JUNE 17, 2024 via Zoom

Present: Mari Emori, April Zilber, Sally Jackson (recorder), Lee Middleman, Ren Lee, Scott Jennings, Julie Taber, Susie Rubenstein, Jan Schachter, Emil Yanos, Tamara Danoyan, Vicki Gunter, Iver Hennig, Barbara Prodaniuk, Chris Johnson, Cheryl Costantini, Trudy Chiddix  Absent: Sonja Hinrichsen

The meeting began at 5:30pm

Welcome (Mari)

Mari expressed gratitude to all the Festival and Communications Committee members who are working to organize the Clay & Glass Festival in Palo Alto on July 13-14.  She especially thanked April and Ren for their leadership and hard work.

Financial Report (Julie)

Total assets as of May 30 were $134,030.  May was an expensive month as we covered costs of the festival.  Our total revenue for the year thus far is just under $7000, somewhat ahead of our budget.

Festival Report (April)

April expressed her gratitude for all the work that Ren is doing to promote and publicize the festival. She noted that the planning committee has generated some excellent new ideas for this year’s festival, but cautioned that new ideas create extra work and complications.  At this late date, we should save any new ideas for next year.  April showed mock-ups of the new feather flags in purple and yellow, as well as the new banners for Mitchell Park, the Embarcadero overpass, and the new information kiosk.  Ren has done most of the work on this.  Barbara is working on the People’s Choice Awards. One clay artist and one glass artist will each receive a ribbon and a certificate.  There are currently 127 artists signed up for the festival, many of whom are new.  Susie has edited the Artists Feedback Form, and Julie will help her turn it into a GoogleForm.  April will reenable the JotForm that captures names of people for our mailing list so that we can do a random drawing for a gift certificate giveaway at the festival.  Cheryl suggested that names can also be captured in the artists’ booths, and they will be, because the QR code will be on the booth signs and all artists will have paper mailing lists as well. April will alter the paper mailing list forms next time they are printed, adding a column to indicate something like “ACGA list only” or “Artist’s list only”.  Our website now includes a full roster of festival artists in alphabetical order with their booth number, a small photo, and a link to their Instagram or other account. This display will be reusable in future years.  Mari thanked Emil for making beautiful graphics and videos for the festival ads; Pam Carpenter, our webmaster, for making an additional Festival page upon request; and Susie for collaborating with Pam as Website Liaison to update and improve the ACGA website.  April has sent out the templates that Emil created for artists to use on social media and email announcements. Demo slots and ikebana slots are almost full.  We are still working out details for the throwdown competitions, but agreed to have one session each day in the afternoon.  Handmade ceramic trophies will be generously provided by Mikio Matsumoto of Nichibei Potters. Board members Vicki Gunter and Iver Hennig will emcee the throwdowns.  Iver will help coordinate the event based on past experiences.  Mari encouraged all of us to recruit contestants.

Exhibition Update (Ren)

The exhibitions team (Jan Schachter, Vicki Gunter, Iver Hennig, Tamara Danoyan, and Ren Lee) met via Zoom to create a Call for Entry on EntryThingy. Ren made the recommended revisions and Julie Taber created the PayPal integration.

In order to install the Call for Entry on our website, Ren provided content to Pam Carpenter and asked her to set up a notice on the ACGA Homepage with a link to the exhibition page.

By mid-August the Call for Entry will be live. It will be shared via MailChimp email to ACGA members, San Joaquin Clay & Glass Association Members, and Clay Hand Studios.  It will be posted to the ACGA Google Group and there will be links to the ACGA website exhibition page from the SJCGA website and the Clay Hand Studios website.

Collaborative Membership (Mari)

Mari informed the Membership Committee that they would meet after the festival and before the August Board meeting to finalize the proposal on Collaborative Membership.  This meeting is necessary because the next fall jury will open on September 1st. Mari explained that Collaborative Membership is a special category under General Membership, designed specifically for artists participating in the festival.  The situation has become increasingly complex due to inquiries from artists with more unique circumstances.

Next Meeting:  Monday, August 19, 2024, at 5:15 pm via Zoom.