AGM Minutes: April16th 2007

Fenland Visual Art Collective - AGM April 16th 2007.

MINUTES:

Present: Joan Sandford Cook, Norman Ringham, Margaret Ringham, Diane Mainzer, Anita Davies, Yvonne Peace, Carol McEwan, Heather Kinnear, Rob Morris, Richard Edwardson, Jeni Cairns and Gillian Fradley.

Apologies : Sue Munden, Ruth Mason, Martin Megson, Vanessa Champion and Jenny Furlong.

The meeting was started at 7.40pm when a quorum was present.

Members were welcomed to the meeting by our Lady Chair, Anita Davies.

Minutes of the last AGM were agreed as being a true record of proceedings by Anita and this was seconded by Carol McEwan.

Matters Arising
Open Studio (Joan)
On the four weekends of September last year eighteen artists opened their studios in eleven venues to the public. 60-65 was the top attendance of any venue, though the more rural venues were less frequented mostly. It was decided to hold Open Studios in 2007 but that greater effort was needed with publicity. It was decided to keep September as the month to hold Open Studios.

Rose Fair (Joan)
In 2006, during the Rose Fair in Wisbech, members of Fenvac set up work and Fenvac membership information in the Museum Square, for 3 out of the 4 days. Seven members attended the sight over the three days and sketched, chatted to the public about Fenvac and their work. Sue Beale of the Rose Fair Committee has invited us to attend again this time for the full four days in the museum square. It was felt that this was a prime opportunity to publicise Fenvac and promote individual work. It was also decided to interact more with the public by inviting them to paint their own ATC’s of a Rose. These could then be mounted onto a large board and presented to the Macmillan Unit at North Cambs Hospital. Sue Beale is going to check the feasibility of this with her committee at the end of the month.

Christmas Market
Fenvac Members were given the Pump Room to display work for the Christmas Market. As it was away from the main market traffic this was not well attended and the same members as for previous events ended up having do all the work for little return, so an offer for use of the Pump Room was declined.

Charitable status
It was decided at a committee meeting midyear that taking up charity status was not warranted.

Chairwoman’s Report
13th Worldwide Sketch Crawl on March 17th. 2007
This was held in Chatteris, mostly at the museum. This was well attended and more information is on the Blog. Thanks to Jeni and other volunteers for opening the museum for us that day and thanks (as ever) to Rob for his hospitality at lunchtime. The next Sketch Crawl will be on May 17th or 19th (to be decided).

Fenvac Friends
This has been a great way, outside of meetings for members to work together and get to know each other.

Blog
Anita explained the blog, invited members to contribute and reminded everyone to subscribe to ensure they were kept updated.
As Richard Savage pointed out during his time as Chair, communication was a big problem in Fenvac. This has been addressed by starting a dedicated Blog linked to the Fenvac website. Unlike the rather static website which requires specialist administering, the Blog can be updated immediately without expense. Members can submit articles or adverts to post to the blog managers (committee members) and when the committee changes the running of the blog can be handed over without having to seek professional advice. This should ease communication between members.
Membership renewal mail shot
60 members responded to the mail shot sent to them requesting membership renewal.

Anita thanked the committee for supporting her during her year as Chairwoman.

Some members present swapped ATC’s

Treasurer’s Report (Heather)
Fenvac received a grant for the Open Studio’s from Awards for all of £4750 giving a balance of £4849 before expenditure.
Some equipment was bought for Fenvac with funds that were left after paying for leaflets to be printed and the project manager’s (Roger) expenses.
This left an end of year balance of £943.74
£740.99 will be left after renewing Fenvac public liability insurance with SAA and Fenweb were paid for hosting and maintenance of the website for the next 2 years.

Membership Update
There are currently 60 members of Fenvac
50 in response to mail shot
10 online
Of these 60, 17 live in Wisbech, 13 in March, 9 in Chatteris, 4 in Peterborough and 2 in Whittlesey.

Nominations for the committee
Nominations were received and seconded that the Chair, Vice Chair, Treasurer and rest of the Committee remain the same for 2006-7 with the exception of Chris Carr who only attended 2 meetings during his year on the committee and recently stood down.

Chair’s Brief for the coming Year.
Anita told the membership that Fenvac hope to be holding Open Studios again. Funding was acquired from the lottery last time but this is not possible as the same project cannot be funded twice by Awards for All. The committee would be looking into local funding. Nationwide and Coldham Wind Farm may be possibilities. Anita also said we would improve the brochure and publicity this year-approaching TV and radio. She also suggested that we may hold a promotional evening involving the press prior to the start of the Open Studios.

There will be a continuing involvement with March Town Hall with an upcoming exhibition from June 14th-27th to accompany a film festival being held there. Work submitted should be in the style of Movie posters. As it will be pinned to curtains it should be reasonably rigid yet light, and the subject matter somehow tie in with the movie theme.

During the Rose Fair participating members will hopefully engage the public in making ATC’s which will be displayed together on a large board. This is to be confirmed. Only attending members would be able to display work.

Fenvac Friend meetings would continue with meetings posted on the blog. Suggestions from the membership welcome. The first meeting will be at Mepal Outdoor Centre which adults can visit FREE.

The next worldwide Sketchcrawl will be on May 19th, notice to be given on the blog.

Members’ Meetings for 2007/8
All meetings will be held at Bar 23 in March at 7.30 p.m. on:
Monday July 13th, 2007.
Wednesday October 10th , 2007.
Thursday January 24th , 2008.
AGM Wednesday April 30th, 2008.

Classes with Diane Mainzer

DRAWING & PAINTING CLASSES
Tutored by
DIANE MAINZER

ALL ABILITIES CATERED FOR
FREE TASTER SESSION MAY 2nd 11:30 – 1:30
10 WEEK COURSE COMMENCING MAY 9th – JULY 18th
EVERY WEDNESDAY 11:30 – 1:30
Cost £50
INTERESTED!
CONTACT
ELM CENTRE
01945 860046

Elm Centre
Serving the local community
Registered Charity No: 1102723
Main road, Elm, Wisbech, Cambs. PE14 0AG

Art and Soul Magazine

I want to let you all know about Art and Soul Magazine, it comes out monthly and is vibrant and exciting, it covers all aspects of the Arts and is highly creative in its own right. It comes out in magazine form but is also on-line with an open forum where you can air your views, post your own up coming events and upload your work for all other users to see. www.artandsoulmagazine.com

Advertising rates are very reasonable starting from 40 pounds for a 1/4 page, a free advert design service is offered and you go into the paper magazine and online for that price.

If you have any questions or wish to advertise please contact Gillian Fradley on 01733 202570, 07758 709627 or email gillfrad@homecall.co.uk

Gillian Fradley

Link Exchange

If you are a member of FenVAC, have a personal art website and would like it added to the links section on this blog, first copy and paste the FenVAC NOW! link into your website and then contact me, ANITA DAVIES with your link or leave it in the comment section of this post.

Today I arranged a link exchange with the SAA. Fenland Visual Arts Collective is listed under the heading 'Art Clubs & Societies'.

Mepal Sketchday - 18 April '07

Joan, Anita, Diane, Yvonne and Richard had a great day, albeit a tad breezy!

Above are some of the photographs and sketches created on the day.

Plein Air at Mepal

On Wednesday 18th April myself, Joan and Diane will be at Mepal Outdoor Centre from 10am with our sketch bags in tow...Anyone wishing to join us is more than welcome!

Entrance to the centre is FREE for adults and there are hot and cold drink machines on the premises averaging between 40p-60p per cup/can.

Subjects include a lake, boats, trees, shrubs and childrens playpark (including sand pit) as well as the buildings with their distinctive tent top roof structures.

We will be on location until approx. 2pm.

Entrance per child is £2.50 and there is lots to keep them occupied.

Hope to see you there!

AGM 2007

Our AGM will take place on 16th April at Bar23, March, Cambs - 7.30pm start!

We would love to see you there.

A great way to meet other members, share ideas for future projects and ask any questions you have about the recent changes including this blog!

The venue has a separate bar for our personal use, so come along and enjoy a drink in the company of creative minds!

17.03.07: 13th Worldwide Sketchcrawl

Saturday 17th March was the 13th Worlwide Sketchcrawl and I am so very pleased to report that some of our members joined me at Chatteris Museum for a whole day's sketching!

Jenny Furlong kindly offered to keep the museum open all day for us and she even brought a sketchbook of her own back from lunch break to take part! - Thankyou Jenny!

Rob Morris supplied us with warm shelter and cupfuls of hot, fresh coffee at lunchtime back at his house - Thankyou Rob!

A very successful day with lots of laughs and plenty of sketching!

Anita, Carol, Louise, Jenny, Rob, Martin, Diane, Joan, Emma-Jane all turned up to join in the fun!

Here are some of the sketches produced on the day:

Old signs and Cakes by Anita Davies
~ More of Anita's sketches can be viewed HERE!


You can read more about Worldwide Sketchcrawls and view sketches produced on the day from all across the world at Sketchcrawl.com


*Photography by Rob Morris and Martin Megson

WELCOME

Welcome to the new communication system for the Fenland Visual Arts collective, taking the place of the monthly e-zine emails.

To receive updates to this blog automatically in your email inbox type your email address in the 'subscribe me' box provided on the right hand side and complete the process as instructed.

As you can see at the end of this, and all future blog updates, there is a comment link. PLEASE feel free to say 'Hi', ask questions and give feedback on the blog and the individual articles as they appear - We encourage your participation!

If you are holding events such as workshops, exhibitions or classes or have heard of anything you feel may be of interest to FenVAC members do not hesitate to contact me using the 'contact FenVAC NOW!' link on the right.

If you would like to share photographs of a trip, photographs of your current piece of art, poetry, your thoughts on a recent gallery trip, your experience of a good plein air painting location, your appreciation of a famous painter...Infact anything creative...Send me your article and photographs to be published on this blog.

I hope that this blog will provide a place for us to get to know one another a little better by sharing our experiences and our works, aswell as offering a contact point through which we can instantly reach the membership, directly and as often as the need arises!

Anita Davies - (Chair)


NEWSFLASH - The 13th Worldwide sketchcrawl takes place on Saturday, March 17th 2007.
Anita Davies will be taking part again and anyone wishing to join her should come to the Chatteris Museum @ 10 a.m. we will be there until around midday when we will break for lunch before heading back out into Chatteris.

Everyone welcome, a relaxed event suitable for all abilities.
Packed lunch is advised. Hot drinks and warm, dry lunch facilities available thanks to Rob Morris. (Thanx Rob!)
To read more about sketchcrawling, visit sketchcrawl.com.