First Wednesday - Small Group Artist Connect

Hello Everyone,

We have created a NEW AiA Bulletin Board Category - "First Wednesday - Small Group Artist Connect"

Board Member Kristin Blix has come up with this great idea on how AiA Members can connect on a regular basis.

"...an informal setting where artists can meet, exchange ideas, share portfolios with each other and in general connect with other artists in a relaxed setting..."

Please visit the "First Wednesday - Small Group Artist Connect" category on the AiA Bulletin Board for more details.

Thanks to Kristin for coming up with this great idea!

Phil Krug - 2012 AiA President

Artists in Action 2011 - A year in review…

As AiA's 2011 official year comes to a close on January 17th 2012 I want to take a few minutes to recap the highlights and accomplishment of this past year.

Without all the fantastic help from AiA Member volunteers, the support of our community, the generous contributions of Merchants and our Sponsors, 2011 would not have been such a huge success.

Special thanks go to ALL the 2011 Event Chairs and their committees.

The VAST event, chaired by Cynthia Herron and Lorraine Dye

The World Beat Festival, chaired by Tricia Young. Tricia also donates the AiA double canopy setup for this event.

The Paint the Town event, chaired by Diane Trevett and Lori McLaughlin.

The Outside The Box, chaired by Diane Trevett.

The Something Red event, chaired by Marilyn Krug and supported by committee members Diane Trevett, Helen Wiens, Lori Pettenger and Joel Zak.
The 2011 Something Red event was a huge success and between Merchant and Sponsor support, the event brought in over $4,500 in fees and donations. The final numbers are still not in at this time but we are anticipating actually making a small profit from this event which will be a first!

Special thanks to Lorraine Dye for putting together and chairing two events at the Salem Heights Community Hall, Spring and Fall.

A huge thanks to Melody Fahey for continuing to chair AiA's only ongoing continuous art show at Spinnaker Place. 2011 was Melody's fifth year in making this happen and has rotated AiA artists through Spinnaker Place over 20 times!

Thanks to The Broadway Commons for providing AiA with a wonderful meeting space for our AiA Member Meetings at NO CHARGE for the entire year. And a special Thank You to Helen Wiens for making this happen.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention all the great support by the 2011 AiA Board, that without their help, time commitments and direction AiA would not exist.

Volunteerism makes AiA work and will continue to be the backbone of the organization.

Volunteerism is by definition is "the use or involvement of volunteer labor, such as community service and volunteering is generally consider an altruistic activity, intended to promote good or improve the human condition…"

Some "Technical" accomplishments in 2011
AiA Member Database
Online member registration and donation functions
Facebook and Twitter feeds



Thank you all, AiA Members!
Phil Krug
2011 AiA President

GREAT EXAMPLE OF WORKING TOGETHER

Its been a very long time since I have written on the AiA President's Blog. Lots has been happening since my last post in January this year.

I wanted to write about a great example of folks coming together to make great things happen.

Last year the Broadway Commons announced that it would be offering their meeting rooms at no charge to non-profits organizations. I jumped on this opportunity but the response had already been overwhelming. Broadway Commons General Manager, Tim France asked me to contact him in January of 2011 to see if the dust had settled.

I contacted Tim sometime early this year but the situation didn't seem to have improved. AiA's Vice President Helen Wiens said she had some "connections" with Salem Alliance Church, the owners of Broadway Commons and she was willing to see what she could work out. Working with Tim France, Helen was able to secure 6 months of FREE meeting space through August 2011. This was great news. Not only was this going to save AiA around $75/month but the facility was first class with all kinds of hi-tech equipment and services.

Broadway Commons informed AiA that after August 2011 they would be charging for the meeting space. Helen contact Tim French to see what that would mean to AiA, specifically how much would it cost and was pleasantly surprised when Tim indicated that the Broadway Commons would be providing meeting space to AiA free of charge through February 2012!

The Broadway Commons indicated that they have heard great things about AiA and AiA member Ron Wolf has been very good to them.

AiA Member Ron Wolf has many of his photographic works throughout the building and Salem Alliance Church commissioned Ron to create several pieces from subjects around the Broadway Commons neighborhood. These commissioned works can be found in the Grant Room (RM 206), large meeting room on the second floor.

AiA will be saving $900 over the course of the year we will have been at the Broadway Commons. This savings will translate into dollars that we can use for AiA programs and activities.

So a special Thank You to Helen, Ron Wolf and The Salem Alliance Church.

"I love it when a plan comes together."

Phil Krug
2011 AiA President

SHIRLEY JO FALCONER

As most AiA Member know by now, AiA Member and Board Member Shirley Jo Falconer passed away on Sunday January 9, 2011.

Shirley has been very active in AiA for the past several years along with her Husband David.

I am sure David would very much appreciate hearing from AiA Members.
You can send a card to David via US Mail.

David Falconer
1418 S. 7th
Independence, Oregon 97351

According to Shirley's daughter Wendy, there is no service planned at this time. The family expects to have some sort of "open house" when the weather warms, so there can be flowers in the garden. They plan to have a lot of Shirley's art to share with everyone and will be sharing stories about Shirley's life. Shirley's artist friends are more then welcome to attend. I will pass on any information regarding this event as soon as it is available.

On a personal note, I would like to say how much I always enjoyed talking to Shirley. Shirley opened my eyes to the medium of Fabric Art. I really enjoyed Shirley's quick wit. Shirley was much sharper them most of us. I will miss her as will others in the art community in and around Salem.

Please keep David and his family in your thoughts and prayers. David certainly has had his share of challenges in the past few years.


Phil Krug
2010 AiA President

2010 SOMETHING RED A HUGE SUCCESS

More photos HERE!

I want to take a few minutes to thank everyone for making this year's Something Red Event a HUGE success.

I visited several participating businesses on Wednesday evening and they all said they had lots of folks stopping by to meet the artists and look at the art. Several businesses said this was the busiest Something Red they could remember.


The Something Red Awards Reception and Ceremony at the Reed was Fantastic! Diane Trevett and Jody Bartruff really went all out putting together three huge tables of food and beverages! I think there was at least twice the amount of things to eat and drink then past years and that was a good thing because I think we had at least twice the number of folks attending the reception! I also need to thank all the folks that donated the food and beverages! Way to go!

Special thanks to Liza Marshall for chairing this year's Something Red event. Liza did an outstanding job of putting together all numerous parts and pieces. Most of us don't have a clue just how many hours go into making this event a success.

Thanks go out to Diane Marks for her Design of the new Something Red “look” helped inspire us all. She designed the posters, postcards and the map cards that you can pick up here and at each business. She worked with Lisa and did the artwork for all of the advertising for Something Red.
She also worked closely with Suzi Bicknell of GoDowntown Salem to design some of their advertising. Also helped keep Lisa sane during all of this!

Thanks to Miriam Selby for her advice was invaluable in getting Something Red 2010 o to good start and to keeping it organized.

A huge thanks to our Jurors! What a great lineup!
Our Jurors:
Catherine Alexander, Galleries Curator and Galleries Director of the Salem Art Association.
Paula Booth, MFA, Gallery Director and Assistant Professor of Art at Western Oregon University
Our Guest Jurors:
Mayor Janet Taylor
Bill Church, Executive Editor of the Statesman Journal
Suzi Bicknell, Director of GoDowntown Salem

Catherine, Mayor Taylor, Bill and Suzi all showed up at the Awards Reception and Ceremony at the Reed and presented awards to artist! I think this was a first!

Special "Thank yous" to Roger Yost and Rebecca Maitland for allowing us to use Trinity Ballroom for our Intake and Judging. Also for allowing us to use “Gallery 205” for the month of December. (Those artworks are currently hanging in the Reception area for tonight only and will be back in Gallery 205 on December 2nd.) And for their continued support of the arts in Salem and to Artists in Action in particular. We appreciate everything that they have done for us in getting “Something Red 2010” o the ground.

Another "Special Thanks" to GoDowntown Salem Director Suzi Bicknell. Our partnership with GoDowntown Salem helps provide AiA with a huge amount of publicity that we couldn't otherwise afford. I am convinced that this partnership really helped make this year's Something Red so successful.

I want to thank all the The businesses that continue to support the Arts here in Salem and participate in “Something Red 2010” :

Reed Opera House
Allesandro’s Restaurant
Art Department
Cascade Bakery
Calusa Studio
Dave Wilson Designer-Goldsmith
The French Unicorn
Greenbaum’s Quilted Forest
Jonathan’s Restaurant
Rountree Gallery
Roy John Designer Goldsmith
Umpqua Bank
Wild Pear Restaurant

And last but certainly not least, all of the volunteers that helped with the intake of more then 100 pieces of art and those that helped get the artwork distributed to the participating businesses over the 2 weekends! On both days art was distributed we had at least 15 volunteers show up to make light work of the process. I think on both days we scheduled 5 hours to distribute the art but on both days it only took 2 hours to complete the tasks!
Thank you all so very much!!

MANY HANDS MAKE LIGHT WORK - SOMETHING RED

Just a quick note to thank all the folks that showed up Saturday, November 20th to help choose art for this year's Something Red business locations. I think about 15 people showed up to help.

Art was distributed to several business locations and the balance was moved from the Ball Room on the 3rd floor of the Reed Opera house to room 205 of the Reed.

The weather cooperated and we did not have any rain.

We stared around 11 am and were all done by 1 pm, two hours ahead of schedule!

But the need for volunteers to help distribute art for this year's Something Red is NOT over. We will need volunteers to help distribute the rest of the art on Monday November 29th. We will meet at 11 am in room 205 to distribute the remaining art.

I will be sending out a "call for volunteers" soon and hopefully we can get at least as many folks to help out as we did on Saturday.

ARTISTS IN ACTION MEMBER DATABASE PROJECT

For over a year the AiA Board has been creating specifications for a new AiA Member Database System. The cost of this project is in part being offset by recent grant AiA received from the Oregon Arts Commission. Below is an abbreviated description of the project for those who have any interest in the "nuts & bolts" of the AiA Member Database Project. This project is being implemented by Design Dance and is only possible by the generous pricing structure that Design Dance offers non-profit organizations such as AiA. Thank You Design Dance!

The really GREAT part of having all the AiA member information in a database is that it only gets inputted ONCE which greatly reduces the chances of "key punch" errors as well as GREATLY reducing the labor and time to make AiA email lists and "Our Members" web page current. I think having this database will greatly increase the possibility of recruiting board members and officers in the future since they will not have to know any specific applications.

Project Description:

Create an member management system to perform the following tasks:

Basic online member management system includes:

Secure admin login

Member management page to add/edit edit members.

Automatically update the member mailing system with current e-mails.

Automatically send a welcome message for new members.

Our Members page will automatically display member information from the new system.

Admin Report to display member information.


New Member Sign-Up Screen includes:

Sign-up screen for new users to enter their information and pay their 1st membership dues online.


Automatically process member payments option includes:

Automatically send an e-mail with a payment link to any upcoming renewals.

Also ability to send an individual renewal message.
Online payments will be processed through PayPal (www.paypal.com).