Committee for 2016/17:
President:Clive Groves
Chairman:Clive Baynes
Treasurer:Denise Revy
Secretary:Carole Irving
Exhibition Organisers:Clive Baynes and Keith Groves
Publicity Officer:Julia Baynes
Programme Officers:Philippa Grier and Jan Lemon
Other members:Elaine Butcher, Celia McKew, John Stevens, Ann Walker and Beverley Young /
AGM
Clive Groves opened the meeting, which was attended by almost 50 members, with a warm welcome and a joke.
Chairman’s Report:
Clive Baynes reported that the Society continued to attract new members. The healthy attendance at monthly evening meetings meant that, from May, we would be relocating to the Christian Fellowship Hall in East Street car park which is a larger and better equipped venue.
Clive thanked the exhibitions’ team and all the committee for their ideas and support, notably Philippa and Jan who had put together a varied and interesting programme of demonstrations and workshops for the coming year.
Last year’s Easter and Annual exhibitions had gone well with visitor numbers up. The experiment with the October exhibition had not been unsuccessful financially, attracting 187 exhibits; the public response had, however, been modest. In 2016, owing to the major works to the Arts Centre, we would only have two exhibitions. The Society had been given the opportunity to put on the first exhibition in the new, improved Arts Centre.
Clive spoke about the Stations of the Cross project involving the Society and local churches. This project was one of a number of one-off items that had had an impact on our finances over the past year. Other decisions would affect our running costs, such as collecting donations for a local charity rather than for the Society and re-introducing prizes for the most promising students at Sir John Colfox and Beaminster Schools; we would be inviting the two winning pupils to exhibit at our annual exhibition.
The committee had had a long hard look at the Society’s finances and expected to be more or less breaking even on normal income and expenditure for the future. They were, however, prepared to continue to use some of the accumulated assets to support activities if there was a shortfall, as well as being prepared to fund one-off items that either improve the Society’s equipment or contribute to the local community in a way that was consistent with our aim of encouraging the visual arts.
Clive thanked Clive Groves for all his support and presented him with a gift to show our appreciation. He concluded with a special mention to three long-serving committee members who were retiring: Elise Miles (Publicity Officer), and Sonia Rose (Secretary) and Allen Rose all of whom had contributed significantly to the work of the Society. Clive Groves presented Elise and Sonia with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a token each to spend in their favourite shops.
Treasurer’s report: Denise Revy distributed her report on the audited accounts for the period 1 January – 31 December 2015. Expenditure on one-off items had resulted in balances being reduced by nearly £600 to £11,000. While the result of the decisions the committee had taken over the past year might be a lower level of reserves, the aim was to maintain balances at that level rather than continue to reduce them by budgeting for a loss.
Changes to the Constitution: Two amendments to the constitution were agreed. These were:
- to create a new post of Programme Officer and to delete the post of Vice-Chairman.
- to regularise the practice established over many years of electing all the officers and other committee members each year.
The revised constitution is available on our website.
Bridport Arts Centre - Grant: The Arts Centre has succeeded in getting a major grant from the Arts Council for major improvements, a condition of the investment is that they must raise match funding of £230,000. They still need to raise £130,000, and were launching a public appeal. The AGM agreed unanimously that a grant of £3,000 should be made by the Society. The Arts Centre have been notified and are delighted.
John Marlow Memorial Prize: The theme this year was “Autumn” and was judged by Sue Barnes
- 1st prize: £30 and the John Marlow Award - Valerie Hall
- 2nd prize: £20 - Rowena Hampton
- 3rd prize: £15 - Joy Coots
NEW MEMBERS:
Current membership is 174 (including those who have yet to pay their 2016/17 subs). Welcome to the following members who have joined since the last Newsletter: Philip Page, Ms Janthia Jones, Mrs Gill Cocking, Mrs Amanda Cole, Mrs Susan Lock, Mrs Elfride Vaughan and Anita Tattershall.
LATE SUBSCRIPTIONS:
Subscriptions for 2016/17 (£14 for Members and £7 for Associate Members) were due by 31 March2016.
If you have not already paid, please send your subscription as soon as possible to the Treasurer: Mrs Denise Revy, Francis House, 151 Victoria Grove, Bridport DT6 3AG
Members are reminded that fully paid-up membership is a requirement for entry to the Society’s Exhibitions.
If a member’s subscription has not been received by 31 May the member will be deemed to have resigned from the Society and her/his name will be removed from the membership database.
EXHIBITIONS:
Easter, The Salt House at West Bay -
A combination of an early Easter and inclement weather led to a less successful exhibition this year. Saturday, which is usually busy, was very quiet – this year we attracted just 76 visitors compared with 223 last year and 251 the year before. Tuesday was even quieter (74). Total visitors were 644 compared with 1074 last year and 972 in 2014.
Sales were however slightly up on last year (15 hung works and 8 folios were sold). Profits on the other hand were down to £240 from £340 in 2015; this can be attributed to there being fewer entries - and hence reduced income from hanging fees - together with the fact that we no longer invite donations to the Society.
Thank you to the 41 members who volunteered to steward at the exhibition, especially those who said they were available for a choice of sessions, as that makes organising the schedule much easier. (Members are usually only asked to work one session, regardless of how many they say they could do.)
Annual Exhibition, Bridport Art Centre, Allsop Gallery –– Open from Wednesday 7 to Saturday 17 September 2016 (Sunday and Monday Closed)
Entry Forms to Denise Revy by:Tuesday 16 August
Hand in:Sunday 4 September 12.00 – 1.30 pm
PreviewTuesday 6 September 7.00 – 9.00 pm
Collection:Sunday 18 September 12.30 – 1.30 pm
The Exhibition Rules and Entry Form for this exhibition are enclosed with this mailing.
Easter 2017
The January newsletter said that the committee were exploring the possibility of holding a week-long exhibition next Easter and dropping a third show later in the year. They have now looked at this in more detail and decided that we would lose too much money as well as having difficulty in stewarding all the sessions. Also, this year has shown how few visitors are around after the Easter weekend. Therefore we will stick to the usual five day Easter exhibition.
The general view seems to be that two exhibitions a year are enough. This will be kept under review. If you think we should have three, please let Clive Baynes know.
Stations of the Cross
Fourteen paintings were displayed in The Salt House, West Bay during the first weekend in April and attracted some 400 visitors with many positive comments. Congratulations to all the artists involved.
WORKSHOPS AND TRIPS
Workshops that have been organised for the rest of 2016 are:
Julie Longdon- 12 MayPastels: ‘Barn Owl’
Lynda Kettle - 9 JunePastels: ‘Gardens’
Jo Hamilton- 8 July Acrylics: ‘Portraits’
Dee Cowell- 22 SeptDerwent pencils: ‘Techniques and creative uses’
Caroline Ireland-10 Nov Pastel/charcoal/watercolour: ‘Landscapes’
Forms are enclosed for the May, June and July workshops. Please return them, with cheques, to Jan Lemon.
Trip to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
We are organising a trip to the Ashmolean Museum, either in late July or early autumn. Founded in 1683, and recently given a major makeover, the Ashmolean is the University of Oxford’s museum of art and archaeology. It is the world’s oldest public museum with incredibly rich and diverse collections ranging from Egyptian mummies to Pre-Raphaelite paintings to contemporary art. It also has a superb collection of drawings by Raphael and Michelangelo. Further information can be found on the Ashmolean website. There are of course many other things to see and visit in Oxford, so this should make a great day out. A form for the trip will be sent out once details have been finalised.
DATE OF NEXT MEETING
Don’t forget the next meeting will be on 28 April. Unfortunately Helen Layfield is unable to demonstrate, but Sue Barnes has kindly stepped in and will give us 'A Surprise Package' which no doubt will be both interesting and entertaining. This will be our last meeting at the St John Ambulance Hall.
Enclosures:
Entry Form and Rules for Annual Exhibition (2)
Workshop Forms (3)
Programme for 2016-17
Invitation to Preview
Membership Card (if paid)