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AFAP's New Board Structure
As you've read elsewhere in this issue, Jeanne Wolf resigned from her AFAP Board positions due to increased pressure from her own business (and it's great her business is doing so well!). Following the move of AFAP's corporate headquarters from Washington state to North Carolina, the Board structure has been revised. North Carolina corporate law required the re-election of officers and Board members, and we did have Jeanne's Board position to fill. Therefore, in a meeting held 8 Aug 1999, the AFAP Board elected Kay Robbins as President, Theresa Brown as Secretary/Treasurer, Kathleen McGee as Vice President and Technical Director, and Lynda Sappington as Vice-President and ARTVoices Editor-in-Chief. Also elected were previous Board member A.J. Isbister, Special Advisor for Marketing, and new Board member Carolyn Brunsdon. Susan Holland continues as ex-officio Board member and official WWBI*. (*Woman with Bright Idea, the founder of AFAP.) Carolyn Brunsdon is AFAP Publications Director and will be taking over the Membership Liaison position from Kay Robbins. Welcome to the Board, Carolyn!
AFAP Brochures
Thanks to the combined efforts of Carolyn Brunsdon, Betsy Begor Perkins, Susan Holland and Kay Robbins, AFAP now has beautiful brochures to advertise our services! AFAP President Kay Robbins adds: "They're very attractive and hit all of the high points of our AFAP organization. We only have 1000 of them so distribution will be somewhat limited at present. If you would like some to hand out to prospective members, art associations, possible donors, etc., please email me and I will try to send what you need. We ask that you distribute these where they will count rather than leaving stacks of them in places where they might be picked up and quickly discarded once read. Carolyn has created a printable file that can be downloaded from our site; in the meantime we urge you to have double-sided photocopies made for wide distribution if needed. While AFAP will bear the expense of the printing and postage for mailing, we would be happy to accept any donations of cash and/or postage stamps. The cost of each brochure is approximately 19 cents which includes the shipping charge from the printer to AFAP."
AFAP President Receives Grant
AFAP President and Member Liaison Kay Almond Robbins recently learned she's been awarded her first grant. She applied for a Regional Artists Project Grant administered by the Arts Council of the Lower Cape Fear (ACLCF), with matching funds from the ACLCF and the North Carolina Arts Council. Her grant will help cover the cost of a new drafting table and artist's taboret. The grant review panel were impressed with how meticulously her grant application was prepared, including the budget page in which her costs were given to the penny (as is normal with Kay's finance work). The Arts Council of the Lower Cape Fear, located in Wilmington NC, administers the program for four counties. This is a fairly small program, generally with grants not over $1000, and it is highly competitive.
AFAP member Betsy Begor Perkins, who is ACLCF Administrative Director and not a member of the grant review panel, said, "The projects in this grant program can be updating a portfolio, purchasing equipment necessary to making your art, master workshops and travel to same, etc.
One of our newer AFAP members, Marianne Ewen, received this grant last year. Our newest member, Jane Baldridge, received an Emerging Artist grant, as the program was called formerly, several years ago and within six months quit her job and started her own business.
"It's a very good program in that it's a highly respected one and one that makes the artists aware of the esteem of others, which, in many cases, is a necessary complement to further success. A real validation of their efforts." Betsy added, "Actually, I have one more comment to make. The three artists mentioned earlier in this message are three of the ones I respect more than most in this area. Al Frega, creator of "Betsy's Mazda," is another one; he's gotten two of these grants. And one you don't know, but who has gone on to tremendous success -- artistically, critically and financially -- Billie Ruth Sudduth, a basket weaver, who is in the Renwick, two museums in North Carolina, and The American Craft Museum in NYC. Billie Ruth got a grant; said she was going to apply for another one; then didn't because she didn't think it would be right. I bought one of Billie Ruth's larger baskets years ago, before the State Department started buying them for visiting dignitaries and such, and when she called to tell me she had been elected North Carolina Living Treasure, she told me the basket was now worth $3,500. Quick! Get the cat out of Billie Ruth's basket!"
Kay reports that Betsy said the judges were "impressed with my work because it is totally unpretentious (I consider that a very nice compliment because I'm totally unpretentious too)." Now that she's a successful grant applicant, Kay plans to use the experience to apply for grants in the future. Congrats, Kay!
TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS
AFAP Founding Member and Public Relations Director Jeanne Wolf has resigned her board positions. After a full year of helping AFAP grow from its original six members to over sixty, Jeanne feels it is time for someone else to step into her shoes. "My company, NVTV Productions, has just completed a children's video titled Art Projects for Tots and Teens (hometown.aol.com/nvtv916/myhomepage/) which requires an increasing amount of marketing time. Also, Jeanne is proud to announce her daughter's production company, Mental Interactive, has finished the second of thirteen video/book combinations (www.cliffhangerseries.com). These video/book combinations are children's mystery series where the child watches a video for the first half of a story, and just at the cliffhanger, the video stops and the child must read a 120 page book to see what has happened. Jeanne will be writing story #5 - a New Orleans Jazz mystery, and that will be time consuming. The first story, "The Mystery of Lighthouse Point", was written by Jeanne and her daughter together.
Jeanne adds, "I will miss all of my friends at AFAP and wish everyone continued success in their respective art fields. With love, I say good-bye."