Saranac Lake ArtWorks Meetings

Notes from Meetings - December 8, 2009

Art Works General Meeting - Adk Artists Guild 8:30 am
Present: Burdette Parks, Bob Pettee, Mark Kurtz, Judi O’Toole, Meg Bernstein, Todd Smith, Larry Poole, Susan Olsen, Tim Fortune

Judi told us that she is launching a new show at WSLP 93.3 to focus on the arts – each Sunday from 6 – 7 she will interview a local artist. First broadcast: Jan 10 2010

Meg pointed out how beautiful the Art Works show at Bluseed is, and wondered if next year we should have a committee so that Carol doesn’t get stuck with too much work (Carol & John LaFalce hung this show – Peter Shrope brought food for the reception) (Note added by Sandy - I brought the beer and some candy).

December Art Walk – not dazzling this year – need to try it at least 2 more years

low turnout at Pendragon, Lazarbear, Bluseed, 7444 events
more/earlier publicity – package with Summer art walks: SL hosts 5 Art Walks through the year!
use sidewalk signs
artists w/o downtown presence can set up at downtown shops/galleries (ie, Larry Poole could be at the Guild or Mark’s gallery or ---)
A lot goes on the first weekend of Dec – Sparkle Village, St Luke’s bazaar, Northern Lights Faire, etc – Saranac Lake Art Works makes a good balance with these, but there’s not a lot of crossover
Should we keep Art Walks on Thursdays? ie 1st or 2nd Thurs. of Dec – instead of Fri / Sat

Good Idea: station someone with a short clipboard survey during Art Walks to ask things like are you local, do you come here spec. for Art Walk, how did you hear about it, etc etc. –maybe offer small gift certificate or something as prize for participating…

Blog Opportunities: Both the Adk Explorer and the Adk Almanac would like a weekly arts blog

Explorer: will change website – allow us access to site codes, let us see analytics – provide RSS feed, allow subscribers
-we could gather stats on who hits site when, etc
-could help us target future activities & ads
-Blog titled “Adirondack Art Works” – content would be OURS, not Explorer’s – we will take turns writing a couple of posts each all year – each post will have Art Works logo, website, and a profile of the author with web link
Goal: January 1st launch – each of us should consider one or two topics we could/would write about so we can go in with the first number of posts planned

Adk Almanac – Also wants a weekly blog – could be tied in to calendar events (ie Art Walk, Plein Air, etc)
-cannot provide same services as Explorer – but reaches a different audience
-should be different posts on each
Mark: Liaison to Adk Almanac; Todd: Liaison to Explorer

Larry: should we get a Saranac Lake Art Works DBA? Could protect use of name… To Be Considered…

Saranac Lake Guide: text, images, and full page ad due Jan 10

Todd will draft an ad – keep it simple: facts about art works w/ web address
we have 2 pages of content – should tweak what we used last year (Note added by Sandy - I have all the text from 2009 - will edit and send it around for "tweaking").
images: plein air, studio tour, art walks? Etc
Cover: Health theme – probably not due Jan 10th exactly- (Note added by Sandy - cover does not have to reflect theme)
Should we invite a prof. designer to work on this? ie Karen Davidson? –offer credit as payment – when we make opportunities available to members we will attract new members (would Karen & Peter want to be members of SL Art Works?)
Todd will talk to Karen

Mission Statement: We will try to schedule another evening meeting w/ Jack after the holidays

We should compile 2010 calendar soon

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