[Letter from the President – January 2004 Bulletin]

Happy Season and Godspeed to you!

Here it is the beginning of the year and all I’m thinking about lately is what could be happening ten to eleven months from now. The preparations for our next Artsfest are in the works with regard to recruiting the chairpersons needed and acquiring a suitable location. In retrospect, the most successful aspects of our last event were the vendors and the demonstrations and mini-workshops that were offered. I envision this event as being more of an exposition, providing demonstrations of methods that we wouldn’t normally witness or of tools that we wouldn’t think of in resolving an artistic obstacle. And, I like the fact that our various vendors pull together on this one day to offer the supplies, artifacts and books that we would have to pay shipping for or would have to go to many sources online or via a catalogue just to procure. Ahhhhhh…instant gratification!

There are, however, quite a few areas that you, our membership, can advise us in.

For this year, we are putting consideration to setting up a computer area with a “tour guide” so that people who normally don’t have access to browsing the internet can have the opportunity to visit the many links to suppliers of papers, bookbinding materials, framing and gilding, as well as viewing connections to other calligraphic societies to see what they are doing. Would this be a good service for you?

We are also considering setting up a seating area with a large projector screen so that we can continuously feed demonstration videos of various types of lettering and how-to tidbits…or perhaps we can show you brief slideshows of our past Letterforum events (our next Letterforum is in 2006, and it looks promising!). If this would interest you, tell us.

We would still like to keep our Silent Auction portion of this event, though it has not been as received as we would like. In the past, we have displayed quality calligraphic artwork from our artists in the attempt to sell them to you for your private collections. Are there particular artists you would like to see featured? Are there certain artistic themes you are looking to acquire and collect? Would you like to see this handled as more of a traditional auction with people verbally bidding rather than bidding on paper? Let us know.

Many of our outstanding vendors will be returning and we have acquired to date the continuing sponsorship of Brause. We had the pleasure last year of Julian Waters selling his extraordinary prints, as well as introducing a new vendor found in The Queen’s Ink (rubberstamping/embossing supplier). We also had Paper and Ink Arts, Oh My Word!, and Paul Terban (providing prepared quills, restored inkwells and other collectible artifacts), as well as presenting Virginia Sarsfield’s papers. Are there other suppliers that you would like to have come? Perhaps for bookbinding, glasswork, or gilding?

The introduction of our mini-workshops allowed us to offer new topics to you. What are your thoughts towards having workshops involving calligraphy for lefthanders or improving your everyday handwriting?

The gist is this: there’s room for improvement and there’s something missing.

We need feedback from you. I expect to hear from you. Even if you don’t live locally to the Guild, your expressions and advice still matter greatly to the ongoing success of this event. The profits that we raise from Artsfest go toward funding our programs, workshops and classes that we offer throughout the year.

(Hint: email me at tms@gracestone.com or give a ring to 703-858-0987).

Please address all inquiries and comments as “Artsfest 2004”, that way I’ll know to pay special attention to them in my email so that they won’t end up in my spam folder.