Wednesday, January 16th, 2012
Come on down to The BrickHouse for the return of 3rd Place Nights, where we’ll work together, creating, drawing, painting, writing, knitting, whatever it is that makes you unique. We’ll provide the drinks, you provide the creative spirit.
And you thought cats lived longer than arts councils?
Well, we’re going forward into 2013 with another kick, with even more great programs and yes, great food too. But, we need your support now more than ever before, so that means we need to hear more, and yes, see more, from our local creative friends and supporters of the arts.
This January 12th, we’re sponsoring acclaimed watercolor artist Jennifer Stone for a one day class and group show at The BrickHouse, and this looks to be by far the best deal of the year for a chance to work alongside such a noted and respected artist as Jennifer. We’re trying something new by offering these one-day classes for the community, and yes, there’s a very small charge (you won’t find a better deal around for classes of this quality) but we hope to continue to offer these classes in the coming year, so if you support it, they’ll be way more to look forward to right outside your back door.
We’re also scheduling the usual mix of great events you’ve come to love, from small concerts, to Double Header art showings, and a variety of speakers and writers from our Chautauqua Series – we’ll be calling on a few past friends for a surprise or two this year.
We’re thankful for all the support this past year, and if you haven’t made it to one of our fine events, be sure to come on out this January 12th, we’d love to see all of you (and way more often too!)
Just don’t go asking about cats.
We’re thrilled to offer an extraordinary opportunity this January 12th at The BrickHouse Community Arts Center with the instructional offering of ‘Foundations of Watercolor’ with artist Jennifer Stone.
Jennifer Stone is an acclaimed artist from Watertown, South Dakota. She has been painting professionally for more than ten years, drawing inspiration from everyday beauty and experiences. Her style is unique and interesting, and as captivating as the artist herself.
Jennifer is an accomplished artist and educator who hosts and conducts workshops annually to promote the arts and artists. She is a multiple national award recipient who was most recently honored with inclusion of her painting, Procrastination, in the San Diego Watercolor Society International Exhibit.
Her philosophy is that “An artist needs to paint with intention,” she says. “But after a while, you just need to let your brush dance, and it becomes a painting that invites the viewer to be a participant, not just a spectator.” Her approach is the same when it comes to teaching.
Jennifer Stone
During this class, you will receive an introduction to the fundamentals of basic watercolor principles and techniques that will add fun and interest to your piece all while learning from this highly accomplished and energetic instructor! Personal expression is an important component to this class, so be ready to explore your creativity while learning the foundations of watercolor painting.
As part of the class fee of $90 (plus tax), supplies for the day will be provided, and lunch will be provided as well. A public reception and art show featuring the artwork created that day, along with selections from Jennifer Stone, will be held from 6-8pm, at The BrickHouse.
Space is extremely limited for this exclusive opportunity, and spots must be reserved through email at: contact@madisonareaartscouncil.org
Feel free to join the Madison Area Arts Council for lunch with our special guests, Pat Boyd of South Dakotans for the Arts and Michael Pangburn of the South Dakota Arts Council at The Hillside in Wentworth. We’ll be starting our community discussion on the future role of your local arts council, and the cost of dinner isn’t provided, but the great company sure is.
The Hillside, Southside of Lake Madison
Thursday, November 1st, 12:30 – 2pm
We know, we’re not been the best at the blogging, but to our well-reasoned defense, we share way too much on Facebook and Twitter, so that does the bulk of our news and such. Anyhow, we wanted to take a moment to catch you up on our last two great events at The BrickHouse, if you click the links, you’ll be able to see a full album of images, so take a moment and check that out.
From our September Double Header
Our September Double Header was another knockout, with Carly Rochelle, Angela Meyer, Matt Caffee, William Henderson, and the music of Phantom Balance.
From our August Double Header
In August, we featured the work of Nancyjane Huehl, Chad Nelson, and the music of Carolina Story, and yet again, another great night was had in downtown Madison.
This coming November 1st, from 7-9pm, we’re thrilled to present a special Double Header at The BrickHouse with our guests artists, Lisa Shoemaker, Derek Meier, and Brian Iverson.
Also joining us at The BrickHouse, Pat Boyd, Director of South Dakotans for the Arts and Michael Pangburn, Director of the South Dakota Arts Council, who will be visiting our community for the day, as we begin a community discussion and review on the future of us, the Madison Area Arts Council.
As always, Double Header events are open to the public, refreshments are served, there might even be some sweet music, and yes, come on out and support your local arts community.
Thursday November 1st, 7-9pm
The BrickHouse Community Arts Center
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Join us for a special Double Header at The BrickHouse with our guests artists, Lisa Shoemaker, Derek Meier, and Brian Iverson. Also joining us at The BrickHouse, Pat Boyd, Director of South Dakotans for the Arts and Michael Pangburn, Director of the South Dakota Arts Council, who will be visiting our community for the day, as we begin a community discussion and review on the future of us, the Madison Area Arts Council. As always, Double Header events are open to the public, refreshments are served, there might even be some sweet music, and yes, come on out and support your local arts community. |
Friends of the arts in Madison,
I wanted to take a moment to discuss some recent news about our ongoing efforts here in Madison and how that relates to what we do everyday for our community as an organization.
We’ve prided ourselves on providing awesome programming, and yes, we’ve done that for nearly 50 years, and yes, we can proudly claim our legacy at the state’s original arts council, need not mention the multiple visits of the Guthrie Theatre, or an early Prairie Home Companion broadcast in 1980, and today, with our Double Header and music festivals, and the restoration of our home, The BrickHouse Community Arts Center.
We’ve sure loved every moment, and yes, it hasn’t been easy to make these programs happen in a community of our size, and yes literally all this happened through the hundreds of volunteers, artists, musicians, and even a few directors, all of whom have made the arts part of our communities rich fabric. And we continually thank everyone for literally investing their time and passion into this big cultural experiment called an arts council, we’ve accomplished some great things over all these years, and hopefully, we’re still friends after all that.
But, we’ve been operating under the optimistic impression, that if we continued to build and provide great programing, and free and open to the public programming at that, our community would respond in kind, partnerships would be developed, which it often has in years past, but now, sadly we’ve entered a point to where things haven’t gone the way we needed to maintain a viable and financially stable organization, and still preserve our mission to the fullest, and that is something we’re not eager to admit, and yes, this isn’t our best moment, and yes, there’s a list of choice words waiting to be uttered, but we’ll say this, it sucks, we all could agree to that.
So what just happened?
Well, the latest concerns we face as an organization amount to the lack of proper insurance coverage we’ve been operating under for the past several years, under the false assumption that our kind of variety-based programming was indeed insurable and recognized under our current liability policy. As it now stands, we were mistaken, and now we face a dynamic rise of our insurance premiums, and hence, we’re unable to maintain our programs and our facility within our current budget restraints, and realistically, we must question the worth of investing our very limited resources to provide for a growing insurance premium, one which still doesn’t allow for the type of programs we desire. And as they say, that’s our business problem, and we have to deal with it.
So, we’re going to take a break to deal with it, after this Saturday’s damn right fantastic program at The BrickHouse, we will unfortunately begin formal discussions on restructuring the mission and role of our organization, which will result in a pause in our daily operations for the immediate future, and yes, unfortunately, we may be forced to address the possibility of simply calling it quits. We didn’t say this was gonna be an easy thing to digest.
Yet, we believe in our community, and we believe in the programming we’ve offered, and we thank everyone who has helped us make all of this possible for the many years, 48 years at that, thank you for that! And yes, we hope all this works out, but if you loved the arts and what we’ve done, come on out this Saturday, we’re gonna throw one hell of a good party.
Chris Francis,
President of the finest arts organization around, the Madison Area Arts Council, and I’ll still say that no matter what.
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