Looking for the Miracle in 2011

This is the post holiday season; time to get to work on preparations for spring and for looking back at this fruitful year here in old Benson town. If we struggled to keep up with ourselves this past year, we did a pretty good job of it, given that there are so few of us working on this passion of ours. We now have three WallSpace galleries that we're putting art in, and another that's expressed interest in having us. We have a building that's exactly where we need it to be, and we have a good start on programming for Celebrate the Arts! 2011. What we don't have is funding. This illusive necessity is giving us nightmares! Consequently we will have to ask our artists and supporters to cough up more this year in the way of dues just to sustain our viability. Your $10 application/annual fee will increase to $15 for 2011/12 fiscal year that begins on July 1. We don't like to do this. It would be nice if we could keep everything free, but this is not practical for our organization. We can't support artists without them supporting us. We are all volunteers. We have other lives, and some of us are artists ourselves and need to spend time in the studio. It costs this organization lots of money to put on events for the public and this past year was very expensive. Next year will be even more so. So the "free" concept is basically over, as we plan for our 2011 events. There, of course, will be some free events, or workshops, but as we all prepare to give of ourselves to the arts, we need to open the wallets as well. It would be a miracle if we had some money to work on our "new" building, or to pay for someone to put out the newsletter. Our sponsors have been great, but we need more of them.

We are also in great need for volunteers, especially at the Board level. Especially needed is someone who will program events, i.e., search for performers and workshop leaders needed for Celebrate the Arts! 2012. Volunteers who might like to work together on a project are welcome. We need curators for each of our WallSpace galleries who will contact artists and make sure that work gets hung on time. We need someone who likes to write, who will keep up with the publicity needed to let folks know what we're doing. The list is endless.

As we have wrapped up 2010, and look forward to 2011, we welcome the newness of this year, and have high expectations that this one will be better. If you're reading this and have even a glimmer of interest in putting some time into the arts, there are vehicles for doing that on our web page. Welcome to 2011!