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26th August 2010

"Mirare" public artwork proposal for a location in Deep Cove.

As a service to interested Deep Cove residents, the larger North Shore community, and members of the public with an interest in art, the Seymour Art Gallery has made space available for a public information display regarding a major new public art piece that is proposed to be located in Deep Cove. The work is entitled "Mirare" (Latin for "to look at, to wonder at"), the artists are Cheryl Hamilton and Mike Vandermeer (IE Creative), and it has been selected as the District of North Vancouver's contribution to the Necklace Project, an inter-municipal public art collaboration of ten municipalities throughout Metro Vancouver.

For more information, please use this link to the North Vancouver Arts Office website (http://www.artsoffice.ca/news/whats_new/articles128.php) and then click through to the Mirare information sheet. The model of the proposed public art piece and other relevant information will be on display in the Gallery until September 9th. If you have any questions or concerns about the project you can speak with a staff member at the Arts Office 604-990-3559.

16th August 2010

Message To Members RE: New Gallery Coordinator

Meghan Doyle, our Gallery Coordinator for the past 11 months, is leaving the Seymour Art Gallery at the end of this week, to pursue a Masters degree in Art History at University College London. We wish Meghan the very best in all of her future endeavours.

Over the last month of soliciting applications from candidates to replace Meghan in this position, we have been astounded by both the number and quality of the applicants. From the 170 applications received, the Gallery's Selection Committee called 6 candidates for in-person interviews, and ultimately selected Sarah Cavanaugh as the most appropriate person to replace Meghan as the Gallery Coordinator.

Following her relocation to Vancouver in 2004, Sarah worked for 2 years at the North Vancouver store of Opus Framing & Art, where she started as a Sales Representative but was soon promoted to a junior management position. Since the summer of 2006 she has mostly worked as a full-time artist, with supplementary part-time work in 2008-9 as weekend receptionist at the Winsor Gallery on Granville Street. She has just returned from a 6-month backpacking trip in Southeast Asia.

Sarah will start work on Monday August 16, in order to work in parallel with Meghan for 3 days this week. Sarah will be with us at least until the end of 2010 and potentially longer, depending on the outcome of our ongoing Strategic Planning process and a re-assessment of our ability to engage a permanent Curator. We invite you all to drop by the Gallery and meet our very capable and personable new Exhibition Coordinator.

Board of Directors,

Seymour Art Gallery

7th July 2010

It is with regret that Charles Wilkinson has stepped down from his position as president of the board

Charles took on the mantle and steered the board and the gallery through "the troubles" and into calmer waters. Providign the voice of reason, professionalism and pragmatism throughout. He will be greatly missed. Alan Bell has agreed to step up into the role and has already undertaken a huge amount of work on behalf of the gallery. (Meet The Board)

Presidents message from the 2010 SAG AGM

It has been an unusual year for the Seymour Art Gallery. There's an understatement.

The current board assumed their duties in a difficult atmosphere. Our principal objective at that time was to preserve and nurture all that this wonderful organization has come to be for so many residents, artists and visitors. This, I believe we have largely achieved, in spite of some pretty challenging obstacles. Here's a bit of detail on what we've been working on.

We resolved the crisis surrounding the pending loss of our popular and long serving curator Jacquie Morgan in a manner that treated Jacquie with the respect and affection she had earned with her years of dedicated service, while at the same time protecting the overall best interests of the gallery.

A few short months later, we learned that owing to massive provincial government art funding cutbacks we had lost our anticipated $35,000 in Gaming funds - as did a great many other community arts, social and sports-related groups. This put the ongoing operation of the gallery into real jeopardy. The board, with Jacquie spent a great deal of time and energy coming up with a viable Plan B. We looked at every aspect of gallery operations; sales, hours, operating expenses, advertising, etc. Together we came up with a way forward.

First, Jacquie Morgan with the board made the very difficult temporary decision to not renew the curator contract. Jacquie worked with the board to create a plan whereby part-time staff could take over and continue on this basis through the fall, with very significant hands-on involvement by various Board members in all aspects of Gallery and Shop operations. Much appreciation to Nell, Meghan and Gail for taking over with very little preparation. Also many thanks to Jacquie for assisting in the transition and leaving us with a schedule of committed exhibitions that runs (with a few gaps) partway into 2011

By December, after reducing some other expenses and reviewing Gallery finances in more detail, we felt sufficiently confident to offer to integrate Jacquie back into daily operations on a reduced schedule. After having had some time for reflection, Jacquie decided to close this chapter and move forward in new directions. It was with real regret from all concerned to see this good friend and tireless champion of the gallery step down. The entire organization, members, artists and visitors salute Jacquie's many contributions and wish her the absolute best for the future.

Moving forward, the board revised staffing arrangements and responsibilities to carry us through much of 2010. Meghan stepped up as part time Gallery Coordinator with responsibility for exhibitions, programs, publicity and artist coordination. Nell agreed to serve as part time Administrator, with responsibility for bookkeeping, payroll & tax filings, volunteer coordination and the Gallery Shop. And Gail took over manning the Shop on weekends. With excellent coordination between the part time staff things have been running increasingly well for the last few months. But Board members still found themselves being quite hands-on in many aspects of Gallery operations and decisions that would formerly have been undertaken by the Curator directly. And soon we will have another staffing change, as Meghan is leaving to pursue higher studies in London, and we will need to replace her as gallery coordinator until we hire a permanent curator.

We take some pride in noting that it may look like not much has changed, as the Gallery continues to roll its exhibitions and the Gallery shop continues to operate as normal. But in reality we are just hanging on - in terms of operations and exhibitions - and various important aspects are being somewhat to seriously neglected. These include communication with members, public programs, solicitation and jurying of artist submissions, fundraising and sponsorship, as well as forward planning for exhibitions. In spite of everyone's best efforts, the current situation is not sustainable over the longer term - with underfunding, part-time staff and potential Director burnout - all worrying issues impacting a good quality public gallery. Clearly, we need a curator. But to do that, we also need to improve our financial situation.

With the encouragement of our primary funder, the NV Office of Cultural Affairs (recently renamed the Arts Office), we undertook to consider in detail the long term consequences of the funding cuts and the loss of our Curator. We felt we had to take a good look at the Gallery and its future direction before starting a Curator search. With the assistance of the Arts Office, who secured additional funding for most of the cost of an outside consultant plus another sizable contribution of time and effort by Board members, we embarked on a Strategic Planning process in early May, which will continue through to the end of August. Board director Mary Mahon-Jones will deal with this in the Strategic Planning Committee report.

The board has some basis for confidence that by the end of the summer we will have a clear and sustainable vision for the Gallery's future, and a clear road map to follow toward the realization of that vision. The outcome of the Strategic Planning process will help us frame our Curator search process, which we expect will happen sometime in the fall.

Over the course of the last year, composition of the Board has continued to change and the range of expertise on the Board has been broadened significantly as VP Anne Love will detail in the Nominations Committee Report.

On a personal note, it is with real regret that I've decided not to continue as Board President beyond the upcoming AGM. Between my work at our exciting and growing Capilano Film Centre and a very demanding long form film I'm making about sustainability, I just can't devote the time to the President's job that it deserves. I want to salute the extraordinary efforts this board has made in contributing valuable personal time to keeping this gallery running through all of the challenges. I want to particularly thank Board Director Alan Bell for all the sacrifices he has made in really spearheading the daily survival of the gallery. It's been a pleasure and an honour to serve. I take real pride in the role, however small, that I've played in setting and maintaining the positive, friendly, constructive atmosphere that a volunteer organization like the Seymour Art Gallery must have if this whole thing is going to be the enjoyable, thought provoking and even inspiring place our community needs and deserves. My message, insofar as I have one, is that while it's easy to sit on the sidelines and complain, the only real way to build the world we want for ourselves, our families, and our friends is to get involved. The gallery needs you as an active participant. Come on down and see what you can do to help keep this gem the 'best little gallery on the North Shore'.

Cheers,

Charles Wilkinson

President

Seymour Art Gallery