OUR RECENT EXHIBITION IS STILL ON!

I hope you all had a chance to attend the opening of “Celebration of Joy”. The show will remain a remarkable ‘first’ in terms of in its extensive coverage of our Scarborough painter and strong cultural figure, Joy MacFadyen. It was a comparable exhibition to the one for Scarborough photographer Phil Bergerson which was equally professionally rendered for posterity. 

OPENING NIGHT VIDEO

The video of the opening night of “Celebration of Joy” is waiting but not completed in its editing. For sure, some people who couldn’t attend, will want to see it for themselves. Once volunteers have finished the job, it will be up on the website for all to refer to forever. Although a date for this is not yet available, it will be some time soon.

GOOD GUIDANCE

Along with our other exhibitions Gallery X certainly has something to say for itself in the cultural milieu and will continue to impress with the good guidance of the board. Deciding what to do next has been our forte, for although nobody has enough time to do much volunteer work our group board decisions have resulted in commendable progress in an effective direction even if we are slow about it. We have no staff and no funding, so I think our progress is excellent.

WHAT TO DO NEXT?

We need to put thought into where we are going next. During the production of this recent exhibition, I have had discussions with some board members about the future. They have mentioned the need to find multiplier effects that will enhance and expand our reputation in the community. To that end I contacted our MP Jean Yip and had a meeting with her at my residence. As a result, Ms. Yip was certainly impressed with our involvement in The Arts. My house is a bit like a gallery because of all the paintings, which she admired. Could I send some work to be exhibited in her parliamentary office? Of course! But I will ask that recognition of “Gallery X” with some kind of signage will accompany that loan of paintings. Ms. Yip will put photos of our meeting, and recognition of our name and goals, in her newsletter, and Facebook Page, which I presume goes to thousands of constituents. Ms. Yip indicated she never spends as much time in a meeting with any constituent and was here for close to two hours. I’m impressed. We have made a good mark in beginning our contact with government officials and I am most thankful to Ms. Yip in that regard.

BLOGS

I have been writing one blog a month for our website. Perhaps you will find some of the topics interesting. Having a vision and creating consensus about that vision will likely be the subject of my next blog. What I find is people do not generally have clear visions about the cultural world in their community, and furthermore have no idea how to create greater significance for themselves in that venue. Yes, yes, the artists do! We certainly need more people like artists, who can aspire to the vision of a decent art gallery in our midst. As a start we need more subscribers to our newsletter. Here are the routes, get any interested people to “subscribe” on our website, galleryxscarborough.com, or drop me an email with their name and email address and I will personally add their name to our growing numbers, 240 subscribers to date. We need a minimum of 5000 in my estimation, and probably a lot more to have any real impact. You are personally ‘a multiplier effect’ in that regard. Ask your friends neighbours and relatives to join us. A large gallery in Scarborough is needed by all Canadians as there is a shortage of Galleries of any decent size across the country. More on vision and action in my next blog.

CONNECTING WITH THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY

If we could find an advocate who would be willing to attend meetings of the Scarborough Business Association, it would be advantageous for them and for us. Businesspeople do not find art as a first priority in their business dealings, although art is used in some way in every part of their progress. Logos and signs, bulletins and other publication, flyers, websites, business cards, and so on, all involve the inclusion of artists. And I would imagine that many have fine art on their walls to impress their clients. They should have, because it does! If you are inclined to fill that role, going to business association meetings, we would be glad to hear from you. You can contact me at petermarshartist@gmail.com

GRANT APPLICATIONS?

If you have valuable experience in applying for grants the board would be impressed with your credentials, that is, we desperately need someone who enjoys fulfilling that role. If we can get a grant we can have efficient ways of moving forward. Let me know at petermarshartist@gmail.com.

BUCKINGHAM PALACE

Here’s an interesting story. Three members of the board, Rayne Tunley, Neville Clarke, and Peter Marsh, had their paintings hanging in The Redgrave Room of The King’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace from January to June of this year 2024. There were seven artists in total who sent their paintings as gifts in celebration of the King’s Coronation. Completely unexpected, curators decided to hang them in the gallery, and they went from there to the Royal Trust Collection at Windsor Castle. Life is sometimes serendipitous and very pleasant!

CHARITABLE STATUS

We are still working on obtaining ‘Charitable Status”. Various attempts of pro bono legal work have not worked out so far, but they will in the end. If you can provide assistance in this regard, in any way, please send me a note at petermarshartist@gmail.com. Are you interning and need a project to give you experience? Do you have a friend who is?

HONOURARY BOARD DIRECTOR

D. Paul Schafer has accepted an invitation to be an honourary board member which indicates strongly his support for our goal. Paul has written a goodly number of books on the development of the arts locally and globally and his words are encouraging to all those who are excited about the progress of cultural issues. You can google his name and find plenty of references, including Amazon where all his books can be purchased online. Thank you Paul!

A MAJOR SPONSOR?

Major sponsors are often a matter of ‘who you know’. It’s a fact, and true of many circumstances, from getting a job, to finding opportunities. We definitely need a major sponsor, so if you know somebody or some company who could fill that role the Board would be mightily interested. One would have to think that this would be a long term sponsorship which would support our endeavours on a committed basis.

We do in fact also need small sponsors. People or companies who would be willing to throw in small amounts of money for putting their names to exhibitions, newsletters, prizes, venues, and so on. People often don’t know how to do that. If you or friends are that way inclined give me a shout at petermarshartist@gmail.com. We can work out the details.

THINKING OF THESE

We certainly having been thinking about our youth in terms of an exhibition. We have also given thought to links on our website that would be useful and interesting to visitors to our site. We already have some historic Scarborough places on our website. We are also thinking of a listing of all Scarborough artists. We have already started a listing of all famous Scarborough people involved in The Arts over the years, like “The Bare Naked Ladies” and so on. Scarborough has a lot of hidden artistic talent.

OUR NEXT EXHIBITION?

Some Directors think that we should have a bricks and mortar exhibition, that is, we should organize an exhibition in some kind of gallery space in Scarborough. Its possible and will take some considerable planning. We will have to decide what kind of exhibition it will be and how we will deal with the logistics. Getting the work to and from the space. Fees? Restrictions if any? Commissions to help defray costs? Working out a schedule far enough away that we can get all the physical work completed by volunteers? As many artists and artists groups can tell you it is a demanding process and requires considerable amounts of volunteer time. Maybe 2025 will be the year for that. If its going to be in the fall of 2025 I would think we need to start definite planning right now! If you are interested in helping out with such a venture, get in touch with me at petermarshartist@gmail.com

DONATIONS

Asking for donations when we don’t have “Charitable Status” is difficult because we cannot write tax receipts for donations without that particular qualification, but I can say that all donations, which you can make at galleryxscarborough.com would be more than gratefully received and will have the potential to fund some of the items covered in this newsletter. The other concern is that money is short for everyone these days. In that regard any donation, even if it is very small is a strong part of a community effort to succeed in our vision of a substantial gallery for Scarborough.

Thank you for being a member of our organization and supporting our efforts with your name and good wishes. This newsletter was written with the sole intent of bringing you up to date with our efforts and I hope you have enjoyed this summary. The board wishes you the very best with your daily endeavours and thanks you for your participation.

Peter Marsh

The Existential Art Gallery of Scarborough

November/December 2024