ACTING PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE - MAY

We are racing towards the end of the financial year, and the next Annual General Meeting in August. John Bishop has agreed to join the Committee for the remaining period to August, and more volunteers will be made most welcome. The future Membership Officer and Treasurer positions still need to be filled. Members need to plan their support and involvement now in the ASV for the year from August.

Notices to Members have been issued in respect an Extraordinary General Meeting to be held Wednesday June 10. The voting for Options A and B previously circulated to members was found on a recount to be a tie. The Committee has included resolutions in the Notice to Members that reflect the different Member interests, and the advice of lawyers nominated by Arts Law. The Committee has also included resolutions in the Notice that incorporate the clauses deemed by Consumer Affairs to be effective when they approved the new Constitution last year.

The Three Graces have issued applications and terms of the Annual Exhibition opening on Wednesday 15 July, and Rod Sanders has organized a band (including one not to be missed drummer) for the appropriate opening sound.

Mark Cowie as Exhibition Coordinator of the Tesselaar Exhibition is actively planning the exhibition planned for September-October of this year, and previous entrants are being contacted.

Contact has been made with Swinburne University for support in making changes to the web site, and the Committee is considering alternatives for IT advice and assistance.

Geoff Williams Acting President

ASV Diary Dates

Meetings are held in the Boroondara Community Arts Room, rear 360 Burwood Road, Hawthorn and start at 7:30pm.

Annual Exhibition 2009
Entries Close 5th June
This year the annual exhibition will be held at Manningham Gallery, 699 Doncaster Road, Doncaster from 15th to the 31st July. Entries close on 5th June. Entry forms and conditions of entry are available at
www.sculptorsvictoria.asn.au/aae_2009_entry.pdf and
www.sculptorsvictoria.asn.au/aae_2009_conditions.pdf and have been posted to members.

Monthly Meeting 10th June
Extraordinary General Meeting to vote on constitution matters including membership clauses, followed by a talk on digital imaging - Andrew Barcham of Screaming Pixel will take us through the process of taking and producing good images of our work.

Annual Subscription
Renewals 30th June
This is a good opportunity for prospective treasurers and membership officers to “learn the ropes” - please contact Ronit or Patrick to find a way of working with them.

Monthly Meeting 8th July
Lise Toft, Valda Cuming and Suzanne Kaldor will talk about their experiences including working and workshops overseas.

The ASV Annual Exhibition runs from 15 July to 31st July.

Tesselaar Sculpture Exhibition 2009
Closing date for entries is Friday, 17 July 2009

Monthly Meeting 12th August
This will be our Annual General Meeting. Nomination forms will be sent out as appropriate and a returning officer appointed.
The meeting will be followed by a talk by a tax advisor - seriously not to be missed.

19th September
Watch for further information - Graeme Wilkie has invited us to Qdos Gallery in Lorne - car pooling will be arranged.

Tesselaar Sculpture Exhibition
Runs from 16th September to 13th October 2009

ANNUAL EXHIBITION – MANNINGHAM GALLERY

Hard copies of Entry Forms have been posted to all members. They have been available on our website for a couple of weeks now- and an ad in the Art Almanac called for entries from interested parties for the Tina Wentcher.
We are looking forward very much to receiving your entries by June 15.

It is going to be a great exhibition at the Manningham Gallery this year. We are enjoying working with the gallery staff to date and know that we are going to have a successful one.

Happy sculpting! Looking forward to seeing you and your friends there.

Annual Committee: Marija Patterson, Gillian Govan and Bronwyn Culshaw

Sculpture Among the Tulips 2009

The Tesselaar Sculpture Exhibition takes place from September 16th to October 13th.
This year the selection process will be undertaken by Malcolm Thomson, gallery curator at the Australian Academy of Design. Judging the exhibition and awarding the $5,000 Acquisitive Award will be Dr. Dan Wollmering, eminent sculptor and senior lecturer in the Department of Fine Arts at Monash University.

Tesselaar will also be providing a $500 People’s Choice Award for the sculpture voted most popular by the 40,000 visitors to the Tulip Festival.

An Application Form and the Terms and Conditions can be downloaded from the ASV website on
www.sculptorsvictoria.asn.au/tesselaar_2009_application.pdf and
www.sculptorsvictoria.asn.au/tesselaar_2009_conditions.pdf

Closing date for applications is Friday, 17 July 2009.

I look forward to your support for the Tesselaar Sculpture Prize 2009.
Please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any additional enquiries.

With kind regards
Mark

Mark Cowie
Exhibition Coordinator
Tesselaar Sculpture Prize
PO Box 1086, Daylesford Vic 3460
(03) 5348 5696 / 0429 336 639
markcowie@aussiebroadband.com.au

Notes from the May Meeting

Graeme Wilkie treated us to a wide ranging talk - you had to be there, technical difficulties and all - it was a fascinating meeting. Graeme spoke not only about his own sculpture but also about Lorne Sculpture - an event - festival - celebration of sculpture on the Littoral Edge as the 2007 show was called. This year’s event runs from October 17 to November 8, 2009. More information is available from the Lorne Sculpture web site: www.lornesculpture.com.

We were treated to a glimpse of the great Anagama kiln - sustainably powered by plantation grown wood and also to Graeme’s philosophy reflected in his sculptural work and in the design and construction of Qdos itself. The freedom to work as he wishes has been won by years of disciplined work - he likened it to climbing a mountain before you can run down the other side with the wind blowing in your hair.

A tribute to the inspiration of the evening was the animated chatter that followed - thank you to Graeme for the talk and also for the images of his work and permission to use them in the newsletter.

Oops - too late for the main newsletter but Suzanne's article throws more informed light on the meeting so here it is:

Graeme introduced us to his journey from being a repetitive functional potter to his present achievements. He is well known for his monumental Ceramic Sculptures nationally and he also enjoys International fame. Graeme, as with myself and others from the 7o's was influenced by an Architect turned Ceramic artist Joan Campbell. When the Japanese fine porcelain was the most treasured art form Campbell introduced us to the "English Raku Style" when the high fired biscuit ware was pitfired for days often and let the natural minerals be responsible for the colouration. Graeme's dragon kiln is fired for a week and constantly fed through the fire boxes. " He fires his kiln mostly by donated firewood from the local area .

He has invited our member to come up and observe the firing and he will take us through the cycle of his production. At this stage we are looking at the 19th of September - stand by for further news.

Suzanne

Public Liability Insurance

Queensland Artworkers offer public liability insurance as part of their membership. This insurance is pretty important to anyone trying to get on in the art world - so it’s worth checking out their rates and all the other things they offer. This includes a weekly email newsletter - up to date - virtually up to the minute news.

maaassive membership drive!
Artworkers is having a massive membership drive! We want to continue growing and improving our services.

Renew your membership now to be in the running to win prize packs of either Arts Hub memberships, subscriptions with Art Collector, Art Almanac, Design Quarterly and Art Monthly Australia, Dendy memberships, movie passes from Hopscotch films, Madman DVD packs, gourmet wine packs, and vouchers from Folio books and Avid Reader.

And, for every friend you recommend to join – you will receive x 1 entry to win one of the great art prize packs!

Tell your friends to mention your name when they join to be included in the prize draw!
For more information visit
www.artworkers.org

Apologies

Apologies are due to Jenny Steiner and Pauline Meade whose work was incorrectly attributed to the wrong person’s image in the last newsletter. I blame my confusion on the flu that I came down with that night - so - I’m sorry it was all my fault.

Jenny Rickards

Woollahra Sculpture Prize

I have had a notice announcing this year’s prize. For info go to:
http://sculptureprize.woollahra.nsw.gov.au/
email jo.jansyn@woollahra.nsw.gov.au
phone 02 9311 7135
Entries are due by 14th August.

Michael Meszaros

Toorak Sculpture Festival 1 - 31 May 2009

Fay Gerber reminded me that I’d missed the opening of the Toorak Sculpture Festival. Tracey Cammock from the festival supplied me with this image from the opening, the media release and a catalogue - I hope everyone has seen the festival and congratulations to the members who took part.

Winners photo are Malcolm Thomson-Consultant Curator, James Cattell (1st) Deane Hardwick - Judge, Robert Hague (2nd), Philip Cooper (3rd), Ted Baillieu MLA & Tony Fialides - President TVTA. We dont post the Catalogue on the website, we have them in all shops of the Village & on trams - we want people to come to Toorak & experience first hand. Tracey Cammock
from the media release:
Announcement of the 2009 Award Winners. On Friday night – May 1, Ted Baillieu MLA Opened the 2009 Toorak Village Sculpture Exhibition to a crowd of over 200 invited artists, traders, councillors & special guests. As judged by Dr Deanne Hardwick the winners announced by Ted Baillieu were:


City of Stonnington & Toorak Village Traders Award –$5,000
James Cattell with ‘THE FINAL MOVE’ in Toorak Travel.




Yarra Trams Award - $2,500
Robert Hague with ‘DISCUS’ in Robbie Barker Hair.













Tok Corporate Award - $1,000 Philip Cooper with ‘HOMO COELESTUS NOVUS (HEAVENLY NEW MAN)’ in Jo Malone.

Art and Environment

Whilst looking for something else on the Internet I found this article
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/009854.html
about an artist who has teamed with environmental scientists to set up experiments and habitat construction that not only serve environmental science and conservation but also educate and interpret the work to the public - plus they look great.

Sculpture is stretching the boundaries into performance art and conceptual art - here is another area where the power to think in three or four dimensions can bring new life to an idea.

It’s worth a look.

Jenny Rickards
If you are fed up with the bulk of the articles in this newsletter coming from Jenny Rickards - you know the solution - send in some interesting stuff or even make a publishable comment... you know how. J

Missing in Action

From time to time we receive information too late - a monthly newsletter comes out every month and that will miss a whole heap of great opportunities and events that you really wanted to know about - this month we have missed:

Shmooze - a talk on public art at Kingston Art Centre by Lynda Newton.

CDN - the Cultural Development Network ran a one day public forum exploring the way arts can assist in recovery from trauma, in particular bushfires.

ISSI keep running amazing courses

Montsalvat sends a newsletter telling us what has happened....

The Australian Business Arts Foundation is now running all sorts of good things - and I hope we are all looking at the artist career website from time to time to keep abreast of professional matters.

It’s a lot to miss and a lot to keep up with - so please find your sources and check their newsletters and if anyone can help me keep ahead of the information flows I’d be really grateful.

Jenny Rickards

Removed

This article has been withdrawn at the request of the committee.

For those members who are interested I have a personal discussion paper on a web site:
http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/jrickards/asv_amendments/
Members without Internet access can phone me 03 9836 2738 or 0418 971 897 and I’ll post the discussion paper to them.

Jenny Rickards

Q and A

We tried this a long time ago and didn’t maintain the momentum - asking and answering questions through the newsletter spreads the knowledge around - so here’s one that came up a little while back:

How do you put glasses on a three dimensional portrait sculpture (as opposed to a low relief) that starts as a clay modelling on an armature and will be cast in bronze?

One suggestion is to make the glasses in wax and try them on the clay as you go and then attach them to the wax when it is prepared for casting - simple, tried and true...

So if anyone else would like to brave the publicity send us a question, make an answer or tell us about a solution you discovered to a problem you had please let me know

Jenny Rickards

Renewals - the ideal time to train our new officers.

Some time ago an enterprising committee asked the members of the ASV whether they wished to be involved in the day to day running of the Association or whether it was reasonable for the committee to get on with the job. Predictably the members opted for the committee to do the work and not bother them unless it was absolutely essential. The problem is that the committee is formed from members - you - ordinary sculptors trying to juggle a life, sculpture, a family, a career - pretty tough and most people can only do this for so long. While they are in office of course they are building valuable experience - even expertise. We tend not to acknowledge that until suddenly we are cast adrift after they have left and we don’t know how everything was done.
With the pending retirement of both our membership officer and our treasurer we are actually facing a spot of bother in preserving corporate memory - how the membership details are recorded and the data transferred to the web site. Now is the time for people to come forward to learn from our retiring officers and to run through the process with their guidance. This is real time training and the best way to “learn the ropes”.
Ronit has been a great membership officer - she has taken the time to understand the job and made a lot of suggestions. Regardless of who takes over, the most efficient and pleasant way to understand the job is with guidance - so please consider if you will take a turn at this particular job.
The good bits? Well imagine being the first contact for new members - you get to meet some wonderful people - there are friends everywhere.
Call Ronit on 9816 3282 or 0412 115 333.
Jenny Rickards

NAVA NEWS

This week the ASV received an email from NAVA regarding the resale royalty rights legislation:
Resale Royalty – Government Ticks Empty Box
The Australian art community could not be more disappointed in the artists’ resale royalty bill which passed through parliament today.
Tamara Winikoff, Executive Director of the Australian visual arts peak body, the National Association for the Visual Arts, said, “This legislation alienates all sides of the visual arts sector. It is an election promise gone horribly wrong.”
“Especially in the current economic downturn, this could have provided urgently needed help to some of Australia’s lowest income earners. This compromised scheme will take about 20 terms of government before it is fully functional,” Winikoff continued. “According to art industry studies, most of today’s artists, especially Aboriginal artists, will see no benefit within their lifetime and will not enjoy the dignity of earning income from the increasing value of their art work.”
The model contained in the Government’s Bill will see the payment of the royalty to artists delayed until the second sale of their artwork after the commencement of the scheme. Art industry studies of auction house sales showed that of the artworks which were sold in 1998, only 6% had resold ten years later. This gives an indication of the length of time most artists will have to wait to see any benefit.
Over the same period, in the fully functioning scheme for which artists have been impatiently waiting, $35.3 million would have been paid on 43.000 art works as opposed to the Government’s scheme which would have delivered about 1/9th of this amount on less than 4,000 artworks.
In addition, this scheme will be very complex to administer and is highly unlikely to secure reciprocal rights from overseas sales of Australian artists’ work. This means again that artists are being denied another potential source of income.
“I’m sure Government had good intentions but there is nothing more disappointing that raising people’s expectations, then letting them down. From the Government’s election promise, artists expected a resale royalty that applied immediately to all resales of works in copyright. What they’ve been delivered is a wishful gaze into the distant future,” Winikoff said.
Some of the problems which have dogged the Government’s resale royalty right bill were highlighted in the ten recommendations made by the House Standing Committee on Climate Change, Water, Environment, and the Arts’ Inquiry into the Resale Royalty Right for Visual Artists Bill 2008. However, the most problematic parts of the bill have not been changed.

Current ASV Committee

Vice President, Acting President and Acting Secretary
Geoff Williams bh 9670 0824

Treasurer
Patrick Culshaw 9857 9153

Committee members
Michael Meszaros bh 9853 9610
Marija Patterson 9489 4537
John Bishop 9885 2660