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