As you may or may not know I have been working diligently over the past 6 months on a project entitled Guelph Art Works. We need 3 board members that can appreciate, support and work with our vison. I thought I would extend this invitation to you, my special list. We have a working space in mind while we wait to hear the progress of the ideal situation. We are in the process of exploring the concept of becoming a not for profit that will allow us to apply for start up costs.
Why?
Because the City of Guelph is rich and abundant with the arts.
However nothing is visual arts retail/entrepreneurial focused.What is Guelph Art Works?
The Guelph Art Works will be an artist driven/focused centre dedicated to providing facilities such as studios (private or shared, on a rental basis with or with out retail) gallery spaces, peer resources and educational initiatives to our community of visual artists (sculptors, painters, illustrators, photographers, potters,
print makers etc)The Guelph Art Works goal is to support and develop a dynamic and sustainable and vibrantly exciting visual arts focused facility. Recognizing that many artists make their living from their art, Guelph Art Works will encourage an entrepreneurial/retail spirit and as a result will contribute to an untapped art industry in terms of self employment, tourist destination and by being a creative hub.
This initiative is not to be viewed as an instead of any other initiative for example “The Guelph Arts Platform” we recognize the Platform is a completely different project answering to different needs of a wide variety of the arts.
We know our city has an overabundance of artists, musicians, artisans and performers of all sorts, all with different needs. We look forward to the Guelph Arts Platform being successful with their project just as we hope to be with ours.
We feel that as professional artists in this community that we deserve (and by deserve we don’t mean given or handed a space, or entitled to) a space where we can present ourselves as part of a dynamic and exciting concept, as we see our colleagues-other artists enjoy in other communities. Where we can create, foster and encourage Visual Arts in a dedicated, publicly accessible retail space for this purpose
Think along the lines of The Imperial Cotton Centre for the Arts (imperialcottoncentre.com/index.html) and the Distillery District http://www.thedistillerydistrict.com/ and the Alton Mill http://www.altonmill.ca/
www.guelphartworks.com MP