AGENDA
LAL Board of Directors
7.15.14
Approval of May & June Minutes
Governance
Final By-Law Approval
Board Retreat & New Board member orientation
FY15 Board member engagement plan
Finance
Development
Outreach Education Luncheon
Everyone campaign
Grants / Foundations update
Curatorial / Communications/ Events
Executive Director FY14 review & FY15 Preview
As we began FY14 with a clarified vision statement of creating a world where Art, Artists and Art-making are central to human inspiration, self-realization and meaning. We introduced the first installment of our reimagined programming through SITE. This exhibition transformed the interior of the Loudoun House and featured art installations in unlikely places throughout our city, while expanding our audiences perception regarding the presentation of Contemporary Visual Art.
With Luminosity we brought unprecedented exposure to our organization, which expanded our reach, and removed barriers of access to our programming for literally millions of viewers. Through this exhibition we built lasting and meaningful partnerships that will continue to serve our organization for years to come.
This year we also successfully established a national curatorial board and programs like CSA and the LAL Artist Archive are allowing us to serve artists in our community and beyond through programming that exposes their work to new audiences while providing opportunities to further their careers as professional artists. These efforts have also given us the unique opportunity to build community through our programming, and our free educational offerings enriched the lives of over 200 students in our northside community. We also provided free tours for family, and developed LAL’s first spanish curriculum that enabled us to reach deeper into our community then before.
In the coming year, we will develop tours for the hearing impaired and will continue to provide free programming for children and families for each one of our upcoming exhibitions. This fall we will partner with the Blue Grass trust through the presentation of InterSTRCUT at the historic Pope Villa with four additional site specific installations through out the city, and in the Spring/ Summer artist John Grade from Seattle will be in residence at Loudoun where he will present a major installation in Lexington as well as a secondary piece in Eastern Kentucky.
Through the support of our leadership, LAL is redefining the role of Contemporary Visual art in our community and beyond.
Development Highlights-
Bob Wiseman and I will be meeting to discuss strategic fundraising initiatives for FY15 and will work together to design the structure for all development activity this year. With our three fundraising initiatives it will be imperative that we tie all of these efforts together so they coordinate well with our schedule and avoid donor fatigue. We will also be assigning priorities to these goals so that we can draft a development plan for FY15.
Since our meeting in May Victoria and I have made great strides into completing some critical membership mailings. Over 300 letters went out to donors that have lapsed over the past three years and all of our sponsors for Luminosity/Art Ball have received a thank you letter and a copy of our Luminosity magazine. An additional list of 50 of our top donors / new major prospects also received a letter that outlines our work over the past year along with a copy of our magazine. I will continue to work with Victoria to schedule donor meetings with our top 50 through out the summer.
Our board membership drive has raised $1,630 as of 7.11.14 and an updated list will be provided at our July meeting so that board members can facilitate a follow up to their individual list. In the future board members can continue to send names and addresses to Victoria for member solicitation and all board members are encouraged to invite their friends and contacts to all of LAL’s upcoming events.
I have also been scheduling meetings with new corporate contacts that I made during the joint leadership trip to Charlotte and those meetings will continue for the remainder of the summer for the purpose of engaging new corporate sponsors and to establish new potential partners for LAL.
This past week, Kelly and I met with AFB and presented a new three year agreement for the Woodland Art Fair. The total of that agreement is $81,000. They have until September 1st to sign and return that agreement to us.
Grants & Foundations-
We have been notified that we were not selected for funding from either the Warhol Foundation of the Graham Foundation. I have contacted their grant administrators and have successfully scheduled time for feedback from the Graham Foundation. I will continue to request time from Rachel Bers at Warhol, and we are planning to apply to them again in September. I will continue to work to build relationships with both of these foundations to ensure a successful application in the future. All of the major foundations and funders that we have applied to received a copy of our Luminosity magazine with a personal letter from me that highlighted the current scope of work that LAL is doing.
To continue our expanded programming through our residency program LAL will need to secure major funding for that work to continue. I have three prospects that I am currently working with and I will be submitting proposals to each of them which will include naming opportunities to support our Artists In Residence program. i.e. The Erik Carlson Artists in Residence fund. For this opportunity we will be asking for a multi-year commitment that will help to ensure a certain amount of money for this program each year while we continue work to secure institutional funding.
Our KAC award for FY 15 was 13,800 which represents the 20% cut that was expected due to the reduction of the state allocation to the arts in their FY15 budget. Our award from LexArts this year was divided into two segment. $50,000 of GOS with a $10,000 match for any major grans that we secure. Members of our Executive Cabinet will be meeting with Chair of the LexArts board and the allocations committee to discuss this decision further.
Curatorial
Curatorial Board meeting:
Members of the CB will travel to Indianapolis on July 16th & 17th to gather information about curatorial and programming strategies being utilized by other arts organizations. Appointments are scheduled with Joanna Taft (Executive Director of Harrison Center for the arts), Scott Stulen (Curator of Audience Experiences and Performance at Indianapolis Museum of Art), and Shannon Linker (Director of Artist Services and Gallery 924 at the arts Council of Indianapolis). The group will also visit the city’s Cultural Trail to view public art, the Indianapolis Art Center, and galleries along the art district of Massachusetts Avenue.
In Residence:
Artists Melissa Vandenberg and Lori Larusso continue to make work new work in the Loudoun House throughout the summer. In May, LAL hosted a very successful panel discussion specifically aimed towards working artists. Both Melissa and Lori served as panelists as well as Diane Kahlo and John Lackey. The panel discussed various notions of success that exist among artists and the art world, and spoke candidly about struggles that artists face in maintaining a studio practice and shared strategies they use to support their practice. Attendees were very participatory and really enjoyed the dialogue. LAL plans to continue to develop and offer programs that support meaningful discussion among artists.
An exhibition unveiling all of the work being created during In Residence will open September 5.
INTERSTRUCT:
An exhibition of new work occupying multiple non-art spaces in various locations around Lexington this fall 2014. The largest project anchoring the exhibition will be created by international artist collaborative Expanded Draught as a reinterpretation of the historic Pope Villa. That exhibition will open October 3. Other projects also exploring architecture, history, and context will occur throughout the fall, all accompanied by events and contextual programming.
Becky Alley is teaching a course in the fall (co-taught by Colleen Merrill) at UK where students will assist in the execution of all projects related to the exhibition, and will also develop other resources and programming supporting the projects.
CSA Shop:
It is now available online!
LAL Artist Archive:
Five summer interns are working this summer to continue growing the archive by adding new profiles. By the end of the summer we should have at least 30 new profiles online. We welcome suggestions for artists to include and plan to continue growing the archive in an ongoing way.
Communications
As Communications Director, I am excited to look ahead at 2014-2015 to explore new and better ways to connect with current LAL audiences and to cultivate new audiences. Some of the ways I plan to incorporate more strategic marketing include:
*Increased radio and social media targeted advertising for AFB Woodland Art Fair.
LAL will have radio spots on WEKU, Louisville Public Radio, Cincinnati Public Radio, and Cumulus stations in Lexington. The public radio stations will target our loyal constituency while driving regional traffic to the fair. Branching out to work with Cumulus is designed to grow our brand beyond niche arts audiences to more mainstream demographics for events like Woodland.
LAL has launched a separate Facebook Page for AFB Woodland Art Fair in order to grow our base numbers of social media contacts. Many people who “like” the fair may not necessary “like” LAL or even live in Lexington, etc., so we feel by creating a separate page, we can capitalize on another strong social media channel and thereby have two strong avenues by which to interact with diverse audiences.
Facebook advertising has been very effective in trial ads over the past few months, so we will look to make social media advertising a larger part of our core marketing strategy in FY15.
*Regional television ad distributed through Viamedia for AFB Woodland Art Fair
Produced by WKYT and distributed via our partners at Viamedia, LAL’s commercial will air in regional markets within driving distance of Lexington. Unlike LAL’s national commercial, whose purpose was to elevate the LAL brand and introduce LAL (and Kentucky) as a relevant place for creating new artwork, our regional Woodland commercial will be very simply designed to drive out-of-town attendance to the fair. NOTE: I would love to explore potentially running a commercial through Viamedia targeting artists who may apply to the fair later in the year.
*Expanded media partnership with La Voz, Lexington’s Spanish language newsletter
We still have a lot to learn about interacting with Central Kentucky’s Spanish speaking population, but we are making signficant progress by developing partnerships with businesses like La Voz. La Voz is a media sponsor for this year’s WAF: this means LAL will have a Spanish language ad in La Voz not only for WAF but for many of our exhibitions and programs throughout the year.
*Refined targeting of direct mail campaigns
I plan to purchase low cost mailing lists that may differ according to program content. For instance, INTERSTRUT is likely to appeal to enthusiasts of architecture, historic preservation, and regional history. Spanish language events such as tours and kids activities could be advertising by direct mail to native Spanish speakers.
Events
CSA CONCERT
Overall the Concert was a great experience for the Artists and attendees. Working with the Lyric was wonderful, and their professional staff worked hard to create the right atmosphere, lighting and sound cues for the show. Theo Meachum was our backstage manager and really kept the show going smoothly by working directly with the Lyric’s tech crew to manage the lighting/sound cues as well as getting the performers ready. The musicians truly enjoyed working with the professional staff at the Lyric, and the Poets were honored to be chosen and perform! Eric Sutherland did a great job MCing the event and tying in the bio of the musicians/poets while talking about the content of the CSA and how people can become involved with the program and LAL. We also had a CSA shop set up in the Lobby of the Lyric to sell merchandise. Our interns were busy talking with people before and after the concert selling merchandise and talking more about CSA. Overall the event ran very smoothly and the people that came had a great time. The only issue with the concert was a lack of ticket sales. Lexington is a town that buys tickets at the last minute, and we did have a large portion of the ticket sales happen at the door. Between sales and comp tickets we had about 85 people there.
AFB WOODLAND ART FAIR
Looking ahead we are revving up for the Woodland Art Fair. All of the artists have been notified and the map is being finalized. We are looking forward to another great year with some fresh new artists amongst our old favorites! Sponsorship has come in and we are recruiting volunteers. Rebecca Schaller, one of our interns, is going to be our Volunteer Manager and she is doing a wonderful job helping me with the Fair this year. We have a Volunteer Orientation scheduled for Tuesday, August 12th at the Loudoun House. I plan on reaching out to young professional organizations to help recruit more volunteers as well. This year we are planning on continuing our goals for Community Outreach and we will have spanish speaking volunteers, and volunteers who know sign language at the information tent. Another intern, Maria has been vital in helping us reach out to people in our Spanish Speaking community to get volunteers. La Vos is one of our Media sponsors and will be a great addition to our outreach into the public. We are about a month away from the fair and our marketing will be out in full swing!