Our 2016-2017 Traveling exhibition now has its own website!  Go to http://sdafiberfusionshow.org/ to see it.  The entry form will be up there on January 15 and entries are due by March 20, 2016.  Thanks to SDA member Claire Jones for doing such a beautiful job on putting this together.

We also have had our first donations and sponsors come in.  We’re pleased to announce that on top of our jurors’ prize awards, the ‘Deb Taylor Spirit of Exploration Award’ is being funded courtesy of Gay Jensen and Bud Taylor.  We’ve also received a small event grant from SDA national- thanks to Pat Herkal for leading this up with the grant proposal.  Our donation button will be added to the website soon, but please feel free to contact us if you’d like to contribute towards the exhibition.  The more money we can raise, the more we can do (we’d love to get a professional catalog printed of Fiber Fusion!)

If you haven’t ever entered a juried show, this is a terrific opportunity to learn the process. We’re planning to do several blog posts to help our membership and readers learn all you need to know for completing and submitting a show entry.  Please let us know if there are specific topics you’d like us to cover.

We’d love your comments and suggestions on the website, as well as any questions you might have on the process.

Pad Your Artistic Resume by helping out!

Searching Song Instrument by Danielle Bodine

Not only is this an opportunity for exhibiting your artwork, it’s also a place where you can contribute a little of your time and talent!  Each location (Richland, Redmond, Port Townsend, and Everett) will need a crew of volunteers… even if you can’t oversee a complete area, let us know if there is a part of the job where you’d be able to help. Here are some areas we could use some assistance:

Local Operations Chair –Sees that artwork is checked in, finds volunteer to store packing material, assists in the installation, finds volunteers for the reception, assisting at the workshops and presentations, counting of ballots, signage, placement of postcards. Repackage art for transport, store art, transport to next venue. Send thank you notes.

Local area PR and Marketing—Sees that lists of newspapers, association newsletters, galleries, stores, and interested individuals are developed.  Prior to the event, coordinate flyer or postcards to stores in the locale. Find reader-boards and volunteers to distribute with posters and balloons for the opening reception and take down after the reception.

Portfolio—Develops portfolio of artists’ photos of art and artist statements.

Fundraising–Send letters out to list of companies targeted as potential donors, followup, write credit information for promotional materials.

Catalog—Arranges for professional photographer to take images at first venue, develops catalog with lead article, jurors’ statements, artists’ photos, and artists’ statements.  Works with printer through completion of catalog.

Please feel free to share your thoughts here in the comments.  We’re looking forward to seeing the fantastic range of artwork from our members in 2016.

Happy Solstice and Holidays,

Christina Fairley Erickson, Executive Director WA SDA Fiber Fusion Exhibition and Barb Matthews, WA state SDA Representative