DECEMBER 2020 NEWSLETTER

Posted on Dec 13, 2020

DECEMBER 2020

 

To tell the truth, I’m sat here mulling over what to write about this uneventful, eventful year. The last proper newsletter went out in January with new membership forms and a full demonstrators programme to look forward to, little knowing what was to befall us all.

Some of you did pay your membership for 2020 and this will be carried over to next year. To those who didn’t pay, I sincerely hope you will resume membership when we can all get back together again.

In March, thinking it would only be a matter of weeks before restrictions were lifted, I decided to set up an Isolation Gallery on our facebook page asking members to send in photographs of their works. I saw this as a way for members to keep in touch and also let us know that you’d not succumbed to this dreadful virus. I’m so grateful to the members who have taken the trouble to send in their photos. I’ve had enough to be able to post a new work every day from last March to Tuesday of this week, 9^th December. I decided that would be the cut off date for this year but I shall be posting again in the new year if enough members and followers send in their images. I’ve said ‘followers’ as quite a few people submitting pics for the gallery were not members, they’d seen our facebook page and asked if their works could be shown. Several asked about membership but, as you know, that’s on hold until further notice.

All the facebook images have also been posted on our website in monthly galleries. The thinking was that if we couldn’t have our annual exhibition, we could have a virtual monthly one. Take a look at the website to see what’s been created, I think it’s quite impressive. The address is at the bottom of the page.

We do have an exhibition planned for 2021. This will be our return to the Granary Gallery at Weston Park. As many of you know it’s a much smaller, more exclusive gallery than Walsall’s so we have to restrict numbers. We do this by sending out invitations to take part. The exhibition is scheduled for April 2021 and we are hoping restrictions will not prevent it going ahead.  Further information will be sent out about this event.

One planned event that had to be cancelled at the last minute was the award ceremony for our Young People’s Art competition. It was initially rescheduled for September but that also had to be abandoned. Andrew Tift very kindly judged the works submitted from several schools in Walsall and surrounding areas. Prizes and certificates were delivered to the winning schools by David McGuire. We had hoped to get photographs from the schools of the prize winners receiving their awards but with restrictions as they were it was impossible. I have photographs of some of the entered works and I shall endeavour to put them on our website soon.

Although the society has been unable to meet, quite a few members of the committee have ‘zoomed’ for meetings to discuss ways forward, but, as restrictions continued to change, nothing definite could be decided upon. Pat mentions this in her message to you all.

Well, that’s enough of my doom and gloom. The only way to lighten this missive is to send you all very best wishes for Christmas and hope that the New Year heralds a much better and heathier time for us all.

Please keep in touch.

Pam.