Dear ALL
DATES TO DIARIZE
- 31st December 2011 emails to Helga on decision to take part in Major Minors IV Catalogue. More on this later
- 12th January 2012 - closing date for entries for an Australian travelling exhibition www.beneathsouthernsky.com
- 28th February 2012 - closing date for Major Minors IV
- 24th March 2012 - Wakkerstroom Natural Fibre Fair
- 1 May 2012 - closing date for IQCA Challenge www.iqcafrica.com
- 31 May web submission updates to Helga
- May 2012 - Fibreworks VII Exhibition (details to follow)
- 10 - 14th July 2012 - Quilts in Clarens
- 27 - 29th July - International Quilt Convention Africa - www.iqcafrica.com More on this later
The next Fibreworks meeting will be held on March 2, 2012 at MACS in Pietermaritzburg at 9 for 9.30 am.
The address is MACS Art House, 23 Haldane Road, (cnr. Ritchie Road), Pelham, Pietermaritzburg. Phone 033-3866500 or email macszine@yahoo.com
MINUTES OF FIBREWORKS MEETING
held at Sue Akerman's home in Pietermaritzburg on Friday 15th November 2011.
Present: Sue Akerman, Helga Beaumont, Margaret Ruxton, Jeanette Gilks, Odette Tolksdorf, Carolyn Zelenka, Jutta Faulds, Annette McMaster, Sue Physick and Gillian Gerhard.
Apologies: Rosalie Dace, Mariss Stevens, Margie Garratt, Dana Biddle, Santie McIntosh, Jean Powell and Leonie Malherbe.
Odette Tolksdorf chaired the meeting. She welcomed everyone.
ASSESSMENT PROCESS AND SELECTION OF NEW MEMBERS AT AGM
A discussion of the assessment process at the AGM followed. Jutta suggested that in the future the Panel of 5 elected members assess and discuss the work sent in and all other members at the meeting would be silent observers. After this, all members present will take part in the voting. It was unanimously agreed that this was a very good idea. Everyone present at the AGM, therefore, has a say in the selection process.
NEWSLETTERS:
Members are to be reminded to get news to Dana, the Newsletter Editor, to contribute to the quarterly newsletters. Please share your news with us!
The members updated address list is attached to this newsletter.
LAPSED AND NON-EXHIBITING MEMBERS
There was a discussion on whether any action should be taken regarding members who are 2 years in arrears. 12 members have not yet paid their subs. for 2012. One member felt it was unnecessary to put the pressure on lapsed members, but other members felt strongly that Fibreworks needs subs. to keep running and that members who do not pay should at the very least, not receive the newsletter.
It was pointed out that members may not participate in any Fibreworks exhibition if they are not fully paid up members.
WEB SITE:
Members are urged to read their own pages and to update them. At the moment only new members are doing that. New and updated information must be with Helga by end May so she can update the web site once a year.
FINANCES
Fibreworks received R200 from Leonie for previous Major Minors catalogues sold to the African Art Centre in Durban.
GENERAL
Fibreworks members visited the very successful portrait exhibition "About FACE", at the Tatham Art Gallery in Pietermaritzburg. Annette McMaster and Sue Physick were congratulated on their work on this exhibition.
Sue Akerman was thanked for having the meeting at her house and for the delicious cake she served!
The meeting ended and we then enjoyed lunch together.
EXHIBITIONS:
- Sandton Art Gallery Exhibition 11 to 25 November
Jenny Hearn has also been responsible for the exhibition at Sandton Art Gallery called Structures in Cloth. The exhibition consisted of the FW Kimono Exhibition which came from Artisan Gallery, and 44 framed quilts 12" x 12" "This is a Quilt" by the Studio Art Quilt Association. Jenny is the African rep. for this international art group and urges you to join; it is $60 a year and you can enter all sorts of shows plus receive 4 excellent journals per year.
Also on exhibition were several works by Roy Starke and Japanese Ikebana by Marilyn Giannada and Victor Reed who "explore the possibilities of this art form when combined with textiles".
The Sandton Art Gallery space was given to us free of charge by the Johannesburg Municipality. The number of visitors has been quite low due to the changed environment around the gallery i.e. taxi ranks nearby. Two small works by Karen Arbeter were stolen on the opening night which has again alerted us to the security of work on exhibitions especially small works.
See these links to websites advertising the exhibition:
http://www.joburg.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7414&catid=110&Itemid=193
http://news.artsmart.co.za/2011/08/kimonos-unlimited.html
Please see Jenny Hearn's Reportback at the end of this newsletter.
- Major Minors IV
Please find attached to this newsletter a comprehensive Major Minors IV Entry Form. Thanks Odette for getting this together so concisely! Although I'm sure the Entry Form will answer most of your questions regarding the exhibition, here below is some additional information for your interest:
- The size of the work is 25 x 25 cm, thereby lending continuity to previous Major Minor exhibitions
- You may submit more than one work to this exhibition. We will try to hang them all.
- Please do not frame your work.
- The hanging fee is R150, irrespective of how many works you submit. This amount will also entitle you to a catalogue.
- Should you be interested in taking part in/featuring in the catalogue, please let Helga know by emailing her before 31st December 2011. We need to know if the catalogue will be a financially feasible idea. If it is not, the exhibition will go on ahead as planned, but without the catalogue. Hope this is clear.
- Submission of actual work: 28th February 2012. See the Entry Form for further details.
- 3D work is acceptable, provided the dimensions of the work do not exceed 25 X25cm c 25 cm.
- Please note that only paid up members may participate in exhibitions, so please make sure your subs are up to date.
- Fibreworks VII Exhibition, 2012 in Gauteng
Jenny Hearn has been sourcing venues in Gauteng for our exhibition next year. Great news……we are booked for The University of Johannesburg FADA (Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture) Gallery in May next year, 2012.
Some Fibreworks members at the meeting were not in favour of a May exhibition as they felt there was not enough time. However, we have 5 months to work towards this exhibition and the FADA Gallery is a wonderful, large and prestigious venue so we have decided to go ahead with it. There won't be a theme for the exhibition, maybe just an overall general name for the show.
Full details about this exhibition will be sent out as soon as we have them, meanwhile you can start preparing and working! Please make every effort to take part as it is our National Members' show.
See previous exhibitions at FADA:
http://www.uj.ac.za/EN/Faculties/fada/FADAGallery/PastExhibitions/Pages/home.aspx
The Stewart Gallery will be advised that we will no longer require their venue.
ACHIEVEMENTS
The book / catalogue about the "Meet The Makers" exhibition at the Tatham Art Gallery in Pietermaritzburg features Sue Akerman and Elaine Barnard amongst others. It's a wonderful edition! The book is available from the Tatham.
Jeanette Gilks, Rosalie Dace, Leonie Malherbe and Odette Tolksdorf are exhibiting work at a group exhibition "Memories" at Artisan Gallery in Durban - this is Sue Greenberg's last exhibition before Artisan closes or is sold.
FROM OUR MEMBERS
Jeanette has this to say:
I would like to thank everyone who dropped a word to Odette about me! Gifts, when they are a complete surprise, are the best kinds of gifts. Noddy, thank you particularly for all your embroidery efforts. I do wish you lived nearer! And Odette, for conceiving this idea.
Thanks for good friendship, all.
Jeanette
INTERESTING ARTICLES
http://www.fiberarts.com/article_archive/critiquefiberart_art.asp
CALL FOR ENTRIES
- IQCA Quilt Challenge - for Submission rules and guidelines, please visit www.iqcafrica.com
INTERESTING WEBSITES
http://www.southafrica.net/sat/content/en/za/full-article?oid=344170&sn=Detail&pid=462&Fibre-and-textile-art
http://www.connectionsfibreartists.com/
QUOTES
A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.
When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, "I used everything you gave me."
ERMA BOMBECK
That's all for now! If you have any news for our next newsletter, please send it to biddles@telkomsa.net we would love to hear from you!
Love Dana
See Leonie Malherbe's letter below:
Jenny Hearn's Report back:
Hi Dana,
Herewith the report - very late I'm afraid but the bronchitis was so severe that I had to go to hospital.
The Sandton Civic Centre Gallery is a fabulous venue, a huge area that showed off the vibrance of colour and diversity of the styles of our work. I had two of the Masters of Ikebana do arrangements down the centre of the space, in keeping with the Kimono theme. I also had the SAQA quilts. I have made a CD which I will send to Helga in time for the next meeting in March.
The Sandton gallery used to be a very lively venue, with exhibitions changing every two weeks and lunchtime concerts on Fridays. It is next to the library and close to the eateries in Mandela Square in Sandton City. The parking for this was in front of the library and the Gautrain Station is just beyond, so there was a great deal of foot traffic going past the gallery and people popping in to see what was on.
Alas, no more. There is a taxi rank in front of the library now, and people enter from the other side, and there is no signage at all except those that I put up. Sandra de Wet, who is the council exhibition coordinator and I sent out many invitations by email, and contacted Jenny Chrys Williams, radio, Nina ven Jacob, email advertising, Michelle Constant, who does the radio programme "Create" on Saturday mornings and the" Whats On" in the newspapers, both surburban and Star, Saturday Star, and Business Day. Mail & Guardian only show one gallery venue per week, and William Kentridge was on, so there you go.
However, we did have a few visitors each day, including some foreigners who followed the signs and were very impressed with what they saw.
I wonder whether this exhibition was too close to the TAGG show which finished a week before ours opened. Moira, who runs that gallery, said they had 12 new pages in the visitors' book and 9 pieces sold. Those were mainly quilters but even so. This gallery is a converted house which neither Dana nor I consider good enough for our exhibition, mainly because it is too small and off the beaten track.
We now have the FADA gallery at UJ, a most prestigious space in the Architecture, Interior Design and Art School, which means our work is accepted and recognized by academics as worthy, so I am very pleased with that. I showed them the catalogues of the Major Minors and Innovative Threads shows. This gallery is on two floors, I will get there to photograph it as soon as I can so you can see what the hanging space is like. One set of works I saw there was two sided and they hung from the ceiling and were anchored to the floor. There is excellent lighting, both electronic and window.
They do not want a theme, they feel that the artist is restricted and they want to see the individual artist's voice
This will be in May, which I know that some of you will think is too soon, but really it is feasible in five months. Obviously I would prefer new work, but I will accept old work that has not been seen up here, and I know all of you have some magnificent pieces. It does not all have to be for sale.
To finish, I called for more work as you know, so thank you for all of you who sent me extra pieces. Thank you to those who manned the gallery while I had to work, and to those who kept me company on the days I was there.
Best wishes to you all over the holiday season,
Jenny
