PIC It is time to go public. I am trying to make my dream of an enamel center a reality. This will be the first of many blogposts about the Center for Enamel Art. The posts will begin appearing in a new website next month. There will also be a Facebook page and a Twitter feed for the Center – although I am very bad at administering social media. There will also be a sign-up form on this site that you can submit in order to receive e-mail announcements about me, the Center project, and related events for the enameling community as a whole.
The genesis of the enamel center began many years ago. In frequent drives around the Bay Area I would come upon a storefront or a building and say both out loud and to whomever would listen: “this would make a great enamel gallery” or “we could do so much for enamelists in this space.” Then last summer, I finally was spurred into action by 2 events:
- Driving to a show in Bellevue, WA, a young go-getter informed me that if I wanted a center I should get started now because I wasn’t getting any younger and no one else had started one.
- I inadvertently created a web domain with a new webhost that said “westcoastenamelcenter”.
Now, after almost a year of talking to people, evaluating resources, and wondering if I have the energy to make this happen, The Enamel Center I have thought about and dreamed of for so long may indeed become a reality. Now comes the hard part: creating a structure, a plan, and finally, raising money for an actual space. In the meantime The Center will find a fiscal sponsor in order to gain interim non-profit status.
This project will involve skills I do not have to get it off the ground so I am putting out a call for anyone who wants to be part of this exciting development in the enameling world to come on board.
I will be sending out a “status” e-mail with accompanying survey about the Center very soon to everyone I have contacted as well as everyone who might be interested in hearing about this.
I have included the Enamel Center Vision Statement in this post. Please sign up to be on my mailing list.
love your efforts to bring the art of enameling to the general public. I am a. Novice and self taught in the medium. I love your sculptural forms. Something to work towRds. I live in Omaha Ne. Finding work you love takes time and effort. I work in a vacumn. I encourage you to spread your knowledge to all who seek it. Good luck!
Sharon, thank you for your comments. I encourage you to keep enameling. Anne Goddard is an enamelist living in Lincoln who would like to find some other people who live near her who are enameling. It is important to surround yourself with community wherever and whenever you can. The Center for Art will hopefully be an inspiration to many like you. Hopefully you have signed up to be on the Center’s mailing list.