Hyland House Exhibit

Greetings to All,

Sandy reminded me this week that we need to be thinking about our Hyland House exhibit which is just under two month's away. This year, our exhibit and the opening reception will be part of Guilford's 375th anniversary celebration.

We have some new guidelines for submissions for this show. Foremost is that artists will be encouraged to exhibit without any requirement to join the Hyland House organization. We understand that in the past, this requirement may have inhibited some members of our group from exhibiting, if only on principle. This has had the effect of narrowing the range of offerings and holding down the size of the show. Not that we have unlimited space, but I'm recalling our first year, for which we had a very enthusiastic response.

Hyland House welcomes our artwork, which has become a fresh added feature of their summer program. There will be no entry fee in 2014. As with other venues, however, we expect that artists who sell their work from this show will donate a percentage of their sales to Hyland House. In fact, we will consider this exhibit as a fund-raiser for the museum, and we believe that our opportunity for sales will be enhanced if it is known that some part of the sales price for each work will go back to the organization to help preserve and operate this historic property. We will provide further detail about how commissions will be handled. But we believe that this arrangement is a much better way to both encourage participation for a fulsome and diverse exhibit and generate support for our partner organization which makes this historic venue available to us and to the public. Of course, any artist who wishes to become or continue as a member of the museum or who wishes to donate the full sales price of any painting is encouraged to do so.

This year's exhibit also will have a somewhat broader focus, with a theme that will include all of Guilford's historic sites and significant landmarks. With this in mind, I will be focusing disproportionately on Guilford sites as I schedule our weekly paint-outs between now and mid-July.

Our exhibit will be in place from July 12 through August 3, with receiving on Monday, July 7 (10-Noon) and Take-Down on Monday, August 4 (10-Noon). As is true for many other venues, once the exhibit is in place, it is an artwork in itself, and paintings are not to be withdrawn until the end of the show. (Exceptions may be made for sales to travelers.) As always, paintings will be exhibited on easels or otherwise propped up in as secure a fashion as possible. They cannot be hung on the walls.

As I mentioned earlier, the opening reception (scheduled for Saturday, July 12 and featuring our show) will be the Hyland House contribution to Guilford's special events in celebration of the town's 375th anniversary. As was true last year, the event will be sponsored by the Hyland House Board of Directors. If you attended last year's opening, you know that it was lively, well-attended, and delicious! This year promises to be even better, with plans for extensive advance promotion in the news media and local shops, as well as by direct mailing. We will have more information on the timing of the reception.

My personal hope is that we will have at least one painting from at least 90% of the 48 of the people on our regular painters list and perhaps some others, as well. I would like to see the exhibit space bursting with our artwork.So pull out your prior sketches and photo references, and begin thinking about how you can contribute to a great little show!

/j