Graham Wade's Art News
Well, 2024 has brought about some big changes in my Art World.
Click to go to End Result || Click to go to New Art Classes || Click to go to Continuation of Friday Art Classes
I have been a paid Art Tutor with the Lavington, New South Wales based, Art Craft & Activities Group for 5 years but sadly, due partly to Covid-19 and an aging membership, member numbers have been slowly declining.
So much so, the 2023/2024 Committee were unable to find members who were prepared to fill the Executive positions required to keep the "Not-For-Profit" organisation going.
By the Department of Fair Trading NSW's rules and regulations, the Art Craft & Activities Group had no other option than to cease trading as a "Not-For-Profit" organisation and close everything down.
A motion was put forward at a Special General Meeting on 15th March 2024 to pass two resolutions,
- To approve the marking of an application to Fair Trading NSW
to cancel the registration of the Art Craft and Activities
Group, and further
- To approve the distribution of surplus assets (ie Cash at bank) to the Thurgoona Community Centre.
Both resolutions were passed.
The Art Craft and Activities Group will cease operation on 22nd
March 2024.
Pending approval from the Department of Fair Trading NSW, the funds held in the Art Craft and Activities Group's account will be transferred to the Thurgoona Community Centre at Thurgoona New South Wales.
The funds will be used to support any previously paid Tutor with the Art Craft and Activities Group should they wish to transfer their classes to the Thurgoona Community Centre.
To date (18th March 2024), only two paid Tutors are transferring to Thurgoona. I am one and the other is a Calligraphy Class. We will be sharing the hall space at the Thurgoona Community Centre.
As such, I have contacted the Thurgoona Community Centre and made arrangements for my Art Classes to transfer to and to continue at Thurgoona.
New Art Classes at Thurgoona, NSW.
Following discussions with the Coordinator of the Thurgoona Community Centre, the only reasonable time slots I could get were for 4 hours on a Monday or a Thursday, from 11:00am to 3:00pm. I chose the Monday time slot as I believe Thursdays would be busy days for most people.
During the 4 hour period, I will have to set up tables and chairs in the Hall, ready for the class to begin. I will also have to collect class fees and write receipts before the classes can start. I will also have to pack everything up at the end of the class session. All told, that may take an hour (1/2 hr setup + 1/2 hr pack up), so the lesson time will be 3 hours, the same as the former classes on Fridays.
However, this would mean the classes will have to run over a typical lunch period by either shortening the learning time and breaking for lunch, having a half hour lunch, or eat-on the-go. I'll let the class attendees decide what they want to do.
Given the Monday time slot, I though it would be good to find a new name for the classes at Thurgoona, so I came up with the name Thurgoona Easy Art Lessons, so it forms the acronym of TEAL, a light blue-green colour.
The main focus of the classes will be on Drawing and Watercolour Painting. Acrylic painting is okay too.
If you are a beginner in Art and wish to learn "How to Draw" or want to learn "How to Paint With Watercolour" please contact the Thurgoona Community Centre using the details below.
We won't be able to teach Oil Painting as it produces a strong odour that could become a health issue, plus we are sharing the room with another group.
If there is enough interest in Oil Painting, we may be able to find another venue and run separate classes.
Below is the proposed timetable for 2024,...
If you wish to join the Thurgoona Easy
Art Lessons,
please contact the Thurgoona Community Centre on
(02) 6043 1588 or 0492 139 722
Monday to Friday from 10:00am to 4:00pm
or
email the Coordinator at
coordinator@thurgoonacommunitycentre.org.au
or
Call into the Centre at 10 Kosciuszko Road, Thurgoona, NSW 2640
Continuation of the Friday Art Classes.
Following the above mentioned Special General Meeting, a representative of Albury City Council announced they were prepared to allow the smaller attended classes to continue to use the Mirambeena Community Centre to run their classes provided the Tutors were volunteer only. This has to do with their Community Centre use policies and Public Liability Insurance issues.
They also announced they would consider a "Pilot Project" where Albury City Council would employ the former paid Tutors of larger groups for two hours on Fridays. They are still working on how to make this work and we will know more on Friday 22nd March 2024.
I believe the Friday Art Class is one of the groups being considered, so the Friday Art Classes may yet continue.
I will post more when I know more,...
Graham Wade
18th March 2024.