SCAPE Newsletter - October 2024

Message from our PRESIDENT

By Kathy McGill

Greetings painters,

As SCAPE’s fall show fades into memory, I have been reflecting on the many ways this show felt special.  First of all, the overall quality of the art was a standout.  I’ve lost count of how many people came up to me and told me how impressed they were by the body of work we had on display.  We had a great turnout, particularly on Friday night, and in my opinion the atmosphere was energized and fun.  And very importantly, we generated more than $4000 for our beneficiary, Explore Ecology.  Once again, a huge thank-you to everyone who worked so hard and contributed so much to the show’s successes.  We couldn’t have done it without the “SCAPE Village” coming out in full force.

But it’s not all good news, unfortunately.  While we mounted a show we can all be proud of  and had decent sales, the SCAPE organization will lose money overall.  The reason for this is very straightforward:  venue costs and catering costs have gotten very high - making it almost impossible to break even.  Personally, I think shows like the one we just had are part of what makes SCAPE special, and I hate the thought of giving up on them.  The reality is, however, that SCAPE will need to develop additional sources of revenue or to make changes to our model in order to mount these shows and survive in the mid to long term.  

I personally believe there must be ways to solve this solvency problem and to build on everything that is good about SCAPE.  But for SCAPE to survive and thrive we need people to step up and volunteer for leadership positions in the organization.  We’ve had some successes with recruiting, but several critical positions remain unfilled, including a backfill for me, a Vice President, Assistant Secretary, and an overall Publicity Chair.  With more people participating, I’m convinced we can not only lighten the load on our long term volunteers, I believe we can build an organization that can be sustained into the future.  

Happy painting,

Kathy

Exhibit News

 "Central Coast Reflections"

At the Music Academy Of The West