David Estey – UMVA Has Been Remade

After stepping down as UMVA President, I have mixed feelings of pride in what we have achieved together, appreciation for the friendship and support of a great board of directors and so many artists I’ve met through email, Zooms, and in-person meetings, and relief from intense day-to-day activities chronicled in a cardboard box full of directives, emails, and ideas. UMVA is reinvigorated.

How We Did It

We started two years ago by updating the by-laws. Then we surveyed the members to see what they wanted from UMVA. They wanted ways to come together in mutual support, opportunities to exhibit, and an easier, more useful website. Based on that feedback, we developed an ambitious strategic plan with seven foundational goals, thirty enabling objectives, and 150 specific actions, many of which we have already achieved. We simplified our mission statement to “UMVA advocates for Maine art and artists to promote the common good,” and made a strong commitment to connectivity, with the slogan “Artists Helping Artists.” Our goals emphasize Camaraderie, Exhibitions, Advocacy, Communications, Outreach, Management and Funding.

Exciting New Website

Perhaps our greatest achievement this past year was our exciting new website designed by Elizabeth Ann Cline of Woodstock, New York, and launched in November. Check it out at www.theumva.org—and join us! The site is beautiful, easy to navigate, fun to explore, and largely member-driven. Members can find one another (and the public can find them) by name, preferred media, and geographic area to connect for get-togethers, mounting exhibits, and mutual support. Artists and art lovers can join, renew their own memberships, input their own artist pages with links to their websites and social media, post calendar events and news releases with images, and learn about UMVA history, opportunities, projects, and management. Later we can add online exhibits and sales. The new website may be the thing which most brings us together in mutual support.

Other Great Projects

We now have completely changed out the executive leadership, expanded the board of directors with a majority of new members, and weathered the exchange of four different treasurers in eight months. The board members all have stepped up to volunteer their expertise in countless ways and we are on our way in one year from 268 paid members to about 450 new or recent members in the process of renewal.

Last summer, sixty members enjoyed a series of inspirational visits to the studios of eight prominent artists. The summer highlight was the Carlo Pittore Costume Ball and Auction. It brought together an estimated 100 members, founders, and guests and raised nearly $4,000 toward the $8,000 cost of the website design. The event was conceived by UMVA Secretary Richard Kane, in concert with the premiere of his latest Maine Masters film, CARLO . . . and His Merry Band of Artists, which was screened at several Maine theaters and at eight international film festivals. It was nominated for best Maine film in 2024. Meanwhile, his previous UMVA film, Truth Tellers, was nominated for a New England Emmy Award and was distributed by American Public television to 320 PBS affiliates through 2025, after being shown and discussed nationwide at over 100 schools and other institutions. The next film is on the late Maine/New York painter Yvonne Jacquette.

Our ongoing projects like the Artists’ Rapid Response Team! (ARRT!) and LumenARRT! also continued to bring together volunteer artists to make banners, placards, yard signs, and projections in public places to advocate for dozens of nonprofit organizations and well-known initiatives for the common good. One such project was an ARRT! residency with the Passamaquoddy students of the Sipayik School that produced five extraordinary murals, seventy-five yard signs, and a museum sign. The Maine Arts Journal continued to showcase members, other artists, and art around the state, as well as news of UMVA activities and opportunities. In addition to numerous, thought-provoking articles and stimulating images in every issue about and by artists, the MAJ ran a four-part series on all aspects of exhibiting to help artists at various stages of their development. The handsome free quarterly now has 1,700 subscribers.

Film Sponsorship

An exciting new project just getting underway is UMVA sponsorship of Maine Art in America, a film about the impact of Maine art on contemporary American art. It will be produced by high-end, award-winning Lone Wolf Media, in collaboration with Peggy Greenhut Golden, former owner of the Greenhut Galleries in Portland. Maine Public will be the presenting PBS Station and PBS at large will be the target audience, with an abbreviated version that can be shown in Maine schools and libraries. It is a long-overdue story that is expected to gain a lot of national attention.

Promotion and Connectivity

UMVA stepped up coordinated branding and outreach with logo-imprinted brochures, calling cards, exhibit posters, pamphlets, postcards, and increased news releases in print and online. We placed an unprecedented, bargain,three-page ad in Maine Gallery + Studio Guide featuring work by twenty members, with a number of releases in the Guide’s online newsletter “Café des Artistes.” Thirty-six members have signed up for a five-page ad in the 2025 Guide. Former UMVA President Robert Shetterly presented UMVA benefits and history in a Pecha Kucha PowerPoint show in Rockland. Former President William Hessian and new board member Emily Sabino made a persuasive, promotional PSA at Portland Media Center for the Portland TV market. We produced over a dozen attractive newsletters to all members, personal welcome messages from the president to all new members and a fundraising T-shirt with the UMVA logo. We connected with the Maine Arts Commission, Maine Association of Nonprofits, and Waterfall Arts for mutual coordination and support.

Exhibitions

After a dozen member exhibits the previous year at a UMVA gallery in Portland Media Center, we did a cost/benefit analysis last year and vacated the space as unsustainable. We formed an exhibitions committee to explore alternative venues, produced a Portland holiday sale in December 2023, and encouraged pop-up opportunities around the state. The Portland Chapter and the new, growing Mid-Coast/Down East Chapter have been very active in arranging a number of shows, including exhibits coordinated with CARLO film screenings and panel discussions with the founders. Waterfall Arts in Belfast has hosted two UMVA member shows and will host a juried Dark Skies exhibit 17 January–28 February in partnership with UMVA and the nonprofit advocate Dark Sky Maine. A Portland Library exhibit Washed Away juried by Carl Little is scheduled for 2 May–21 June, and an extensive, juried exhibit is planned for Pen Bay and Waldo County General Hospitals sometime in 2025.

Management Improvements

In addition to by-laws and mission revisions, plus a strategic plan, we shored up liability insurance for individuals acting in official capacity and for exhibited art, secured required event permits, and developed chapter guidelines for mutual support and protection of our tax exempt status. The board of directors held three day-long management retreats, had many Zoom meetings, conducted two membership meetings on Zoom with fifty or so participants each, and issued an annual report and budget to all members.

Funding

UMVA started 2024 with $115,280 and should end with over $140,000, a $25,000 gain. The sizable balance at any given time is a bit misleading in that a majority of it is in restricted funds earmarked for specific projects and is dependent on when project donations are received and production expenditures withdrawn, sometimes over a span of multiple years.

Still, we did better than hold steady, while paying for a new website. This was possible because the Maine Masters project spent much less on production than budgeted, some projects received more donations than expected, membership and dues receipts were much higher, the summer gala netted almost $4,000 and the Maine Art in America film sponsorship attracted new donations before expected withdrawals.

We Are Very Grateful

UMVA has been very fortunate to receive grant awards from the Cobscook Bay fund, Maine Community Foundation, Rabkin Foundation, Judy Glickman Lauder Foundation, and GB Knecht Foundation, as well as many generous individual donations. We are very grateful for their support. This volunteer nonprofit relies heavily on them and needs renewals and new income sources. But it also has the in-house talent now to research and drill down on available grants and other fundraising opportunities not yet explored.

What’s Next?

UMVA has been greatly enhanced and enlarged, and with the new website, it is poised to accomplish new and greater things for the art and artists of Maine. New President Joanne Tarlin has been involved in virtually all aspects of our management over the past two years, from leading the Portland Chapter and then major initiatives on exhibitions, member survey, monthly newsletter, and website redesign. She will lead a gifted board and an expanded, invigorated membership with commitment, creativity, and determination.