The Portland UMVA group continues to meet monthly via Zoom. The group formed a committee to suggest a policy for the number of times in a year that a member may exhibit their work in the UMVA Gallery. The committee reported back in February, and it was decided to consider its suggestions prior to establishing the next (2023) calendar of shows (which will be determined in the early fall of 2022). One suggestion is that we link one or more of our shows with MAJ theme(s). The Maine Arts Commission rejected our grant proposal to “employ” a gallery manager.
Mildred Bachrach with work at the UMVA Gallery.
Joanne Tarlin agreed to succeed John Ripton as convener of the Portland group. The appointment is a year in length and it commences with the April 2022 meeting. Christine Sullivan will continue as recorder, responsible for the minutes. Milly Bachrach thanked Ann Tracy and Greg Burns who assisted with the website and the blog. She is concerned about safety and the mask mandate, which is not consistently followed. She recommended that people use a KN95 mask for gallery sitting. Milly thinks attendance is not very good and that a virtual show would be preferable. Lesley outlined the steps Portland Media Center is taking. It was suggested that virtual shows continue to be an option for a show, leaving it up to the curator/artist to decide if they would like only a physical in-gallery or only a virtual show or both. Greg noted that people need a lot of advance notice to do the posting to the blogs and the website.
Gallery hours for Fridays (including First Friday openings) will be 4–8 p.m. beginning in February. Check the website at theumva.org for the 2022 calendar of exhibitions.
The Portland group has been seeking a gallery manager who would self-fund the position.
Olivia Hochstadt, a new member, is no longer seeking the position. Amy Bellezza is our present acting gallery manager. Amy has done superlative work in managing the gallery since the fall. She will help the new manager during a transition period this spring, i.e., if a new gallery manager is named.
Brooke Lambert at the opening of her solo show at the UMVA Gallery.
UMVA Gallery exhibit.
It was brought up that UMVA Portland should do a posthumous show for photographer Arthur Fink whose January 2021 show was canceled due to his illness. This proposal will be taken up at the March meeting.
Image at top: Visitors at the UMVA Gallery during the March opening.
All photos by Dave Wade: Brooke Lambert show opening at UMVA Gallery, a few from November members’ show, and January two-person André Benoit and Mildred Bachrach show. (He writes that he missed February artists, Becky Jane Rosen, Dani Robbins, Poorva Singh, and Zachary Taibi due to blizzards and flu.)