Unlike the activities of performing arts groups in a community, the shows of visual artists cannot be funded by ticket sales, nor do artists receive that thrill and gratification from an applauding audience.

Free admission for gallery and art center openings often includes drinks and food in a fun party atmosphere. All of this is usually funded by the individual artist, who is compensated when and if a piece sells.

Except when community organizations like CCAASE and TCAH chose to support and fund an artists’ work. Your funding makes it possible for the artist to reach out and communicate in a more tangible way to his or her audience. This was the case last year when TCAH funded through the Small Grants Program four drawing classes and a collaborative community exhibition as part of my show at the Ah Haa School Gallery. The response was really positive with 55 students of varying ages participating and almost 100 people attending the opening.

This year I received an Artist’s Fellowship from TCAH to help fund my participation in an Artist in Residence program in January of 2008. I want to thank you so much for your support of my work and furthering my creative growth as an artist. Fellow artists and students have asked what I will be teaching there. Well, I am taking a much needed

sabbatical from teaching to be able to focus on some ideas that I have been thinking about and start to produce a new body of work. This opportunity to work without the distraction of daily obligations in a community of artists is rare and much needed. I hope to come back with new work and ideas that I will continue to share in my classes and at a seminar about Artist in Residence programs at the Stronghouse Studios in April.

I would like to thank TCAH again for its continued and much needed support of my work and the work of other artists in the community.

Sincerely,

– Meredith Nemirov