Hi All,
Just thought I’d send out a general 2019 wrap-up email to all our donors, advocates and artists. Hope you enjoy reading the re-cap of 2019.
It’s been a fantastic year, albeit with a few headaches and last minute rushes, but as usual, things had a habit of coming together. We achieved a great many projects and shows and we feel stronger than ever going into 2020.
January brought us cold and snow and with it our Fabrication Show.
During March, we hosted the travelling portion of Arts in Harmony and we had some wonderful international artwork on our walls for you to see!
“Peas of Spring” by Val Bourassa
“Baylee on the Rocks” Mark Caselius
April and May brought us showers and some late snow with our Green and Recycling Show, coupled with a show of artwork from North Hennepin Community College.
June and July, was a super busy time of promoting the upcoming Arbor Lakes Art Fair, the Fair itself and also the Schroeder Painting Show at the gallery.
Our annual Advocate’s Show was hosted in August, and we were offered some amazing artwork to add to our walls for the public to enjoy.
October was The Monster Show, our bi-annual show for dark art and the fun costume party! We definitely got both this time out!
“Peek-a-boo'“ by Greg Sullivan
Lise Spence-Parsons (President/Treasurer) & Lorrie Link (Founder/CEO)
Teri Iverson (Gallery Director)
Gayle Moxness (Volunteer Coordinator) and artist Jocelyn Ferrell
November and December, we hosted the always successful show, The Black & White Show. Again we were spoilt with great artwork options and our Gallery Director, Teri Iverson, had to make some choices!
Scott Krohn; artist of the winning artwork.
Lisa Kindle; artist of the mandala, with fellow artist John Mandt
We also grew our weekly drop in peer-to-peer groups in 2019. We added a couple of new groups on a Friday each week, Art Coffee and Open Art Studio, and you can read all about groups here. Wednesdays gives us the Writers Group and they released their first book on Amazon in December, Bits and Pieces. Go and check that out!
2019 was our inaugural Jacob Beneke Scholarship donation and we are planning the same event for May 2020. Please help us by donating today to this important program. This annual award, is given to a 12th grade student, preparing to study for an arts degree.
The Arbor Lakes Art Fair was another hot one weather-wise, and we had another successful year at Arbor Lakes with artists and the public all having a fun time. Next year, 2020, will be another great event, with the Shoppes having been recently renovated, we are excited to host again and continue to grown this annual event.
Tom Sack, one of the “regular and loved” artists.
We’ve had some internal growth too, strengthening our board with two new board members and also grown our staff and volunteer base. We also have a fresh and inviting new website, which we hope you will find user friendly.
2019 in a box!
So, we could not have done any of these things without our donors, advocates, artists and volunteers. So, if you enjoyed all that Maple Grove Arts Center produced and shared with you in 2019, please consider us for your year-end donation giving. We have two main donation programs; our General Fund and The Jacob Beneke Fund. The choice is yours!
Thank you so much for your generosity and we all wish you a Happy New Year!
Lise Spence-Parsons
President & Treasurer
763 607 3824
All images courtesy of John Maciejny - Natural Images