East Meets West part 4

It looks like most of the East Meets West show has been resolved.

After things broke down with the plan to hold it at BelmarArts, and East Coast Mary was  considering looking elsewhere, I made the suggestion of the Jersey Shore Arts Center in Ocean Grove.  I knew that they were looking to expand their art exhibition schedule, and I knew that Mary knew the location of the building, from having been to critiques in my basement studio many times.  What I hadn't realized at the time was that she had never seen any of the rest of the building, so I arranged for her to stop by and tour the more than one century old building, and it is an impressive location.  We also set up a meeting with Nichole, the new director there, who I had sounded out about  Mary's exhibition idea and seemed potentially interested.  Both parties came away enthusiastic about the possibility, and there has been a series of meetings since then as details have been worked out.  West Coast Mary (Pacios) arrived in town a few weeks ago, a trip originally planned to coincide with the planned exhibition in Belmar, and she got to tour the new building and meet with everybody.  She was also impressed, and I found out a few days ago that they all had a second meeting several days ago and worked out more details to everyone's satisfaction.

Today I attended a meeting at (East Coast) Mary's house in Bradley Beach, with the other Mary still hanging around the area for a little while.  (They've known each other for about 60 years going back to school, and enjoy getting to hang out)  Lunch was served (taco salad) and the three of us, and Katie, went through letters, dates, and other details, trying to make sure were are covered for all possibilities.  I'll save some details until we get closer, but we're looking at the show going up in February and coming down in April, which seems fine for all parties.  We may have some sponsors lined up and perhaps a vendor demonstration.  We talked about trying to make connections to some local schools, and I have been given the task of investigating the possibility of conducting some print related classes around the time of exhibition.  I'm also going to try to get some of my former students to participate- college, Belmar.  Showed them photos in my camera of some of this work, and they were impressed with what these relatively beginning students accomplished.  Decisions made at today's meeting will go into the creation of a revised Call For Art, which I will get into the hands of my former students as soon as I get it myself.  So a productive day.

Since the sun had dried things out all day,  I went down to Manasquan and mowed until the batteries ran out (just one piece left), then home for my second Mexican influenced meal of the day.  Last night I cooked a pot of chili (pork, black beans, etc), intended for a burrito week, and since I had bought the rest of the ingredients already, I wasn't going to let the taco salad lunch interfere with my dinner plans.  It helps that I have a stomach that can handle all those spices.  Never any heartburn here.