Studio Business

 

Today we got official word of something I've known about for a few weeks now.  Nichole, the executive director of the Jersey Shore Arts Center, is moving on.   I decided this may not be public knowledge, and a later conversation with her convinced me, so I haven't said anything about it here.  But a mass e-mail went out about it today, so I guess it is now public knowledge.  She's moving to Virginia (northern, or the 51st state as some of my fellow Williamsburg students claimed) to earn a master's degree in a related field.   I don't know how this will affect me yet.  She was always one of my supporters, and of visual arts in general.  She was my boss for teaching classes, and has made sure I had some, going back years to when she decided it was time to hold art classes there.  (building founder Herb Herbst disliked visual arts, and thought it was all stupid, only really enjoying theater and music)  In her farewell letter, she tells us that the incoming director has an art background, so maybe that will still happen.  At least one person in the office will be remaining there, the person who has ordered a print that I am now coloring, so that's someone who likes my work. And Nichole has done a lot toward the maintenance of our very old building- standing for more than a century.  She has tried a lot of different programs in an effort to build interest in the building, all related to arts, but I don't know how successful any of them were.  She supervised the installation of a number of art shows, but has also had the bad luck of much of this happening during the pandemic, which has kept the outside doors locked for much of the past few years.  The recent Tenants show and the related open studios event brought in pretty good crowds, but I don't know if we got a long term benefit from that. 

There were things in the works that were never resolved, and possibly won't be now.  Not much I can do about that now.  At the moment I will continue as before, using the Studio when I can, paying my rent to the lease holder, and hoping she pays the bills. I'll teach classes when they offer them, as well as offer my advice for exhibitions.  I'll meet the new bosses as they come around, and hope they see me as a serious artist who has a lot of experience in art and would be valuable to have around.