The Village Gallery of Arts

I began my work with the Village Gallery of Arts around 2000 when I signed-up for Active Status membership and I volunteered to work the desk. The Village Gallery is a co-op of artists who join together for a variety of reasons, some for personal artistic growth, some to promote the arts and serve the community, some to teach and share their talents and earn a little money with that. There are many reasons a person would join this group. I joined because I wanted to surround myself in art, to meet other artists and mentors and so that I could grow personally and artistically by serving others and working for an organization that could use my skills and talent.

My first year there I discovered many facets of a non-profit group. I found it to be extremely relaxed in thinking, everyone just did whatever they wanted pretty much, which thereby caused a lot of dissention and gossip. There were some programs in place, so I just went with the flow. I learned to work the desk and discovered the bylaws and read all the back Board Minutes I could find, along with every document and brochure that was in the files. I had this strong desire to learn all that I could about how a gallery works. I placed my artwork in the Outside Shows venue. The person who hung the show accidently priced the art incorrectly on the wall cards. Two of my paintings sold, but for the wrong price. I went to the Gallery President and was told that it would go before the Board for fixing. I had signed a contract agreement with the Gallery when I joined so I assumed it would be no problem. I attended the Board meeting and I was told they have artists sign the consignment agreement but they don't actually use it. I was surprised. I think it was at that very moment that I decided I wanted to run for the position of Gallery President and see what I could do to help this organization.

I did run for President and won the election, serving two terms. I had a wonderful team of dedicated workers on the Board and everyone agreed that we should bring the Gallery into the 21st century. We rewrote the Bylaws and established policies and procedures, revamped the newsletter, increased deskworker training, brought in more outside show venues, cleaned up the way the membership was being taken care of, gained many new members, encouraged high school seniors and increased relations with local schools and businesses. I wrote an Artist Consignment Agreement, a new membership application, and several other documents and guidelines. I had to fight to get the Board to agree to having a website, as the majority of them had no computer and had no interest in having one at that time. I found a Web-Master (David, my son in law) who would build it if I designed it, and the only agreement would be that he had rights to the site forever, so he could build it and use it as a model to show for a business he was building in web development. The Board agreed and I have been the Web Administrator for that ever since.

Well, we did many, many things and the gallery was thriving with nearly 400 members. I didn't run for a third term because I found that I hadn't had time to work on my own art and I very much needed to do that. It is unfortunate that the Gallery elects a new slate of officers every year and each new president appoints their committe chairs/officers. With every new board comes a new concept of how things should be done and all the hard work of previous boards is undone as they each reinvent the wheel. Few take the time to research what had gone before them so they come into it with no actual knowledge of what they are facing. I have seen this happen over and over. I handed over the gavel. I prayed for the Gallery.

Over the past few years programs have gone away, themes for shows disappeared, the mailing of the newsletter to the members and the public went away, having events and parties went away, annual deskworker training went away, high school interactions went away, outside shows all but one are gone, Roberts Rules are no longer enforced or used at meetings, even the gavel disappeared. This past year I was asked to serve in an Advisory capacity to the board but in doing so I discovered that few of them actually care what anyone else has to say. They have taken on a chairman position just to keep from working the desk and they barge head on into what they want to do with disregard for what others think. I have had board members tell me they didn't even know they had voting privileges. I don't know what goes on at board meetings as I am not required to attend them, so I don't. The few I have attended were disorganized and everyone talked over each other while some board members didn't talk at all. There is no one elected to take minutes and the president hasn't appointed anyone to the duty and so that job is passed around to anyone willing to do it, usually no one wants to. Board members come and go and only a handful serve out the year term they agreed to. Many of them are new members to the Gallery, and like the president, haven't served in any capacity other than perhaps having worked the desk, prior to being appointed by the president to a board position.

Today, 9 years later, the Gallery is dying. There are fewer than 100 members now. I sincerely hope the VGA survives. I received a letter from the president the other day and she removed me of my position as Web Administrator. I received no warning or request to discuss any matters with me. The letter was supposedly from the board but contained no signatures at all, was not on letterhead, and was mailed from her home address. Sheeese, I am entirely frustrated with their unprofessionalism. I believe she did this as a last act of defiance before she is no longer president (March). This is just one more proof in the pudding about the condition of the Gallery. I have heard from several people who believe her actions to be underhanded and deceitful, and I agree with that.

I have received many compliments about the website throughtout the 8+ years I administered it (for free). I thought it showed the Gallery in a professional and creative way. I was very proud of the website. They have someone else doing the website now and it is nothing at all like it was before. I find it to be boring and not at all artsy or creative. It was completely predictable when the Pres. sent a note on the serverlist that I was going to assist the new website administrator. I totally cracked up when I read that! Her presumptive attitude was normal for her. Posting something she hadn't even asked me! About an hour after that the guy phoned me and asked if he could pay me for some assistance! He didn't know how to work on our site and didn't know PHP or MYSQL and hadn't worked through a control panel scenerio. I nearly fell off my chair in hysteria! PHP and MYSQL are the advanced way to do a website and most, if not all, developer/designers want to learn it.

I am happy to be away from Village Gallery of Arts and relieved because of the huge volume of hours it took to administer the website and the server list, but I am sorry it ended the way it did. I now carry away with me bad feelings and a feeling that I was victimized. That's not a good thing. I was asked by the Nominating Committee if I'd be willing to serve as President again for this new slate 2009 - ah, no thank you.