Dear Members,

A very happy new year to all of you.

Auction thank-yous
Many thanks to everyone who helped with, donated lots for, and attended our auction last November. We raised over £5,400 gross, which with the deduction of expenses and 50:50 payments means we have over £3,500 to start off the funds for the Sculpture for Norwich project. This was the first auction for which we’ve prepared an online catalogue in advance, and it was downloaded over 200 times.

I’m conscious it’s difficult to balance the interests of our artist-members, many of whom kindly submitted work, and our collector members: although we all like to get a good bargain, the main aim is of course to raise money for the society, which means trying to ensure we get good prices for the work on offer. We’d hoped to attract a wider audience to this auction, but many of the bids came from regular attendees, and unfortunately we had to withdraw some works when it became apparent that bidding was not going to approach the (mostly extremely reasonable) reserves. Although we’re grateful to all of you who did come along and bid, any thoughts on how we might extend our audience for this kind of event in future would be only too welcome.

TargetFollow generously allowed us free use of the Old Shoe Factory. They did warn us that it would be a little cold and that the floor tended to lift up in the chill weather, and unfortunately both were true. This venue will be closing soon in any event, so if we hold another auction in future, it’ll be at a different location ...

One final note: it’s also rather difficult to manage expectations for an event like this when we also put on grant-funded exhibitions like last summer’s Photo-ID. We didn’t have the resources for the auction catalogue to match the professional quality of the catalogues for that and the Norfolk Contemporary Art 2008 exhibition. We’re hoping next summer to hold another contemporary art exhibition, which should again be professionally mounted project with, I hope, another splendid catalogue – and that, of course, will be designed to benefit our artist-members as well as the Society as a whole.

Thanks and congratulations to Maggi
Our largest bid of the night was for Maggi Hambling’s little painting, Small Wave Breaking, and in the wake of that it was a pleasure to learn that Maggi – a patron of the NCAS – was awarded a CBE in this year’s New Years Honours. Many congratulations to her.

Sculpture for Norwich launch
Those keeping careful note will perhaps be conscious that although we’ve put the auction proceeds towards Sculpture for Norwich, we’ve yet to formally launch this project. That’s because the joint NCAS/Norwich Society committee is still working to finalize the tedious details of charity registration (SfN will be set up as an independent charity), bank account opening and the like. We are planning a special event to launch the appeal, and we’d hoped to put it into our spring programme, but alas, we weren’t quite there by the point at which we had to finalize the programme in order to get it printed in good time for Suzie Hanna’s talk in late January. So members can expect another mailing in the near future, which will have details of the launch event – we hope, in late February or early March.

Some sad goodbyes
A special mention to two long-standing members and supporters of the NCAS who are sadly no longer with us: Ruth Barker and Sandra Haywood, both fine local artists, died last year. Our thoughts and sympathies go to their families.

Paris and Harlow
Our Paris trip in September was the first time the NCAS had managed a trip abroad, after our problems with travel arrangements the year before, and the group of us who met up in the city had a very pleasant weekend. A pity the exchange rate was quite so against us! We not only saw some fine art, we also enjoyed some good meals together – with a special star for Le Buisson Ardent, which served us splendidly and even made special arrangements for a member with specific dietary requirements. Our next outing might seem rather more prosaic, since Harlow is not quite in the same league as a tourist attraction, but those who have visited the Gibberd Garden will know that it is a magical place with a wonderful sculpture collection, and this should prove a very enjoyable day out. So please do take advantage of the early notice (a happy result of the ‘gap’ in our programme while we finalize the SfN launch) and book early for it.

Turning Point
A number of NCAS committee members have taken part in a series of events organized to provide input to the Arts Council East’s ‘Turning Point’ regional strategy. The other participants are mostly professional arts administrators, and it’s gratifying that our amateur society is now regarded seriously enough to be invited to share our thoughts with them. It’s not yet clear whether there will be funding for any new initiatives, but we’re working to try to ensure that if there is, the visual arts are at the forefront. We’d be happy to share further information if you’d like to know more.

Friezing?
One outing we’re looking at for next year is a trip to the Frieze international art fair, probably with committee member Harriet Godwin – who has much experience of Frieze – as our guide. It would be useful to get a sense of the interest, so if you feel you’d like a guided visit to Frieze next year, please do let us know (email me on susan@curranpublishing.com).

Susan Curran, NCAS chair