AGM information

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Dear Members,

Summer events
We’ve been looking for some time at trying to find a way to make a clearer distinction between events that are intended exclusively or primarily for NCAS members, and those that are aimed at the general public as well, and this is a problem that has particularly affected our summer programme this year. Our AGM and the opening of the NCA10 exhibition at the Forum are both intended for members and guests only, and that left just one event this side of September, the Paul de Monchaux talk on 15 June, which is open to the public. Our professionally printed programmes are significantly more expensive than newsletters and flyers like those in this mailing, and we’ve taken the choice not to produce one for this event, so please do pass on the details of the de Monchaux talk to any non-member friends who might be interested in it. We’ll produce a conventional programme in the autumn, and will also be producing material on our activities and our future programme to hand out at the NCA10 exhibition.

We sent out details of the de Monchaux talk to those on our email list a few weeks ago, but I’m conscious that those of you not on that list have had short notice, for which I apologize. We now have email addresses for most of our members, and and as well as giving you advance warning or reminders of our own events, we regularly send out details of private views and other events that we feel might be of interest. If you have an email address but are not receiving our messages, please do contact our administrator, Alison Hall and she will add you to the list.

NCA10 and associated events
Please note especially the information about Norfolk Contemporary Art 2010 on one side of the events flyer enclosed. There is no need to RSVP to your invitation to the launch, but it is essential that you bring the invitation with you on the night, since admission will be with the invitation only.

Particular thanks go to Liz Edwards, who kindly agreed to coordinate the major task of arranging the rota of members to sit in during the exhibition – and of course, to all of you who have offered to take part.

The Forum Trust, our partners in the exhibition, will be helping to publicize the exhibition and the associated events, so you should be able to find up-to-date details in Forum flyers and on its website. We’ll also do our best to keep the NCAS website up to date, and will be emailing those of you on our email list with details as well.

Change at the AGM
We’ll send out papers for our AGM this year nearer to the time, but the attached flyer also has details of that, so you can put the date in your diary. We’ve had several AGMs running in the north of Norfolk, and this year we’ve gone to the other extreme, over the border into Suffolk. We hope you’ll find Gill Levin’s title barn an excellent venue, and enjoy the chance to see her work. (Apologies to Gill for the misspelling of her name on our earlier flyer.)

I shall be standing down as NCAS chair at this year’s AGM. Since I became chair three years ago I’ve spent much more time than I had anticipated out of Norwich – indeed, out of England – and since that’s likely to continue, and I expect to be away for a particularly long stretch in the coming year, I felt it was time to change my role. I hope to stay on the committee, but we are looking for a new chair. Alas, none has yet come to light, although our vice-chair, Keith Roberts, will do his best to fill the gap until a new chair is appointed.

We’ve also operated without a secretary for many years now, and although we have an excellent administrator in Alison, that does mean that there is a gap at the core of the committee. Jane Edwards, another long-standing committee member, is also standing down this year, so I really do hope that newer members (and older ones too) will give serious thought to joining the committee this year. Of course contacts in the art world are very useful, but so too are administrative and other skills, or simply a willingness to do the odd jobs that arise. If you’d like to discuss this further, feel free to call me (07916 465653) or any of the other committee members.

Sculpture for Norwich
It’s been a slow business setting up Sculpture for Norwich, the charity jointly established by NCAS and the Norwich Society to commission new sculpture for Norwich, but now at last SfN has charitable status and a bank account, and is in full operation. The SfN board will now be further developing proposals for the first work to be commissioned (provisionally, a sculpture to commemorate the Norwich School of painters, for Palace Plain), and of course, will also be fundraising for that purpose. SfN will be contacting members later with more details, but I’m sure they would be delighted to hear at any point from anyone interested in contributing to their funds, through donation or by organizing a fundraising event. NCAS committee member Keith Pollard is the SfN chair.

Sunny days in Harlow
Our last event was the coach trip to Harlow and the Gibberd Garden, organized with her usual efficiency by Janey Bevington. This was not the most popular of our recent outings, but those of us who came along much enjoyed a sunny morning when we had this beautiful garden with its wide range of sculpture all to ourselves, and an excellent lunch at the Gibberd Garden cafe. The guided tour of Harlow that followed was marred by an overofficious traffic warden, but we had a chance to see some of the important sculptures in the town centre, as well as admiring Sir Frederick Gibberd’s plan – still apparent in much of Harlow, though he might not have appreciated some of the later accretions.

Susan Curran, NCAS chair