December at The Guild

Greetings!

December is here and the holiday season has officially begun. The Guild's 5th Annual Festive Home: Objects for Giving & Living is receiving rave reviews! The galleries have been transformed by interior designers -- Molly Hirsch, Olga Adler, John Scholling of JMS Starling, Terri Reilly, Lori Bova and Annie Hill of TR Design, and Robin Curnan and Susan Buzaid of Olley Court -- whose tabletops and surrounding vignettes bring new inspiration to the idea of entertaining at home. Watching these talented decorators work their magic, you realize how closely their skill sets mimic those of fine artists. Starting with a concept, they brought their individual visions to life employing the traditional elements such as texture, color, proportion and shape. The attention to detail was incredible. Molly Hirsch, whose turquoise and orange tablescape is in the front room, adjusted the lights around her table for over an hour to get it just right -- as precise as any top-notch curator.

Behind the scenes, Guild board members worked to garner merchandise, decorate walls -- check out Kim Hanna's whimsical painted walls in the middle galleries -- install product, hang artwork, write press releases, photograph the show, design advertisements, posters and invitations not to mention staff and work the opening night party. It was a team effort with everyone putting in many hours to pull this important fundraiser together.

With all the visual eye candy and fantastic publicity, it is really important that this show is supported financially by the people who visit the Guild and show here. Our volunteers literally put in thousands of hours every year to keep the Guild running and the galleries open, free of charge. The level of professionalism is apparent in our graphic outreach, the installation of artwork, and educational programming -- a lot of attention to detail keeps all those balls in the air but we also have to pay our bills. Without Festive Home, we would have to drastically scale back our efforts.

Shopping Festive Home is a win/win for everyone. We have a lot of merchandise $12 and under -- perfect teacher gifts and new merchandise arrives weekly. Our very cool inspirational RGA coffee cup is marked at $6.00! Toys for children are very special with award-winning stuffed animals and the handmade teddy bears by the talented Lauri Hill. We have worked hard to keep our price points down, and there are deals to be had. Please come out to do your holiday shopping and bring your friends!

To further illustrate the level of commitment of the RGA team, in September, our fabulous coordinator Joan Isaac, decided to look into upgrading our website. Researching non-profit volunteers on-line, she discovered Tiffany Hsin Wakeham of ArtNota who re-designed our website that now reflects the energy and excitement of the Guild. Not only did Joan put in a lot of donated hours into this project, her husband, Ramy Isaac, IT Consultant of SupportWare, used his professional expertise to help make this web overhaul go off without a hitch. The new website debuted the same day Festive Home opened. In fact, the new member page with accompanying jpegs of artwork was used by the Festive Home committee to contact artists to bring in artwork. A giant thank you to Tiffany Wakeham, Joan and Ramy Isaac for this huge upgrade. We would not have done it without you! Visit our new website at rgoa.org.

Going forward, 2010 looks to be an exciting year. Kicking off the season in the main galleries, Fresh Pics in Connecticut curated by Camilla Cook will feature over 50 artists working in diverse styles and a variety of mediums. Our annual collaboration with the Aldrich -- Radius will follow. Spring will also see the return of the popular member shows -- Bedlam and Paint-the-Town and the juried Cameraworks. Our ARTalk series at The Ridgefield Library continues with the upcoming Art Masks as a Portal to the World with Suzanne Benton on December 6; Flow - The Chemistry of Creativity with art historian Laurie McGavin Bachmann on January 31; and Designing Your Home Around Art with Olga Adler.

Opening on January 23, the Upstairs Gallery will feature Kindred Spirits an exhibition of Kim Hanna's paintings and Lucy Whitehouse and Constance Hanna's photography.

Winter classes continue with instructors Carol Miller, Jock Macrae and Dan Becker. We will also be gearing up for full-day Summer Camp 2010. The creative spirit at the Guild continues to grow and inspire the many people who devote so much time and care to make it all happen.

Here's to supporting the arts and generous artistic spirit! Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and creative holiday season!

Cheers,

Rachel Volpone
President