Ordinance. Intaglio.  35″ x 83″. 2003.

Charles Cohan is currently Professor of Art and Printmaking Program Chair at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.  This is where I first encountered him during my 2001-2002 year on exchange from Montana State University. As a graphic design major, I took Charlie’s relief printmaking class merely to fill out my studio schedule.  Following this course with Charlie, I switched majors to fine art with an emphasis in printmaking, and have never regretted the decision. Cohan is an inspirational, knowledgeable mentor and a dedicated artist that continually pushes himself and his students conceptually and technically.

Cohan received a BFA in Printmaking from California College of Arts and Crafts and an MFA in Printmaking from Cranbrook Academy of Art. He has held professorships at Florida State University and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Recent research and teaching projects have taken Charlie to Whanganui Polytech in New Zealand, Hard Ground Printmakers in Cape Town, South Africa, the University of Georgia Study Abroad Program in Cortona, Italy, the Pilchuck Glass School in Washington, and the Fundacion Ludwig in Havana, Cuba, for which he received a U.S. Department of State research travel grant.

Cohan’s latest solo exhibitions were installed at the Curators office in Washington DC and Pyramid Atlantic in Maryland, Artlink Gallery in Seoul, Korea, 1708 Gallery in Richmond, Virginia, and the Biennial of Hawaii Artists at The Contemporary Museum in Honolulu.

I recently had the pleasure to printerview Charles Cohan about his career and experience as an artist.  The following text is the result of several emails & phone conversations.

Erika:   When did you know you were an artist?  What led up to this discovery?

Charlie:  Senior in high school, when asked the question ‘what would you like to study in college’. I was raised in an environment that encouraged my tendency to want to make images. My mom always expressed excitement with regard to my drawings from an early age, and as she was an art student herself, the home-front provided early exposure to the studio environment.

Erika:   Why do you create artwork – to what end?

Charlie: Why?  In no specific order:

a. Ego.

b. For my kids to remember me by.

c. It confuses and thus challenges me.

d. The need to be working constantly with my hands.

e. I love the tools.

To What End? In no specific order:

a. economic security

b. developing ideas from the inside out

c. leaving images behind for future critique and consideration

Erika: This anthropological approach, the notion of our artwork as evidence or clues to who we are as artists, is interesting to me.  I’ve always loved how visual arts allow leeway for interpretation, based on the viewer’s background.  Your work, and you as an artist could be interpreted as many different things by many different people.

Fathom. Intaglio. 60″ x 44″. 2004

Erika: As someone who has never sold much artwork, it is truly inspirational to know those of you who are able to sell work as a reliable source of income.  Where have you discovered a niche for yourself?

Charlie (paraphrased):  I was fortunate enough to meet a gallery director who really took an interest in me.  She limits the number of artists she represents in her gallery and has an understanding of my work and in me as an artist, so she is better able to advocate & sell my work.

Remember, galleries are only one source of revenue.  There are many grants set-up to support the arts, but it seems many young artists are not aware of them.  As entrepreneurs, we all need to focus on alternative avenues for arts revenue. Recently graduated students of mine have started printed-clothing lines, fabric businesses, et. al., all with an eye towards the economic expanse and diversity of their skills via printmaking. We in education need to focus more on these alternative sources of revenue for artistic endeavors and encourage our students beyond the seemingly overemphasis on the dominant ‘gallery’ paradigm.

Erika:  Why & when did you discover printmaking?

Charlie: Initially, I discovered printmaking through my mother, Doris Cohan, who was a student in intaglio and screenprinting courses at Portland State University when I was 7-10 years old, and always had her prints and books on printmaking in our house. At Garfield High School in Seattle I was provided the opportunity to make prints through their arts magnet program. Made some really cool ‘cutout cardboard wrapped in aluminum foil’ collograph prints in 10^th grade, which has honestly been influential from that day forward.

Erika: Has there been a change you have noticed in the availability or necessity of an arts education in the marketplace at large?  Is there enough professional practice for art students to aspire to anything other than arts professors?  Is academia just begetting academics?

Charlie (Paraphrased): I’m not sure we are doing a very good job of teaching students alternative entrepreneurial outlets to the gallery system, but we should be. And we are certainly not teaching them how to teach per se.

Hydra. Lithography, Wax. 92″ x 96″. 2004.

Erika:  For what reasons did you know printmaking was & still is an appropriate medium for your artistic expression?

Charlie: While there is a proper, or appropriate, media/material waiting out there for any idea and creative direction, the transfer of ink onto paper under pressure via an intermediate two-dimensional matrix just happens to suit my visual intentions. In short, I trust an image produced under the application of significant physical pressure, in indelible ink, on fine paper. You can’t fake it.

While my experience in media outside of printmaking is somewhat limited, I have tried to maintain attempts at sculptural experimentation in wood and glass, and see these as having a growing importance beyond the exclusively printed direction of my past projects.

Erika: Can you give a little more information on these more sculptural projects and perhaps reflect on how they may have influenced your printmaking and art-making in general?

Charlie (paraphrased): I like the fact that I can physically reach into sculptural work; obviously I can’t do this in the same way with print.  Perhaps this is just a way of trying to create more  ‘dimensional’ plates in a sense. Making sculpture is a really humbling experience for me, because I know I face the criticism of those who have been practicing that particular media, and focusing on that form, for many years. And, as I have long maintained, sculptors are the best drafts-persons.

Erika:  In what direction (s) do you suspect printmaking will go?  Are there particular processes that have already begun to obliterate all others?  Are there thematic trends for printmaking different, or similar, to all of contemporary art making?

Charlie: I worry that the making of prints is becoming ‘too easy’, both stylistically and materially.

Where printmaking is going seems to be everywhere, as everything is anywhere these days . As far as current thematic trends, everybody’s everything. Hard to see the trend from the fad. Show me progressive work that is not part and parcel of the dominant thematic trends, and we can have a discussion about truly interesting work.

Terrarium III. Intaglio, Lithography.  22″ x 30″. 2005.

Erika:  What do you consider to be your first real “breakthrough” exhibition? At what stage in life did that happen for you, and what types of obstacles did you have to go through prior to that opportunity?

Charlie: I actually never had any ‘early’ breakthrough exhibitions. The usual mix of competitive juried print competitions in the days immediately out of grad school leading to invitational exhibitions, group, two person, solo, et al. But none that really put my work on the map.

It was actually not until 1708 Gallery, Richmond, VA   2003? Early mid career, 15 years out of grad school! Exposed my work to Andrea Pollan at Curators office and the folks at Pyramid Atlantic.

The major obstacle leading up to this exhibition was simply that I was not making work that was good enough to build a strong solo show upon.

Erika: How did you finally land that show?

Charlie: Cranbrook graduate school colleague Mr. Peter Calvert.  He was the director of 1708 in the early 2000’s We kept in touch, he set me up.

Erika: What sacrifices were you making at this stage of your career?

Charlie: In terms of my studio production, the greatest early, and current, sacrifice is my commitment to a full time university level teaching position.

Erika: Were you satisfied with the gallery you showed at and the review your work received?

Charlie: Yes, completely.

Terminal Diagrams.  Collograph. 6′ x 10′. 2005.

Erika: What did it take to gain a second and third show?  How aggressive did you have to be to perpetuate a constant exhibition schedule?

Charlie: I made more work – a lot more work.  As I tend to make distinct and specifically different bodies of work, the variety of the projects seemed to perpetuate the shows more than any other factor as they were able to lend themselves to various niches and thus diverse exhibition and gallery types.

Erika:  It seems as though we all experience plateaus both in our art making and in our careers.  Looking back, when were you able to move from this preliminary stage of exhibiting and progress towards becoming well recognized?

Charlie: Actually, I don’t know how to identify the plateaus or stages. Don’t know if I will ever be able to see the hills from the valleys. If the work is going well in the studio, that’s a hilltop. If not, the shadows loom large. I don’t see certain ‘exhibitions’ or forms of ‘recognition’ as reflecting the highs, or lack thereof as signifying the lows.  Hopefully, the studio narrative gets beyond this sort of evaluation. Just because one is showing well does not mean that the work is good.

Erika: Can you point to certain events or exhibitions, which projected your career forward at each of those stages?

Charlie: I have to say that the Southern Graphics council did more for my early career than any other single mechanism. Almost biennial presentations at their annual conferences from 1992 – 2002 and the connections that I made during this time were very important.

Terrarium VI. Intaglio & Lithography. 30″ x 40″. 2006.

Travel has had a very significant effect upon my career. Teaching and/or exhibiting throughout North America and South Africa, New Zealand, Korea, and Italy has impacted not only my relations with an expanding community of artists but also produced extended perspectives and insights throughout the print world.

Erika: Where are you now in the trajectory that you have laid out for yourself?

Charlie: I have never laid out a trajectory for my career. Where I am going, hopefully much farther. Seriously, with respect to the term trajectory, I say keep traveling further away, both figuratively and literally.  Many laid-out trajectories are so tight, so preplanned, so predictable. With my work, I strive to maintain multiple trajectories, and try not to resist the contradictions that arise amidst their differences.

Erika: For years, you have taught, how difficult has it been for you to balance your teaching career with your artistic career?  What makes you remain in academia?  What do we academic types tend to focus too much on?  And what not enough?

Charlie: Four answers to 4 questions:

a. Very difficult. b. Money and teaching. c. Professional practice. d. Magic.

F1, 08 I – IX. Collograph. 46″ x 40″. 2010.

Erika: Do you still work just as hard today to “get your work out there” as you did before you were so well known?

Charlie: Yes, and more so.  As the old adage goes, ‘the more you show, the more you show’. And my personal take “the more you make, the more you ‘have’ to show, thus the more you show”.

Erika: Over the course of your career, are there some sacrifices that you wish you hadn’t made?  Or any choices that you might have modified with hindsight?

Charlie: I don’t really think like this.  Modification in hindsight is a scary thing for me to even think about.

Erika: When you think back over the decades of art making that you have sustained, what individual works or bodies of work do you feel most satisfied about?

Charlie: That would be the work that has not yet been completed. I am honestly never satisfied with anything that I make. That is one of the reasons why I keep making – the drive to make better.

Erika: What is your best advice for emerging artists?

Charlie: Work you butt off, be cool, strive to understand the relative nature of the contemporary art world, and continually challenge yourself anew in your studio. Don’t be complacent with your imagery, content, materials, or tools. Always know that someone else is out there kicking your ass, right now as a matter of fact. And travel!!

F1,08 X – IIIXX. Collograph. 46″ x 40″. 2010.

Erika: Which contemporary artists are most engaging to you?

Charlie: Sculptors Anish Kapoor and Martin Puryear have been very interesting for me to revisit as of late.

Erika: Have you ever noticed the work of those around you (students, wife, etc.) directly influencing your own imagery or practice?  If so, could you give an example?

Charlie: Actually, I consciously avoid the influences of my students and my wife, and enjoy celebrating the differences. Although, my 4 year old daughter is definitely giving me a run for it as her drawing skills are far superior to mine and I really admire her recent work. Seriously!  I admit that I consciously steer away from directions that I see developing around me, and have been told that my work would do fine to be made in a cave. I tend to be influenced more by opposition than by similarity. Thus, I am much more affected by what is not going on directly around me than by what is – kind of an influence by absence.

Erika: As a former student, this statement is interesting and telling.  I always admired how you were able to identify your students’ goals and offer advice to help to help them best technically and conceptually attain them, without imposing your ideas and methods on them.

Charlie (Added): Thanks Erika, that’s nice of you to say. I always tell the classes at the beginning of every semester that the UH print program is much more interested in a school of thought dominated by diversity than similarity. But, I am also not hesitant to give away my specific tricks.

Erika: What is the question that I should have asked?

Charlie: What papers have you recently been printing on and why?

Erika: If you were not an artist, what would you be?

Charlie: Don’t know.  Early on I wanted to be an architect, but I was not good at math.

*For more information on Charles Cohan, visit his web site at: http://www.charlescohan.com/

In 2008, Nevada artist Candace Nicol began the 6Sides2EveryStory project, which encourages artists all over the globe to examine a newsworthy in collaboration through the printmaking medium. Six artists carved six different perspectives towards the news article picked for each block into each of 100, 2-inch cubes of wood.  Candace printed the blocks and their individual 6-paneled narrative images as they were returned to her over a 2-year period of time.

As a participating artist in 6Sides2EveryStory, I enjoyed working with 5 other artists in my community on block #91: “Abandoned Owls Blamed on Harry Potter”.  Some blocks were carved by a group whose members already knew each other, and some blocks were shared across communities. In January 2010, the first exhibition of 100 finished blocks and prints opened at Western Nevada College, where it remains on view through February 25, 2010. In this interview by Laura Berman, Candace answers some questions about the overall 6Sides2EveryStory project and its results.

What was your inspiration for the 6Sides2EveryStory project?

I had been organizing print exchanges and I really wanted to do something that could potentially include people that might not know that much about printmaking.  I really was searching for a collaborative project that was different from the traditional exchange, something that I might not be able to control much after I set up the basic parameters. To do something like this, I had to organize a project that wouldn’t cost a lot, would be easy to “move” around the globe, and would not require special tools or techniques.  I first thought of woodcuts or even linoleum puzzles pieces.  When I was searching for the wood, I came across these 2”x2” cubes.  I’m sure that in my mind, the history of exquisite corpse triggered the idea – Hey, what about creating little narratives with 6 artists and one news article.  This was in late 2007 and early 2008 when I was thinking about this.  There was a lot of interesting news surrounding the presidential race and as a consequence, important social, economic and environmental topics were being debated.  The concept of 6sides just fell into place.  Once, I wrote the prospectus, I distributed copies to artists at the Virginia Commonwealth SGC Conference.  The first artists came from that initial contact.  I also sent out the information to everyone on my email list, hoping that the information would be forwarded to new people.

Where are you now in the trajectory that you have laid out for 6Sides2EveryStory?

The cubes are finished and the editions are printed.  I still have to send prints to the final participants.  See… part of the project was that I gave something back to the artists that carved on the cube.  Also, the prints visually connect the images with the artists and the story… so everyone has a memento of the project.  I also have to finish the book for the project and update the website and blog…and….find more exhibition spaces.

What are some of your favorite starting points for the cubes? Which are your favorite finished prints?

Some of my favorite starting points were the stories picked by students.  WHERE did they find these stories?  My all-time favorite is the story of the man arrested for receiving sexual favors from a car vac (cube #50).  A student in my class found that news article.  He was so shy and thought we would all make fun of him for picking it, but the class just LOVED it!  Another cube that really emphasized the spirit of this project was cube #9.  Melanie Yazzie started the cube and she included her 10-year old niece who carved the net image on the cube.  That cube was one of my favorite finished prints because while printing, I was soooo proud of myself for getting the subtle details to come through.  My other favorite final print is “Busy Bees” (cube 64) started by April Vollmer.  This cube took on some interesting perspectives and the artists really documented their thought processes, so I think I ended up having a strong connection to it because I knew what each of the images signified.

Cube # 9 It’s Official: Caribbean Monk Seal is Extinct.  Story Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25007277 Artists: Melanie Yazzie (CO), C.Maxx Stevens (CO), Maggie Goat (OK), Triston Myna Baldwin (AZ)

What did you learn about the printmaking community through this project?

How thankful I am to be a part of it!  Seriously, there is such a tremendous energy in the printmaking community that would allow for a project like this.  Everybody involved in starting a cube has very busy lives and they still found time to work on this.  The cube starters had the challenge of not only picking out a story that everyone could work on, but also having to motivate 5 other artists into finishing their sides of the cube.  Many cube starters couldn’t do it and the cubes came back unfinished.  This was one of those “I couldn’t control the outcome” circumstances.  It worked out great because I had individual artists email me and want to carve a side but didn’t want to start a cube.  Some examples of this were cubes 2, 44, 71, 86, 89, 93, 94.  Also, I learned how democratic the printmaking community is.  This project had so many different kinds of people involved, many who were not even artists, let alone printmakers.  Everyone accepted the project as one that was about connection, not technique.  Some of the cubes are rough, carved out with cheap carving tools or knives or whatever was available, while others were carved with precise engraving tools.  But it didn’t matter when all the prints came together because it represented how unique we all are and how individually, we could each contribute to a woven tapestry that in the end would document how wonderful it is to exist a world of such diversity.

Why is it important that 6Sides2EveryStory manifests in print form? How does the printmaking process add to this project’s dialog and collaboration?

It was important that I print the cubes so that all 6 sides could be shown in a narrative format.  If we just left the carvings and tried to display the cubes alone, some sides would be covered.  The other component was that I wanted to be able to give back to the participants who took the time from their busy lives to carve these cubes.  Trust me, the cubes were not easy to carve into.  They were awkward to hold down while carving.  There were too types of wood circulating, too.  Some of the cubes were made from a hardwood and the others were made of softwood.  The artists who ended up with the hardwood needed really sharp tools or engraving tools.  The wonderful aspect of printmaking is the multiple, that each artist could have a finished print.  A lot of the participants, especially the ones that were carving the first sides, would not even know what the end result looked like if we didn’t print the cube.  In the beginning of the project, I would get a cube printed and then post it on the blog and people who had carved a side would be amazed at the final print.

Cube #11 Gray Thunder.  Original News Source: An excerpt from article by Cyril Christo, May/June 2008  Orion Magazine Artists: Jill Fitterer (ID), B. Love (ID), Denise Lauerman (ID), Zachary Haight (ID), Marissa Keith (ID), Melissa Stephenson (ID)

Did 6Sides2EveryStory intersect with your teaching at all? If so, how were your students/classes involved in this project?

The students are a big component to the project, especially for me and for Sharon Tetley, Printmaking Professor at Western Nevada College in Carson City.  This project was perfect for getting students between the two colleges to collaborate, both printmaking students and art foundation students. For three semesters, we had students contributing.  I know that many other “cube starters” are professors and they included their students in the project, too.  It was a chance to get students involved in one of the most important aspects of printmaking, that of collaboration.

How important is community to the 6Sides2EveryStory project and to your own work?

I think that so much of my own art activity is centered on attempting to connect artists.  At the same time as 6sides, I had been working on a big collaboration involving all kinds of artists across states for 2009 Burning Man project www.commd.org and now, a collaborative project involving artists from Northern Nevada and Southern Nevada www.geographicaldivides.blogspot.com. Working in Nevada….not a lot of printmakers, so we have to find ways to connect with one another and to connect to printmakers from other states.  For me personally, 6Sides2Every Story inspired me and kept me going as a printmaker.  During this project, the economy took a nose-dive and I found myself not being able to afford to go to SGC or to other conferences, but because of the cube project, I still had a connection to other artists and printmakers around the globe.  I’m grateful for that.

What is your best advice for someone thinking of beginning a project of this scope?

The best advice – if you have an idea and you think…. “I can’t do this”…. DON’T think that way and believe in your fellow printmakers, they will amaze you!  Have a lot of patience and do everything in little steps but stay persistent.  There was a time during this project that I wanted to just give up, but I knew I would disappoint the artists that had already committed to the project.  Also, sometimes, projects take a long time to complete, but if you just keep at it, the project will be a success…maybe not what you envisioned at the beginning…. but the outcome will be interesting non-the-less.

Which contemporary artists are most engaging to you?

As far as printmaking, I just love John Hitchcock’s work and how he connects with students while creating installations.  I have always loved his use of the multiple in three-dimensional forms.  Another artist/printmaker who does that is Jennifer Anderson in California.  I’m also attracted to her work because she references the body.  Okay, so my all time favorite artist?  Ida Applebroog, of course.  Bold, distinct, fragmented narratives, and no fear of unveiling the taboo.

If you were not an artist, what would you be?

A high school art teacher…oh wait, I was that for a while.

What is the question that I should have asked?

Oh, I do want to add:  The news stories were such an important aspect to the project and I really thought the majority of cubes would be about the election.  Instead, it was interesting to see that most people were concerned for the environment.   The actual election, which was dominating the news at the time, was not the primary inspiration for stories.  Oh…and what is with the fascination over cows?  There are soooo many cow images in this project.  One story, too, is about cows being killed by lightning.

Cube #95 Just Another Week on Earth.  Original News Source: Harper’s Weekley, May 20. 2008, Weekly Review, By Chantal Clarke Artists: Linda Katzdorn, CA; Dan Samborski, CA; Katherine Venturelli, CA; William E. Kubow, CA; Nolan Winkler, NM; R.Wm. Winkler, NM

So, this is really interesting:  Over 100 cubes went out.  A lot were MIA.  Some were never started.  But what is really incredible is that we got 90 back.  The total count was 95, but 5 are missing in the sequence.  So… the last cube’s story title is “Just Another Week on Earth” started by Linda Katzdom in California.  This is such a fitting story to end the cube project with.  The original story goes like this:

Harpers Weekley

May 20. 2008

Weekly Review

By Chantal Clarke

A 7.9-magnitude earthquake centered in Sichuan Province, China, left 50,000 dead and 5,000,000 homeless. Outside Beichuan Middle School, where 1,000 students and teachers died, parents waited for the bodies of their children to be pulled from the rubble, lighting a single firecracker each time a body was found. A married couple lay under their workers’ dormitory for 28 hours, their limbs crushed and entwined. “I tried bending my neck against the wall to kill myself,” said the husband after being rescued. Three minutes of silence and three days of mourning were observed throughout the nation, and the Olympic Torch relay was suspended. “Other people who know their relatives have died can call this a memorial day or a funeral,” said a farmer named Wang Hongchen, who wandered the ruins shouting his son’s name, “but not me yet.” Predictions of a powerful new earthquake sent tens of thousands of Chengdu residents rushing to the streets in panic. A three-day period of mourning was also declared for 130,000 dead or missing victims of the cyclone in Myanmar, where the country’s military junta, under protest by the United Nations, continued to turn away much foreign aid. As oil prices reached $127 a barrel, President George W. Bush pleaded with Saudi Arabia to increase pumping, but was rebuffed; he also told Middle Eastern leaders that their economies would not be successful until they gave women equal opportunities. “This is a matter of morality,” he said, “and basic math.” A 19-year-old college freshman was elected mayor of Muskogee, Oklahoma. “Right now I’m between girlfriends,” said John Tyler Hammons, who is president of both the Young Republicans and the Young Democrats at his university. “I’m looking to fill that position.” Cherie Blair revealed that her husband, ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair, had announced her miscarriage to the press in order to deter speculation about an early invasion of Iraq and perennial U.S. presidential candidate Alan Keyes declared that he represents, “in political terms, the abortion. You’re invited in, but they kill you.”

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers said that Karl Rove had a week to appear before the committee. “Someone’s got to kick his ass,” said Conyers. House Republicans began using a new slogan, “the change you deserve,” which turned out to be the slogan of the antidepressant Effexor. The California Supreme Court struck down a state ban on same-sex marriage, surprising legal experts because six of the seven judges are Republican, and the Vatican’s chief astronomer said that it’s not a contradiction of faith to believe in aliens and that we may have intelligent, God-created “extraterrestrial brothers.” Morehouse College in Atlanta named its first white valedictorian. “I support him and his mission to be successful in life,” said a junior. “I just kind of wish he had done it at a different institution.” The invasion of tasteless Chinese truffles threatened the primacy of the European Perigord black truffle, and billions of hairy, reddish-brown “crazy Rasberry ants” (named for a local exterminator) were swarming through the greater Houston area. “They have nowhere to go, just running crazy wild,” said one resident. “You know what it’s like to sit down on the commode with crazy ants running everywhere?” U.S. Air Force pilots were testing the Advanced Mission Extender Device, the result of a $5 million program to replace unhygienic “piddle packs” with a system that converts urine into a gel. Los Angeles was considering whether to turn its raw sewage into drinking water.

Robert Rauschenberg died at the age of 82, and the former head of UCLA’s cadaver program was indicted for selling over $1 million in body parts. Natascha Kampusch, who prior to the recent emergence of the Josef Fritzl case was the most famous Austrian to have been imprisoned in a cellar sex dungeon, felt compelled to buy her once-captor’s house so that it wouldn’t be torn down or vandalized. The Pentagon announced that it will build a permanent 40-acre detention complex in Afghanistan to replace crumbling Bagram prison. “This place,“ explained a military official regarding Bagram, ”was not made to keep people there indefinitely.” Curators at the Museum of Modern Art pulled the incubator plug on a tiny coat made of living mouse stem cells after it grew too fast, and scientists at Cornell University created the first genetically modified human embryo. At an NRA convention in Kentucky, Mike Huckabee made a joke after hearing a noise off-stage. “That was Barack Obama,” he said. ”Somebody aimed a gun at him and he dove for the floor.” A poem written by Obama in 1981 was discovered and republished:

Under water grottos, caverns

Filled with apes

That eat figs

Stepping on the figs

That the apes

Eat, they crunch

The apes howl, bare

Their fangs, dance,

Tumble in the

Rushing water

Musty, wet pelts

Glistening in the blue.

- – -

More about Candace Nicol:

Candace Nicol has a MFA from Boise State University and a BFA from University of Nevada, Reno. Candace is a co-founder of the Northern Nevada Printmakers’ Conspiracy which presents works in national and international collections. She has been awarded the distinguished Nevada Arts Council 2009 Artist Fellowship, a Sierra Arts 2008 Artist Grant, and received an honorable mention from the quarterly magazine, Printmaking Today. | candacenicol.com »

Links: www.6sides2everystory.blogspot.com

In the midst of our dilemma, a member from our own board made a very generous proposal.  He offered to match funds donated by other members of the Board of Directors up to one-thousand dollars through the end of January. We sent out a fundraising challenge letter, emphasizing the importance of all board members participating, no matter how great or small the contribution.  I am accustomed to this type of fundraising campaign from within, because the private school I teach for asks for all staff & faculty to contribute to the school’s fundraising.

Obtaining 100% participation in this fundraiser would both create an immediate solution to help meet our financial crunch for the Annual Exhibitions of 2010 and 2011 and offer us the opportunity to mount a larger effort to solicit additional funds from a wider group of donors, indicating that the board has already stepped up to meet some of the critical financial needs we foresee over the next two years.  (I have been told contributors are more likely to donate their own money when members of an organization appear to prioritize funding themselves).

In our letter, we did not ask for any specific amount of money from our board members.  And, we will not be publicizing who contributes and who does not. Soliciting them for donations is highly irregular, since we are a board of volunteers that already gives up a tremendous amount of time and energy serving the needs of the Honolulu Printmakers; as such we have had several complaints from within our board.  Financial issues always have a way of striking an especially stressful cord.

Since hearing of this fundraiser, a private donor outside the organization was impressed enough to make a sizeable donation to the Honolulu Printmakers.  And many of our board members responded quickly.  I believe we already made the $1000 to be matched.  This new fundraiser has already helped to ease the immediate financial needs of our organization.

I invite any comments on this idea or other fundraising options that have worked for organizations with which readers and other blog contributors have been involved.  Perhaps by sharing these options, we can make sure all of our arts organizations stay afloat in this slow economy.