Welcome to the quarterly Newsletter of the Westfield Art Association (WAA).
Here you will find information about upcoming shows, member education programs, and any other opportunities and information for our membership.
Upcoming Member Shows
Lord Stirling Park Environmental Education Center – Second Nature
This September the Westfield Art Association will hold its second annual art show at the Lord Stirling Park Environmental Education Center in Basking Ridge, NJ. The theme of the show will be “Second Nature” and artists are asked to interpret this theme in their own style. The WAA will send out a call for art in July with a due date of late August. The show opening will be held on Sunday, September 10, 2023. The Lord Stirling Park Environmental Education Center is located at 190 Lord Stirling Road, Basking Ridge, NJ and is open daily from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. The Environmental Education Center (EEC) at Lord Stirling Park offers approximately 9 miles of hiking trails, Naturalist led programs, school field trips, fun festivals, nature themed exhibits, facility and classroom rentals, a resource library, science and conservation research, and more. The goal of the Center is to improve environmental literacy in Somerset County and beyond. Many people visit the Center so your artwork will get a large viewing. If you want to learn more about the Center, please visit their website at https://www.somersetcountyparks.org/environmental-education-center.
Westfield Memorial Library
The WAA is on the list for another show at the Westfield Memorial Library in October and November 2023. The exhibition space for this show is in the “café” area on the first floor near the study tables and the DVDs. The partition wall can fit up to 20 smaller sized (no bigger than 20’ x 20”) pieces. We plan to partner with the library to select a theme for the show and hope to have enough art submissions so that we can have a themed show for the month of October and a separate show for the month of November. The WAA will send out a call for art in early September. If you want to learn more about the library, please visit their website at https://wmlnj.org/.
Scholarship Benefit Sale
Every year Westfield Art Association gives a scholarship to a high school senior student, selected by the Westfield High School art department chair, who plans to study art after high school. Each year we ask our artists to prepare and donate artwork for an online benefit art sale with the proceeds going to the student selected. We expect to post the online artwork for sale in November so that it will be available in time for the holidays. More details to come!
Grow the WAA! Renew your membership! Invite new artists and those who appreciate great art!
The fees for membership in the WAA remain very inexpensive compared to other associations and are a bargain given all the benefits of being a member. The annual fees are currently $60 for a family (two adults in the same household), $45 for an individual, $35 for a senior (age 65 and up), and $15 for a student in high school grades 9-12 or a full-time college student.Membership benefits include no application fees for member shows, free member educational programs, free admission to plein air events, online promotion of artwork, and membership in a community of great artists. The WAA will remind you each year when your membership is up for renewal, or you can email and ask if you are curious. We would love for our association to continue to grow. Invite other artists you meet, and feel free to invite anyone who is interested in art in general. We would love to expand our program offerings to include people who love art but who may not be motivated to produce their own artwork.
Board of Directors and Officers
The Westfield Art Association is a non-profit organization that has been supporting local artists since 1922. The Association is run totally by volunteers on the Board of Directors and the Officers of the Association. At the annual membership meeting held in June 2023, the following members were elected for a two-year term of office starting on July 1, 2023.
Board of Directors: Maxine King, Virginia Puskar, Barbara Uhr
President: Darrin Owens
Vice President: Francesca Azzara
Secretary: Sharon Reed
Treasurer – Mariya Kavalyov
We do have several members who graciously agreed to join the board, and will make an official announcement soon. We are seeking more volunteers to help direct the Association for the future! There are many committees that need help and would love to have more members join and provide ideas and assistance.
Member Meetings
We plan to hold member meetings every other month, on a Sunday from 2:30 to 4:30 pm. At these meetings, we discuss upcoming Association art shows and other events and members are invited to bring their artwork to show to the group and describe their artistic process. We try to select a main presenter for each meeting to provide an in-depth presentation about their art process or another topic of interest. Members can also meet and talk with fellow artists, and plan future events.
The next meeting is scheduled for Sunday, August 13, 2023 from 2:30 pm to 4:30 pm.
What’s next?
We are seeking to expand our relationship with the Westfield Memorial Library. We hope to offer more opportunities to display artwork, collaborate on a monthly or quarterly joint presentation called “The Westfield Memorial Library and the Westfield Art Association present: _______” where artists can teach a class, discuss topics related to their artwork or art in general, or give other presentations. We are also hoping to provide an “Artist in Residence” to the library with special benefits for that artist and more opportunities to show artwork, present information and network with the library patrons and residents of Westfield and neighboring communities. More details to come!
Member Gallery on the WAA website.
We plan to expand the WAA website to show a member gallery for each artist who provides information about themselves and artwork to share online. More details to come!
We want to share your work!
Our board member Francesca Azzara wants to let you know that if you would like to share your artwork to our Westfield Art Association Instagram account here is how: Message us on Instagram at @Westfield_art_associationOr send an email to FRANCESCAPAINTS at gmail.com. Be sure to send info about the work and about you as an artists. If you are having any shows, or have a website you would like to share include that too. Also look for us on Facebook @WestfieldArtAssociation for upcoming shows, opportunities and news. See links the footer.
