April 2011

The Renewal of Spring

As I survey the verdant hills around our Laguna home and watch our garden respond to the April sun, I am reminded of the promise and reality of renewal that accompanies the coming of spring.  It is also the California season that plein air artists have been capturing on their canvases for generations.

This natural spirit of renewal reminds me of the same vitality that we are endeavoring to generate for LPAPA, which like so many non-profits, has had challenges in recent years.  Here’s a snapshot of what we are working on, all in accord with our Strategic Plan.  ( Download Strategic Plan. PDF file )


2011 Invitational
LPAPA’s signature annual event, the Plein Air Invitational, enters its thirteenth year.  In January, we sat down with our partner, the Laguna Art Museum, and took a hard look at the program and at our relationship. 

During the last several years, there has been a decline in fund-raising revenues from the event. These revenues are vital to support LPAPA as well as the Museum. The good news is that the event remains in the black, but the declines had been significant enough to call into question the Invitational’s future.  Most of the decline is due to the present difficult economic conditions we are enduring and obviously something beyond our control. 

We then asked ourselves, “What can we do within our control to revitalize and enhance the Invitational and make it an even better experience for our artists?”

We started with both the LPAPA and Art Museum Board of Directors reiterating their enthusiastic support for the event. LAM Director Bolton Colburn, Events Manager Sarah Strozza and we have all joined in this chorus.  We reminded ourselves that the Laguna Art Museum owes its establishment in the 1910’s to plein air painters and that Laguna Beach’s cultural heritage owes so much to landscape painting.

The re-commitment to the Invitational led us to decisions and actions to implement renewed vitality of spirit.  We have made a number of changes for this year’s event, including:

• Re-establishment of LPAPA prize money-this year, a $5,000 award for the best-in-show. • Re-establishment of LPAPA prize money-this year, a $5,000 award for the best-in-show. • Elimination of aspects of the program that some of you told us either didn’t work very well or were contrary to your interests.  • Beginning planning for this year’s Invitational much earlier than in previous years in order to enhance sponsorship opportunities and improve outreach and awareness of the event. • Establishment of a Sponsorship and Host Committee structure to involve community leaders and collectors in obtaining sponsors and increasing ticket sales. • Creation of this year’s Sea, Sage and Sustainability theme to emphasize the role that landscape artists play in the protection of endangered landscapes by depicting their beauty and significance to collectors and the general public and to generate sponsorship.  This theme has resulted in at least one new monetary sponsor commitment in recent days. • New affiliations with other non-profits such as the Laguna Canyon Foundation which will assist our artists in locating hidden artistic gems in the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park and possibly a lecture series on the ecology underlying what you see and paint. • Enhancement of outreach and communications, including an Invitational poster featuring the work of last year’s Invitational winner, Bryan Mark Taylor.  We would ideally like to distribute the poster to every merchant in town so that everyone is aware of the Invitational. • Development of an enhanced sponsorship package   ( Download LPAPA Sponsorship Proposal. 4MB PDF file )

St. Regis Hotel 10th Anniversary-Sponsorship and Artists on the Grounds Series
           
Our work on improving the Invitational caught the attention of the five-star St. Regis Hotel in Dana Point.  In connection with the hotel’s 10th anniversary and their interest in celebrating the best of local culture, St. Regis executives Christine Bonner and  Lorraine Gray contacted both LPAPA and the Museum with two proposals, both which are now being implemented:

1. Inviting LPAPA artists to participate in the 2011 Magical Summer Celebration every weekend from Memorial Day to Labor Day by making the hotel and its grounds available to you. (More information will be available soon)

2. Catering the 2011 Invitational Soiree as an official sponsor


Benefactor Salon Program
LPAPA is establishing a Benefactor’s Salon Program. The Benefactor Salons are a 21st Century revival of their 19th century European counterparts, like those salons established by the French Impressionists and other avant garde artists of the day.  While the original salons were intended to circumvent stifling artistic conventions, LPAPA’s salons are intended to promote the finest traditions of plein air painting, stimulate innovation wherever our artists and collectors want to take it, and build LPAPA’s service capabilities through enhanced fund-raising.

But more importantly, the Salons will bring artists, collectors and lovers of landscape painting together through intimate and stimulating gatherings in spectacular settings with whatever else the Salon hosts might want to add to the mix. We are also looking to bring the Benefactors Salon hosts together through LPAPA-developed social programs that we are in the process of defining now.  More on this program to follow soon.


Fund-Raising
LPAPA has energized it s fund-raising activities not only through  the efforts on the Invitational and prospective benefits of the Benefactor Salon program, but we are also revising our financial support structure  to  link different levels of contribution to specific benefits that artist and non-artist members will receive for their contributions. We’ll also be posting a LPAPA “wants and needs” list and associated dollar amount so that donors have the option of contributing funds in a specific, targeted way.


Synergies with other non-profits
LPAPA’s Strategic Plan calls for outreach and affiliations with other non-profits with complementary missions, such as conservation-oriented groups. To this end, we have established a relationship with the Laguna Canyon Foundation, which has program oversight on the 17,000 acre Laguna Greenbelt that is the source of so much artistic inspiration. LCF’s motto is “Connecting People with the Land”.  In the months ahead, we will be jointly developing programs with LCF to help our artists to do exactly that. 

We are also exploring an affiliation with Micoean, a marine environment protection organization whose leaders include prominent Orange County business people. We have committed to participate at Micoean’s annual gala at the St. Regis in June and plan to have an exhibition profiling LPAPA at that event.  We are developing a relationship for programs with Starr Ranch Sanctuary, a magnificent 4,000 acre nature preserve operated by the National Audubon Society in the Orange County foothills.  We are in the preliminary planning stages for a 2012 event with the Pacific Art Foundation.

Lastly, we are enhancing our relationship with The Irvine Museum, which has one of the foremost collections of 19th and early 20th century California plein air art. 
I’ll have more details on these initiatives in subsequent Messages.


Facebook
Through the enthusiastic and energetic efforts of our ex officio Board member, Randy Higbee, AKA King of Frame,  you can now follow LPAPA and network with your fellow plein air practitioners and aficionados on Facebook via the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association group.  Just launched, this group is already getting quite a following.


Strengthening the Board of Directors
In the past year, we have elected Camille Przewodek, a renowned plein air artist with strong artistic business acumen, and Jean Stern, Executive Director of The Irvine Museum and foremost authority on California plein air art, and Harry Bithell, a non-profit fund-raising expert and real estate broker, to our Board. These outstanding individuals round out our strategic goal of bringing a full suite of needed expertise to LPAPA. In the years ahead, we may add additional Board members who have the financial strength to become substantial sustaining donors and to effectively solicit similar donations from their spheres of influence.

And a final note, please realize that none of these initiatives would be moving forward without the outstanding energy and commitment of our Executive Director, Rosemary Swimm. Please take any opportunity you may have to thank her for her fine efforts; and if you can, volunteer to assist her in LPAPA activities and events.
           
Well, that’s more than enough for now, as I’ve exceeded my usual imposed 750-word limit by almost 60%.  I trust that the additional verbiage is a sign of a particularly robust renewal.


Greg Vail