From Daniel's email:
Here is something I want to offer to the group to discuss in anticipation of another meeting.
Needs Assessment:
In what I offer I am trying to take into account what I see as a need for organization and responsibility given a diverse membership – by “diverse” in this context I am pointing to how the group attracts artist members looking for various types of support as well as non-artist members looking to enjoy and support the arts/artists in general, though of course other diversity factors are active.
Proposed GAC organization structure:
GAC Board
The GAC: A Governing Board and several well-defined Activity Divisions (groups).
GAC Board. Officers: President, Treasurer, Secretary – the Board could also consist of simply a Co-President/Treasurer and Co-President/Secretary. Representatives: Each rep leads one or more groups and communicates with the Board. The President takes a significant leadership role, helps to define and develop the identity of the group, and oversees all GAC activities. The Treasurer handles funds. The Secretary records all activities and distributes info to reps and others. A bi-lingual volunteer dedicated to serving as an assistant to the Secretary would be nice to have, but need not serve on the Board. Ideally, officers would be elected for one-year terms. Any officer could be removed by a majority vote by the membership (officers and reps) of the Board. GAC Board meetings should request attendance by a GIC rep only if the agenda truly requires it. The GAC should function to support the GIC and greater Gwang-ju, not the other way around and a simple e-mail of the minutes and group activity info can be e-mailed to the GIC rep when a GIC rep does not attend.
Artist Peer Discussion Group. All members are artists who share works with group members. Exhibiting to the larger public would not be a function of this group. Group projects would not be a function of this group, though collaborative works defined by sets of individuals on their own would be fine. This group is for artists to talk about making art with other artists and all must be willing to share work. Meets once or twice a month. Needs a rep.
Art Lovers Club. Open to all lovers of art, whether or not they are self-identified as artists. A meetup.com group would be created (possibly linked to but independent of facebook) and the group would focus on visiting museums and galleries in Gwang-Ju, and probably afterward having coffee to discuss art. This group could function to recruit members into the GIC and/or GAC, but people could certainly belong to this group and this group only. At least one event per month. Needs a rep. A bi-lingual participant would be helpful if possible.
Art School / Group Projects. Dedicated to offering classes and/or organizing group art projects. Some people love art but are not artists and some artists want peer support but do not want to participate in group projects. Some people want to make art but have no training and would enjoy some lessons. This group is for classes and group projects and can certainly involve overlapping sets of people, but this group and the other groups should remain organizationally/functionally separate. This group might not always be active, and its meetings would thus vary. Needs a rep. The Board should approve classes or projects if the projects look to use GAC identity or resources, and approval in turn may depend on approval by the GIC since some resources are owned and controlled by the GIC.
GAC Exhibitionists (:P). Dedicated to exhibiting work by GAC artists. The works can come from members of the peer discussion group and/or the art school/projects group, but an artist could belong to this and only this division and still be respected as a GAC member. Not every artist wants to exhibit but also not every artist wants to sit in on peer group chats just to get help exhibiting. The members of this group want to exhibit and this division gives them a group dedicated to making exhibitions happen. Meets as needed, needs a rep. The Board should approve exhibitions if the exhibitions look to use resources and/or exhibit involving GAC identity, and that approval may depend on approval by the GIC if it involves the GIC gallery.
GAC Promotions. Dedicated to promoting the GAC. This could be through the blog that was mentioned at the last meeting as well as through other means. The GAC Secretary should gather info from reps and give that info to the promotions representative – don’t duplicate work and make the promoter rep chase sources. Doesn’t necessarily require a regular meeting. Ideally, promotions should be run by the Board for feedback whenever possible, if only to be given the chance to correct errors.
GAC Fund-raising and Gwang-ju Art Community Support. Dedicated to raising funds and giving back to the community, either through GAC artists or otherwise. This is not about artists serving themselves – this is about a group of artists and/or art-lovers serving the people of Gwang-ju in the form of supporting those active in the arts, especially struggling artists and art-friendly businesses. Two examples: a) support a locally-owned coffee shop that hosts a monthly poetry slam / art auction by showing up and buying a coffee and a pastry and some art or a chapbook; b) collect money from foreigners through donations, auctions, book/food sales, and then use that money to host a contest that rewards local artists with money and an exhibition; c) if any exhibited works sell, give a percentage to a local charity (Sung-Bin, etc). Needs a rep. Meets as needed. The Board must approve and oversee any fund-raising activities.
GAC Community Relations. This is potentially down the road a fairly high-end division. Going beyond simple fund-raising and any public relations involved in any of the above groups, this group would be looking to make serious connections with major players in Gwang-ju (e.g. government officials, local/national level businesses, major art patrons, big museum peeps, etc.). Meets as needed, and needs a rep. The Board should approve and oversee any significant community relations activities.
The above is meant to provide structure and responsibility while serving varies needs and interests, but not necessarily much bureaucracy or even real complexity is involved. Four to six dedicated people could take on 1-2 responsibilities each to get things rolling in a friendly but organized way.
I hope my contribution to the greater GAC conversation is somehow useful. ^^
Warm Artsy Regards,
Daniel
p.s. Does the membership want anything like the above org or does it just want to be a more typical collective (basically a combination of peer support and exhibitions, and in that case is its purpose statement accurate?) Should the name – GAC – remain the same? If the majority of the membership consists of foreigners supporting Gwang-ju, should the name be changed to more accurately and proudly – and potentially be more economically/politically effective – represent itself as such?
