What an exciting year for The Center for Art in Wood! We had a number of highly successful exhibitions including Bartram's Boxes Remix; a challenging exhibition utilizing trees felled during a storm at Bartram's Garden.  The artists were charged with imagining and creating modern interpretations of the original containers crafted by John Bartram in the 18^th century, which served to transport plant species from the New World to the Old.  This exhibition received high accolades and will be traveling to other museums across the country over the next several years.  Our duel exhibition, featuring David Stephens and Roy Superior, showed the contrast and range that can be seen in wood art. David created large objects with religious themes while Roy Superior, who was a long time arts educator at the University of the Arts, created interesting and sometimes whimsical themes.  These exhibitions ran simultaneously and were an excellent counterpoint to one another.

The Center also had a very successful year with our supporters.  The Windgate Charitable Foundation renewed our three year challenge grant in a creative way by doing a two for one on all new donations we receive.  The William Penn Foundation funded three new programs: the creation of a Director of Business Operations position which is held by Levi Landis, an extremely experienced non-profit leader; a grant to obtain consultants who will enable us to better understand and plan for our financial future; and consultants to help expand and develop our board governance and identify the skills necessary for future board members.

We also had an extremely successful Annual Founders' Fundraising event where we exceeded our goal by 50 percent.  The heart of the event was to honor Ron Fleming, one of the early Trustees of the Center and past Secretary of our Board.  Best of all was the exhibition of his unique and exquisite artwork, which will continue to be on display at the Center through January 24th.

All of these successes, however, create an extraordinary challenge.  We must find ways to continue this progress to ensure that we can continue moving forward once the William Penn grants and the Windgate Challenge grant expire.  In short, we need the ongoing help of our members, contributors and supporters to make sure that this remarkable progress we have achieved over the last year continues on for years to come.

Please keep this in mind when you think of the Center.

 

Onward to 2015 !

At the end of a year that reaped huge changes and upsets around the world, I take a deep breath and sigh with relief for another stimulating year at the Center.  It took a lot of participation and support from the Center's funders and friends - and an active Board of Trustees, two new staff members overseeing Business Operations (a first !) and Membership and Advancement, and our dedicated existing staff who oversee Exhibitions, Collections,  and Office and Store operations.   I thank you all - from the bottom of my heart and the top of my desk.

Dick Goldberg reviews the year's exhibitions in his statement.  It's been a huge varied program with visitation reaching 14,500 during 2014.  How exciting is that !?   We were also delighted to recognize Ron Fleming with the 2014 Founders' Award for his early dedication to the Center's Board of Trustees and the intervening decades of stellar art work in wood and glass.   We are also overseeing the publication of two new books with our partner Schiffer Publishing and the Fleur Bresler Publication Fund.  These titles, "YOUR Personal Hang-Ups" and "Robin Wood's CORES Recycled", hit the streets in February 2015.   We will have them for sale on the Center's web site as soon as they come out. Thanks to Editor Judson Randall for his hours of scrutiny !

And on to 2015 - as most of my time is spent on planning ahead ... thanks to our new 3-year Challenge grant from the Windgate Charitable Foundation.  Opening in February, we have the honor of hosting the end of Stoney Lamar's retrospective national tour and its publication.  Stoney and Curator Andrew Glasgow will join us the weekend of March 6, 2015 for exciting discussions.  Snyderman-Works Gallery will concurrently host an exhibition of new work by Stoney.  Save the dates and join us if you can.

The future of art in wood is now - Gerard Brown inspired the Spring 2015 exhibition, COLLECTIVE. As an artist and educator, Brown knows the pulse of innovative work by up-and-coming Philadelphia artists' run spaces.  May 1 - July 18, 2015, the Center turns its venue over to 15 Philadelphia-based artists inspired by their studies of the Center's collection, we hardly know what to expect. This promises to be exciting and stimulating and reminds us of the scale and breadth of the art world. We are exploring the possibility of concurring exhibitions of large scale work in other near by venues.

The Windgate ITE International Residency Program is 20 years old in 2015.  An exciting class of international resident fellows joins us in Philadelphia from the first week in June through the end of July 2015.  Open Studio day with be Saturday July 11^th.  allTURNatives: Spirit + Form 2015 Windgate ITE exhibit opens August 7^th.  This is always an exciting world view of work, brought to you at the Center's door step.

The 2015 Founders' Fundraiser will be Saturday November 14^th.  We are busy planning this year's Honoree and the concurrent exhibition. Put the Center in your GPS for 2015.  There is lots to see along with exhibitions - the Permanent Collection, the Fleur and Charles Bresler Research Library, and the Museum Store.  Members receive 10% off in the Store. And remember  -  WOOD is the tradition gift for fifth Anniversaries !  We will help you find something special.  Best wishes for 2015 - Come visit when you can.