Happy pandemic and winter greetings from the Kindle Arts Board of Directors!
Due to gathering restrictions and generalized chaos, our ambitious plans for a Kindle Arts town-hall meeting turned out to be too ambitious, so we postponed. And we must push on! We have rescheduled our virtual town hall meeting for Saturday, March 20th, from 4 to 5pm on Google meet. An invitation will be sent to the email we have on file for your membership. We hope to see you then !
This meeting will be an opportunity to offer suggestions for events and activities that you would like to make happen this year and next. We’re keen to receive feedback from our Kindle community; how would you like the directors to accomplish to set the stage for the Kindle Arts future ?
It is with heavy hearts that we must announce the inevitable: Otherworld 2021 is cancelled, and Kindle Arts will not host any public events in 2021.
The Otherworld production team has been contacted and is in agreement that it is not feasible to hold the event this year. The reasoning is due to; an uncertain vaccination schedule, the rise of highly contagious COVID-19 variants, public health restrictions, and taking the safety of our community as a priority. Venue Liaison, David Boon, contacted Lake Town Ranch to investigate if space was available this summer, however, COVID-19 will likely still be present and large gatherings are very unlikely to be permitted.
If members of the community wish to organize a fundraising event within the provincial gathering guidelines and in accordance with public health orders, the board is open to suggestions.
All granted projects are offered the opportunity to be extended into 2022, upon receipt of confirmation from the artist.
Please email Vee, our Grants Lead at: grants@kindlearts.ca to confirm or cancel your project and your participation with Kindle Arts in 2022.
Please specify the name of your project in the Subject line.
You may extend your project into next year. Please ensure it can safely and successfully be completed as outlined in your pre-approved grant application.
You may cancel your project due to the exceptional circumstances, without penalty, even if you have received partial funding.
In other news, we have made significant improvements to Kindle’s Google Drive! The Drive has been swamped with archived documents and forms for many years. We are pleased to announce we have a significantly improved and organized Kindle archive. We will continue to work on the Drive and to make sure the correct permissions are in place for those who need access.
We will be launching a separate Google Drive for Event Production, which will be ready to go when in-person events resume.
Our next AGM will be Saturday, September 18th, from 4 to 6pm. In light of the pandemic, Kindle Arts Memberships from 2019 will be extended into 2022.
The AGM will be online unless public gatherings are allowed in September. The Board of Directors is presently sitting for a 1 year term. We will propose a bylaw change to make Director positions 2 years for the sake of continuity. The global pandemic has really impacted our ability to put our skills to work on behalf of the community, and we want to stick around to give back to those who have done so much for us.
Stuff and things: We are setting up access to a web store where you can buy Kindle Arts swag! Juniper, the artist behind the octopus pendant and various OW logos, is going to share her art with all of you.
The platform will be Teepublic – a print on demand business that handles printing and distribution, which saves us the headache of managing an inventory and makes it easy for you to order merchandise. More details to come, stay tuned !
Lastly, the Board of Directors meeting minutes are posted on the website on a monthly basis. To stay up to date on our activities, check out our meeting minutes here: https://kindlearts.ca/about-kindlearts/minutes/
This board and the previous two boards have been working toward creating a more robust website and we are very near to completing that goal. The aim has been toward self-sufficiency so we are not dependent on Facebook as a medium for communication for the membership of the society.
We are working on building the photo galleries from past events to be catalogued and presented on the website. Got any images or art or happenings from years past ? Please email them to us at directors@kindlearts.ca to add to our archival photo gallery. Photos of people are welcomed. *Individuals have the right not to appear in the gallery, or to be tagged, if they so choose.
That’s it, that’s all! Stay safe, be warm, and be kind.
Warm Regards,
Kindle Arts Board of Directors