Hampshire County Arts Council

Annual Report

given on March 2, 2007 by Michael Hasty, co-director

As most of you sitting here tonight know, the work of the Hampshire County Arts Council would not be possible without the participation and generosity of the people and various institutions of Hampshire County. Our annual meeting tonight gives us an opportunity to acknowledge some of the folks who have helped us over the past year, and like last year, I’m going to organize this year end review of HCAC activities in the order of the various committees that make up the Arts Council.

Our busiest committee is Concerts, chaired by the indispensable Shari Gallery. Shari, along with the rest of us, would like to thank:

Bank of Romney for sponsoring Summer Concerts,
Potomac Center for hosting them and arranging refreshments
FNB for sponsoring several of our Fall/Winter/Spring Concerts
The Loy Foundation for our partnership and their sponsorship of the Johnny Staats Concert and upcoming Christine Lavin one, as well as use of the facility. Thanks also to our regular soundman, Gizmo and Jean Shoemaker, who takes care of the refreshments.
The Romney Moose, for their support- of- concerts donation
The Hampshire Review and The Capon Valley Chronicle for their coverage of our events, particularly Lana Lombardi's efforts
WVSB and George Park for the public service announcements they broadcast for us,
WFWM Radio in Frostburg for airing our Arts Calendars.
Anderson's Corner for providing coffee for our Coffeehouse Events
Also the many HCAC members who have helped spread the word and post fliers.
Paula O'Brien, Deb Hartsock, Jeff Pancione, Brian Bowers and William Cottrill for helping make the Arts in Education programs we presented happen.

Since March last year, we brought:
Grammy-winners Cathy Fink and Marci Marxer to Hampshire High for all the county's 1st-3rd graders
Simple Gifts to Augusta Elementary School.
Two of a Kind to Art Camp.
We also arranged for Shepherd University's Jazz Ensemble and Choral groups to come to Hampshire High to perform and work with students.

We presented in concert:
Todd Burge and Lady D for our spring and fall coffeehouses
Jonathon Byrd and Andrew Reissiger, Two of a Kind, and The Blue Rhythm Boys for our Free Summer Concerts on the Lawn
Croabh Rua (crave roo-uh) from Northern Ireland, the Canadian trio, Genticorum, mandolin-master Johnny Staats, Simple Gifts, Just4Fun and The Chorus of the Potomac in our "indoor" concerts

Finally, Shari provided free weekly e-mail Arts Alerts to nearly 400 people in the county and region. Let’s give Shari and all the participants in concerts activities some well-deserved applause.

Another one of the HCAC high-profile activities is our annual Arts Camp. That committee is chaired by Nancy Judd, who also serves as the HCAC representative on the Loy Foundation board. Nancy would like to extend her gratitude to:
WVSD Secondary: Jane McBride, JD Corbin and staff;
McDonald’s restaurant; Hampshire Country CSOES’s;
Instructors: Sibyl MacKenzie, Patty Perry, Teresa Bissett, Michael Hasty, Robin Pancake, Sue Ellen Racey, Amanda Gower, Mary O’Malley;
Food Assistant: Debbie Wesson;
Volunteers: Patty Davis, Sylvia Reisher, Judy Householder, Patty Dorsey;
Photographer: Pat Gainor;
Parents who donated a lot of food for the camp! And Nancy says we can add Shelly Drapper to the list as well, for her unspecified contributions.
Let’s give them all a hand.

Every year, the HCAC sponsors an Art Show that takes place during the Hampshire Heritage Days celebration. For the past few years, the organizer of that show has been John Wood, who also chairs the Arts Council’s Photography Committee. John would like to thank:

Art Show Donors:
Bobby Mayhew, Susan and Jim Miller, Dave Stehle, Carol Shaw, Patty Perry, Charlie See, Jane and Scott Simmons, Cindy and Rob Dillon, David Heavner, Shelia Melzak, Linda Wood, Teri Reynolds, Joe Pancake, and Avalon Resort.

Art Show Volunteers:
Nancy Williams, Jane Plante, Susan Feller, Bess Rexroad, William Fagg, and Kate and John McWilliams.

Art Sitters:
Charles Tripp, Ann Warner, Steve Ritz, Jan Dodgins, Nancy Pfaff, Eileen Eddis, Patricia Taylor, Ed and Bonnie Brown, Lori Moreland, and Lynn Goleman.

Bess Rexroad has, for years, organized the Artist of the Month displays at the Hampshire County Public Library. She would like to thank the library and all the artists who have contributed their work over the past year, and we’d like to thank Bess for being so intrepid and responsible in putting this together.

The Ice Mountain Writers committee has been co-chaired over the past year by Sibyl MacKenzie and Larry Brown. They would like to thank Deb Hartsock of the Board of Education for all the work she does on their school workshop program. They also thank Patti Perry and the folks of the Brickwood Hearth for giving us such a wonderful venue for our evening of Prose, Poetry and Lyrics coming up on March 31. Finally, thanks to the Bank of Romney for providing their Community Center building for IMW’s monthly meetings.

The HCAC quarterly newsletter has been put together for years by one of our founding members, Robin Pancake. We want to thank Robin for all her hard work and dedication in getting the newsletter out on a regular basis, as well as the other contributions she’s made to the Arts Council. In the most recent issue of the newsletter, Robin passed the editorship over to Michael O’Brien, who we all know from his work at the Hampshire Review, covering Arts Council activities. We also want to thank Michael for taking on this very important job.

Someone else who has made an outstanding contribution to the HCAC over the years is Isabel Plowright, who served as Treasurer for several terms, and in the past couple of years has spent countless hours as webmaster of the HCAC website. I don’t think we can give her a hand big enough to match her contributions to the organization, but let’s give it a try, anyway.

Finally, there are some other people that I, along with everyone else in the Arts Council, would like to thank.

First, we’d like to thank the Hampshire County Commission, for unanimously passing a resolution this year that declares the importance of the arts in the life of Hampshire County. This resolution is the first step toward making Hampshire County an officially-designated “Certified Arts Community,” which may help us in funding future activities.

We’d also like to extend our thanks to our Secretary for the past year, Patty Anderson, for volunteering to serve, despite the demands of her growing business, Anderson’s Corner, which opened a branch in Moorefield this year. Thanks, Patty.

We want to thank our Treasurer, Jane Plante, who has agreed to serve another term in that highly demanding, and in her hands, amazing job, and who I believe has not missed a single concert so she can collect your admission fees. That’s how dedicated she is. She deserves your applause.

We want to thank all the members and volunteers and contributors who have made the Arts Council work this year, and whose contributions we may have inadvertently overlooked in this year-end wrapup. Thanks to Marilyn Nickelson, who put together the refreshments tonight.

We especially want to thank Robin Teas and Sylvia Reisher, who have volunteered to commit their time in the coming year (or years, as the case may be) serving as Arts Council officers – if they are so elected. Once again, our election is a real nail-biter this year.

For our final thank you, I’d like to bring up my fellow co-director, Nancy Williams. Let’s give her a hand too.

The third member of our triumvirate, Shari Gallery, has served for three terms as HCAC co-director. In many ways, and as many of us recognize, Shari has been the heart of this organization, not only as the most knowledgeable co-director on the board, but as the Concerts Committee Chair and, perhaps most important, our chief grant-writer.

Thankfully, she has agreed to continue serving those latter two functions. But as most of us know, Shari also wears many other volunteer hats in this community, with the Visitors Bureau, the Chamber of Commerce, Hampshire Heritage Days, and who knows what else? Who could possibly keep up with her?

Because in addition to all her volunteer work, Shari is also a businesswoman, and a wife and mother. And according to all reports, her family wants her back, at least some of the time. So she is stepping down as co-director, and since we know we’ll be seeing her every month at Arts Council meetings, anyway, we’ve agreed, however reluctantly, to let her go. But in recognition of her faithful service for three terms as co-director, we wanted to present her with this gift, in appreciation for her invaluable contributions in that office. Please join us in thanking this remarkable woman, and her family, for everything she’s done to make the Arts Council as successful as it’s been.

Thank you all, and enjoy the show.