Chairperson’s Report 2024 - 2025

Dear Members,

Thank you so much that  you have been able to attend the AGM this year.

The following gives an account of the events and progress achieved for the year past.

Firstly, I must tell you how greatly honoured I felt to have been elected as the new Chairperson. I was welcomed onto the committee with huge kindness and the committee worked enthusiastically during our meetings to discuss what was best for the Society to move forward in 2025. I wish to thank Everyone on the committee;- Patricia Mooney as secretary, a new post for her, and she and I had several meetings, working solidly to  become familiar with google docs and other aspects of running the Society, and we are so grateful to Pat Burgess as treasurer for continuing to hold the money reins, Julie Wilson has been invaluable looking after social media posts. Catherine McKeever has so much experience and contributed many dynamic ideas for how to move us forward. Anthony has been a great level head for contributing ideas in presentation of the website and responding to the ideas of the other committee members.

One of the first things discussed was that the Society required a new website to communicate with other members, inform visitors about the history of the society, and of course, showcase our members’ artworks, and promote the use of pastel and other dry media. 

I was able to help by setting this up on the Squarespace platform. We now have an online base where prospective new members can contact us with ease. Many Members are now featured on their own page within the website, showing a brief biography and examples of their work. We welcome more members to take a look and submit their contributions for their own feature page as well. I am delighted to put this on for you, and include links for your own websites and social media.

There is great scope to grow this resource, we are now doing our forms for exhibitions online, and feature our exhibitions online concurrently with our physical exhibitions.

Although there was no Annual exhibition for 2024, as the 2023 annual exhibition was deferred and held in 2024, the committee are delighted that the Society will be exhibiting twice during 2025;- 

Catherine sourced the venue for our spring exhibition for full members which will be held in the Oriel Gallery,Clotworthy Art Centre, Antrim in April 2025.

Pat sourced for us the Milllenium Court exhibition space in Portadown for our Annual Exhibition 2025 which will be held in September.

 Catherine has also been researching some venues in the South, however, we haven’t yet been fortunate to find a suitable place in the immediate future. However, it is something we want to expand on very soon, as we value our members across all of Ireland and want to be as fair over the years as possible in where we hold our exhibitions.

To help with the effort in organising these exhibitions:

We have invested in Jotform which is an online form system which allows all members to complete all their information for exhibitions in one place, for the committee to more easily deal with, and it is also ready for putting on to the website for the online presence of our exhibitions. I am enjoying working with this, and I believe it will help cut down the confusions that inevitably occur whilst organising large events.

Of course,

We are not just about providing wall and online space for showcasing and selling our work, but also a hub for improving and honing our artistic skills, and promoting the use and enjoyment of the pastel medium. 

As you know, we are running a workshop, initiated by Julie Wilson and organised by Julie Wilson and Catherine McKeever during the spring exhibition at Clotworthy House, Antrim Castle Gardens. 

Our tutor will be Mark Ivan Cole, a Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America. 

We are delighted at the uptake of this forthcoming event, as it is already sold out - with a waiting list in case a space or two becomes free. We want to run more events like these and intend to bring more of them into the next year or two. Please keep checking the website for new events as they come onboard and also watch out for Patricia’s emails regarding news as well.

We are proud of the Members we have in our society, and proud of their art.

Following the success and noting the high standard of all the works shown at the last Annual Exhibition, organised by our previous Chairperson, Pat Burgess, the committee agreed that all current members would from this time forward, be now automatically awarded full membership of the society. New members going forward will begin as associate members, graduating to full membership after a period of 3 years, if they have consistently exhibited with us over that time.

During our meetings, the committee discussed and agreed how the Pastel Society of Ireland would like to move forward in its procedure for selecting new members, which we will discuss today in our meeting.

Before we do that, and as I wind to a close, this report, I want to share with you all that I will need to step down from the position of Chairperson today. I have been thrilled to be asked to stand in this position and would love to continue to do so, however, I will be leaving Northern Ireland to live in France by the end of this year, so it is not something I will be able to continue to do. You need a Chairperson who will be in the Country!

I am glad I have been able to contribute in a small way and I am sure that big things are going to be ahead for the Pastel Society of Ireland. I can continue to be the website manager until that will be handed over to another member of the committee. 

The Pastel Society of Ireland is an invaluable organisation. It is a wonderful thing to be able to have a gathering of people who share a love of pasteling, and as we work and create art together, friendships are born, and as artists - often in a solitary pursuit - we gain comfort, fun and support from being part of a tribe. I love being in the Art Societies I am part of. I found my tribes. Thank you all.