Art in the Council Chambers | Marie Cameron Studio

I was pretty impressed with the turnout we had for the Los Gatos Art Association in the Council Chambers reception. Yes we missed the mayor, Steve Leonardis who had been scheduled to come but Christina Gilmore opened the reception on behalf of the town. Our President Maralyn Miller spoke on behalf of the LGAA and we were all delighted to have jurors Neal Boor and Patricia Sherwood in attendance as well! Here are a few shots of the event before my camera ran out of battery.

Best seat in the house nestled in between our great jurors, Neal Boor and Patricia Sherwood!

Love a venue with comfy seating!

Christina Gilmore, Assistant to the Town Manager, opened the reception on behalf of the Town and Mayor Steven Leonardis.

LGAA Artist Veronica Gross and her husband talking with Tom Yacoe who was there on behalf of the Art in the Council Chambers.

Our President, Maralyn Miller chatting with Jurors Neal Boor and Patricia Sherwood.

Posing a moment with my oil painting, Shark Fin Cove.

Cookies and Fruit were lovely though I kind of missed the sweet and sour meatballs from the LGMG in the Council Chambers reception last fall!

Rebecca Lillis white with her oil, Palo Alto Wetlands and Thuy Le.

Thuy Le and her oil, City Night with Rebecca Lillis White.

Laurie Barna with her watercolor, When She was Seventeen, and her reference photo from 1942.

If you want to live in a thriving arts community you have to step in and do your part. That’s how I found myself coordinating the Los Gatos Art Association Council Chambers show.

Nancy Takaichi Marte Thompson Diane Fujimoto
Maralyn Miller Patty Montgomery Rebecca Lillis White

The Art in the Council Chambers program, run jointly by the Town of Los Gatos and the Museums of Los Gatos hosts four exhibits per year. The Los Gatos Art Association will be showing there annually which is a fine way of saying that our local artists are important to the town. I had NO idea how much work co-ordinating a show (despite it’s size) actually entails! Securing jurors, developing a prospectus, reviewing submissions to see that they met the requirements (nagging artists to provide all required information) before presenting them to the jurors, developing the postcard, designing the gallery tags (Tanya and Tom prepared them), developing an intake spread sheet, Creating an information sheet for the show about the Association and the Jurors, and lots and lots and lots of emails, newspaper pitches and social media hoop-la! All this before the actual intake.

With Tom Yacoe filling in for the AICC and Tanya Yurgaitis and Laurie Barna from the LGAA, this went pretty smoothly (missing some postcards and one artist was a no show). The actually hanging went up quickly. It’s really quite a pleasure to arrange the work to achieve flow and balance, making sure pieces compliment each other instead of overwhelming each other.

Now I get to relax! the Town will be throwing a lovely reception Thursday, August 14 from 6-6:30 in which the mayor, Steven Leonardis and our LGAA president, Maralyn Miller will make a few remarks. Patricia Sherwood and Neal Boor who generously juried the show for us plan to come. They are two outstanding artists and educators who have impressive careers and we were so lucky to have the benefit of their discerning eyes!