Patricia Sherwood | Marie Cameron Studio

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!