GRANTS, NM – The Cibola Arts Council board of directors met on Saturday, January 27, to share a generous buffet with supporters and to discuss possible new projects for this season that might interest local patrons. The council is concerned about the decrease in local support following the COVID-19 pandemic and has several ideas that might inform the community about the council and gallery and entice former loyal patrons to return.
Following the luncheon and the attendees visiting with one another, the meeting was opened by board of directors Vice President, John Martinez.
One project that has proven popular is the winter Window Painting project. Member, Tom Siegmann, is an avid promoter of the project and heads the project each year. Siegmann gathers student volunteers from Grants Cibola County Schools and guides them to paint the window-fronts of local volunteer businesses. After their joyful efforts, the students are treated to pizza before returning to their schools. All proceeds are given to support the Backpack Program at GCCS. The Backpack Program supplies food and snacks to students with nutritional needs, mostly on the weekends and school vacations. Other projects that were suggested were: Valentines for the nursing home, hospital patients, and miners, from school children; a Day of the Dead event; Quilt Club, County honors quilts exhibit; a Mount Taylor exhibit; a concert by one of the board members; a show was suggested for the already planned May 2 tour involving the Route 66 Association. There might also be an extending of the gallery’s hours one or two nights-a-week.
For official business, the board members agreed to limit their members to ten, with a diversified representation of the community. A suggestion was made for a calendar of planned events and topics that required the board to vote to make it easy to follow important dates.
It was also mentioned that the gallery could use a secretary who is proficient in Microsoft Office, a director whose job it would be to stir up community interest, and more volunteers.
Board members and others in attendance were: Brian Antonio – Member Joan Skeski – Member Roger Siegmann - Member Joan Erben – Treasurer IanSmith–GalleryAssociate Lezlie Smith – Bookkeeper