Hello Esteemed Members of the Waxhaw Arts Council, Happy New Year!
I hope your New Year’s resolution is to create more, make new friends, and support art events in Waxhaw by joining us!
We had a great meeting early December. Thank you for all who attended so that WAC can live on. If you think the arts are important and deserve a prominent place in Waxhaw, I invite you to join us and to renew your membership. I feel that a strong art presence enriches our lives significantly and increases property values.
At the latest count I’ve seen online, Waxhaw has a population of over 23,000.00 people. So if only 1 in 100 of them are artists, then we need to engage another 200 and add them. 🙂
We just held our WAC board election, and terms are every two years.
I am Jennifer F Schulz, your newly elected President, VP, and Treasurer of WAC.
Carmen Davidson has been elected as Secretary of WAC.
Bonnie Rusinko has been appointed as Parliamentarian and Membership Director.
Anju Jain has agreed to assist as needed as our Ex-Officio Advisor. Thank you, Anju!
A little bit about me:
I’ve been a fine artist for most of my life, hold a BS in Public Relations and Reporting, and previously worked in banking for twenty-five years. I have forty-one years’ of animal care experience and own a pet sitting business, Jennifurr’s Friends Pet Care, LLC. I am also an NC Notary and serve on the social media committee for the NC Native Plant Society. I have been a resident of Waxhaw since 2016.
We will NOT have a January meeting as the Board needs more time to get organized. Our next meeting will be February 4th, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. at the Atrium Health (ER) Waxhaw Community Room, the outside door to enter the room is right at the back of the building. The address is: 2700 Providence Rd. S Waxhaw, NC 28173.
One event we will be continuing is hanging art for sale at the window next to Maxwell’s Tavern. Thank you Bonnie Rusinko for facilitating this.
We need to form some concrete plans for what we will work on this year. If there’s something else you’d like to add to the list below, please let me know.
1) Do we want a 4th Annual Member Juried Art Show this Spring? (Judged by outside parties)
2) McDowell member’s show- month of June, 2025. What is involved with this? How did it go last year?
3) Need to determine other areas for possible art display and art events and create a list-like the library, new town hall, and area businesses. I will be glad to post to area groups to ask about this as well as post a video asking, and also walk around and meet small business owners if someone would like to join me. If you know a place that would like to be listed, let me know.
4) Art contests with the theme around certain businesses products sold around town, for example one relating to tea, and maybe have Dani at Uptown Tea judge, maybe another one about desserts, one about candles, etc. etc…we can ask area businesses if this would also interest them.
5) Live stream of our meetings via Facebook
6) Create a Meetup Group to post our meetings, however it’s not free. We should also post them on Facebook & IG.
7) I will be researching CRM systems for membership and email management.
8) Add a social event get together to the calendar each month in addition to our business meetings.
9) WAC car magnet/bumper sticker to raise awareness around town.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO DEMONSTRATE OR SHOW US YOUR ART AT AN UPCOMING MEETING? Let me know.
PLEASE SHARE A SHORT BIO WITH ME TO BE USED IN OUR EMAILS/SOCIAL MEDIA. A video intro is best, photos are great too. Lets put faces to names!
ALSO-2025 DUES are DUE, so please bring your $35.00 check made out to WAC along with the updated attached form (form on web site is not yet up-to-date) or send $35 via Zelle to waxhawartscouncil@gmail.com
We do not ask for art entry fees, and this membership amount is pretty low in relation to other area arts groups.
Thank you very much for sticking with us. We have a lot of fun ahead of us going into 2025, but we really will need your input, ideas and your presence.
—
Jennifer Schulz