To: City Manager’s Office, Lawrence, KS

To: Mike Wildgen, City Manager, Lawrence, KS

From: The FAN Club—a women artists support group

Date: June 3, 2005

Re: Request to be put on the City Commission Agenda on June 14, 2005

Topic: “Convergence”, a community-wide international art exhibition and

cultural exchange: request for mid-year funding.

We are asking for support to help sponsor a one-time event that we believe brings prestige to Lawrence as a city of the arts. The event is an art exhibition/community event entitled “Convergence: Work by Canadian and U.S. Women Artists” to be held at the Lawrence Arts Center, The University of Kansas Art and Design Gallery, FIELDS Gallery and the Phoenix Gallery downtown, and many other locations throughout Lawrence, during October and November, 2005. This event is the reciprocal second half of an international exchange between nine women artists from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and the nine members of Lawrence’s FAN Club.

We understand the mid-year funding criteria, and believe this project meets all four of the guidelines. This one-time project will also help meet the City’s stated goal of creating social capital and cultural enrichment. It also facilitates an ongoing affiliation with our neighbor to the North, Canada.

The FAN Club is a long-standing group of 9 Lawrence professional women artists who have made many contributions to the Lawrence community. In May, 2001, we were selected by the prestigious Public Arts Program of the city of Ottawa, Canada, for a “cross border” joint art exhibition with a Canadian women artist’s collective, as the first phase of this international art and cultural exchange. That show, entitled “Common Ground” took place May-June, 2002, funded primarily by the city of Ottawa. “Convergence” is the reciprocal portion of this international exchange.

We plan a variety of programs for involving and enriching the Lawrence community, including workshops, presentations, exhibit talks, and at least one large collaborative art piece which members of the community may participate in making. The University of Kansas Department of Art and Design and Prof. Maria Velasco are working with us on this part of the project. In addition, Lawrence’s One Hundred Good Women, a not for profit organization, will help sponsor the show, and asked us to select a speaker for their annual Women Speak series who will address issues for women in the arts and discuss aspects of the “Convergence” show. We selected Saralyn Reece Hardy, the new Director for the Spencer Museum of Art. The Lawrence Arts Center has scheduled the exhibition for Oct. 17-Nov. 30, 2005. We estimate that the scope of this event in our community will involve approximately 3000 to 5000 people, and, through state- and region-wide marketing, “Convergence” will bring in a large number of out-of-towners. We estimate the total impact of “Convergence” to reach at least 10% of the local population and beyond.

FAN and One Hundred Good Women are seeking funding for some of the expenses associated with providing our Canadian counterparts with as outstanding a professional experience as FAN members had with the first portion of this exchange in Canada. The City of Ottawa underwrote the 2002 show almost entirely. We are asking the City of Lawrence to reciprocate Ottawa’s generous support to the extent possible. We would be happy to appear before the City Commission to further explain any aspect of this project. It is more than “just an art show”—we are working to make it an exciting community-wide event that will involve and enrich many sectors of the Lawrence community.

Briefly, we will need funding to cover:

· bus transportation between the Lawrence Arts Center and the KU Art and Design Gallery on the night of the opening receptions, Oct. 22, 2005

· funding for receptions

· funding for artist stipends and materials for workshops, including a felting workshop by 2 of the Canadian artists, a children’s workshop by 2 other Canadian artists

· funding for an artists forum and presentations open to the public, at which the artists will answer questions about their art work

· funding for printing costs involved in producing invitations, brochures, and a modest exhibition catalog

· funding for a website: www.convergenceart.com, for complete information about the events and artists in “Convergence”

· other operating and technical expenses.

Our project budget runs between $15,000 and $17,000 – a modest amount for a project of this scope. We are asking the City of Lawrence for financial support in the amount of $5,000, and are fundraising elsewhere for the remainder of the expenses. Our request does not include any money for either the local artists or the Canadian artists for transportation, room and board, shipping of artwork, or materials except for funding of the workshops. The organization and execution of the entire city-wide event is being done on a purely volunteer basis, primarily by the nine women artists of the F.A.N. Club.

The FAN Club members are: Participating Canadian artists are:

Ann Kuckelman Cobb Ann Bird

Laurie Culling Maggie Glossop

Diana Dunkley Roberta Huebener

Jan Gaumnitz Susan Rennick Jolliffe

Missy Hamilton Maryse Maynard

Susan Jordan Liz Minnes

Nan Renbarger Chandler Swain

Margaret Rose Wendo Van Essen

Cathy Tisdale Yvonne Wiegers

Thank you for considering our request. Please let us know if we can be placed on the June 14th City Commission meeting agenda. You may reach Ann Kuckelman Cobb at (785) 863-2068, Diana Dunkley at (785) 842-2858, or Nan Renbarger at (785) 665-0146.