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2021 Year in Review

  -  2021 Year in Review

Jim Bongartz

We know that you share in our commitment to the powerful role the arts play in sustaining the community, in building resilience, in creating an atmosphere of joy and hope, creativity and inspiration.

Despite continued challenges and uncertainties throughout the year, we celebrate and reflect on our accomplishments in 2021!

2021

Newly Designed Website Features Gallery Pages

  • The website facilitates networking between artists, arts organizations, arts businesses, and the community. With the ability to expand as the A&C continues to grow, the site provides several features that will work to strengthen the regional arts community and become the go-to site for all our regional arts needs.
  • We added almost one hundred member gallery pages to our website in 2021.

Exhibitions

  • BC R.E.D.—Reimagine, Explore, Discover, our second online exhibition and sale, concluded on August 31 after three successful months. Over 90 member-artists exhibited 180+ works of art with numerous pieces sold.
  • Bucks County: Wish You Were Here | A Small Works Exhibit ran online through January 31. This online small works exhibition of almost sixty regional artists working in all media, captured the essence of beloved Bucks County highlights in representational and abstract works – covered bridges, historical venues, museums and cultural centers, street fronts, rolling hillsides, farmlands, covered bridges, lakes, river views, broad vistas, intimate corners, and more.
  • We hosted our inaugural Fall Salon Show in our new home at Freeman Hall from September 11 through October 31. The “Closer Look” program featured artist chats in the galleries and plein air painting on the lawn on selected Saturdays; the show also had a virtual component.
  • Small Works at Freeman Hall featured over 70 A&C member artists showing small (and some large) works in a variety of mediums, styles, and subject matter online and in person at Freeman Hall in Doylestown. Open House events were offered in conjunction with the exhibition on weekends throughout the month of December. Unfortunately, all January in-person events were canceled because of a Covid surge; sales of artworks were successful through the run of the show.

Programs

  • We kicked off a virtual Artists Chats: Visual Artists & Writers program in March with Cindy Roesinger presenting her “Cadence” series. Programs continued monthly throughout the spring and summer, featuring artists, writers, arts shares, and general conversations about inspiration, imagery, and process. 
  • 30 Days of Inspiration, our poem-a-day-matched-with-an-artwork for each day of April, in honor of National Poetry month, was an enormous social media success, introducing the work of writers and visual artists in “conversation” with each other to a wide regional audience.
  • We continued virtual Art of Marketing workshops, focused on “Image Management for the Visual Artist” in March and “Crafting an Effective Artists Statement” in November. 
  • We hosted Bookish Events at Freeman Hall concurrent with the Doylestown Book Festival with an evening book-inspired jewelry show and sale featuring Susan Forker and joeyfivecents, book signings by a dozen regional A&C member authors and illustrators, and a book-binding demo by Mindy Trost | Carta Books.
  • We hosted our first Literary Arts Salon at Freeman Hall in November, featuring 2020 Poet Laureate of Bucks County, Jane Mohler; sonneteer Terence Culleton; poets Tom Mallouk, Bernadette McBride, MaryAnn L. Miller; and novelist David Roth. A short talk-back session followed the readings along with time for writers to sign and sell their books.

Community partnerships

  • We initiated a Sculpture Spotlight program at the Feasterville Library in Lower Bucks County with works by Lambertville artist Cathy Begg.
  • We partnered with Phillips Mill on an Art of Marketing event with practicing artists and professional marketing and advertising “gurus” Jane Ramsey and Gene Underwood.
  • We were a Community Sponsor for the 30th annual Doylestown Art Festival.
  • We maintained an ongoing relationship with Visit Bucks County while strengthening connections between the visual arts and tourism in Bucks County, particularly through the initial planning of the Bucks County Wine & Art Trail.
  • Leff Family Foundation continues to advance the arts in the area by supporting the Council’s early initiatives at Freeman Hall. We are appreciative of their commitment to enriching the arts and promoting our mission throughout the Bucks County community.
  • We collaborated with the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance and Americans for the Arts on arts advocacy issues.

Expanded Reach

  • We welcomed a new treasurer to our board, who will help us continue to build vitality and energy for the organization while ensuring fiscal oversight.
  • We recruited member volunteers to assist with exhibitions, the Doylestown Arts Festival, the newsletter, and social media.
  • We grew our Facebook following to over 2100, our Instagram following to almost 1500. 
  • We increased our literary arts members by over 200%.
  • We ended 2021 with 280 members.

Freeman Hall

  • After spending a summer renovating gallery and workspace in historic Freeman Hall in Doylestown, we moved into our new Community Meeting Center there in the fall of 2021.
  • A&C programs at Freeman Hall engaged artist members and the Bucks County community in educational initiatives, provided venues for meaningful arts and advocacy dialogue, and strengthened local and regional arts awareness through exhibition and sale opportunities, events, literary readings, artist talks, and forums.
  • We anticipate that in 2022, our second-floor meeting room will provide a venue for more intimate Art Shares, portfolio reviews, Coffee and Conversation, and more.

A New Era for the Council Continues

  • With our Community Meeting Center at Freeman Hall, future plans for exhibitions and events, increased programs, a dynamic educational series, literary readings, endless opportunities for members and the public to engage in our mission, and our forward-looking and progressive outlook, the Arts & Cultural Council is sure to serve the arts loving, Bucks County community well and into the future. 

Engaging programs, events, and meaningful community outreach help all of us move forward and make Bucks County the best it can be – and you are a critical part of making it happen.

On behalf of the entire A&C Board of Directors and membership, we wish you all the best in 2022.

We couldn’t do it without you.