BOMH PRESIDENTS LETTER – Nancy Koehler – June 2018

Hot time summer in the city, summer in the country, summer everywhere. But, summer and its heat and storms came so early this year that it made our heads spin. Don’t we always say, where was spring? Well, anyone in the art fair business can tell you the dirty truth about this spring/summer thing.

I know all of our members have seen the pictures and heard about the disastrous show that happened on the Saturday night of the Art Outside at Schlafly Brewery. It was a HOT, HOT weekend. I went both Friday and Saturday evenings to see our members and of course buy Art. It is a good show with an eclectic mix of artists. Many of the artists are younger and the crowds were substantial.

I did not have a booth at this show but many of our members did. I was heartbroken when I saw the posts about what has happened. Oh my goodness! Such a disaster but gratefully no one was physically hurt. It could have been so much worse.

This event proved once again that there is a lot to be grateful for. A neighbor began a Go Fund Me page for the artists that has been very successful and will split the donations between the artists to help offset some of the huge losses many suffered. Artists and neighbors pitched in and helped each other to clean up and even find their belongings. Relationships and caring people matter. There is so much to be grateful for with the way this show turned out.

Our members are always there to help each other. Never has this been so obvious as it was in the aftermath of this one show. I posted this quote recently on our FaceBook page and will include it here for those who might not have seen it. All the important relationships we build with other artists provides immeasurable benefits in the long run.

This is from Steve Walden Art:

“The world contains enough critics to beat you down; befriend artists who build you up, who don’t undercut you with their own self-doubt, who put their egos aside and can encourage you without seeing you as competition. I don’t mean only be friends with people who tell you only what you want to hear. But I do mean it’s important to foster nurturing friendships with other creative people. It’s amazing what can happen when you build your creative support network.”

This is about more than helping from disasters but about the everyday benefits of having friends in the arts who lift you up and nurture your creativity.