Join us for our first ever meeting! During this meeting, we’ll introduce ourselves, discuss our community standards, talk through our hopes for the group, and plan our next meeting.
Saturday, December 7 @ 10:30 am (1.5 hours, at most)
Salem Public Library | Plaza Room
If you have any accommodation needs, concerns, or questions, please contact [email protected].
Meeting notes
Introductions and group agreements
There were 10 folks who came to our first meeting. We shared brief introductions, telling the group a bit about ourselves:
- Our name
- Our pronouns
- What media we work with or art we make
- What we’re hoping to gain from participating in the group
Community agreements
As a group, we amended our values, adding four values for a total of twelve. We agreed that this would be a “living document” and we can amend the agreements at any time, if needed.
Group activity ideas
Resource day
During a resource day, we would share our favorite artists and content creators, where we go for supplies, and share tools that aid our art forms. We also talked about the idea of bringing a “try box” with a starter set of materials so someone else in the group could try the art form out on their own.
Writing, poetry and art collection
Many of us are writers, and others have art that could be included in a printed volume. We discussed the idea of collecting our writing, poetry and art into a collection we could publish.
Critique group
Most of the members in the group were interested in sharing their artwork and asking for a critique from others. We want to make sure that when we conduct critiques, they’re supportive and uplifting, while also challenging us to improve our craft. When an artist in the group shares their work, they’ll get to specify how the critique goes and set boundaries about the manner in which they receive the feedback.
Art discussions
This idea involves bringing a piece of art or featuring an artists work and then talking about what they’re doing. Getting some inspiration for our own work, and perhaps learning some new applications of materials or techniques.
Group art making
Making art together, focusing more on the activity than the outcome. This can be a therapeutic form of creation, where doing the work together as a group is the actual goal.
Workshops
We talked about spending a session sharing what a member does in their own art practice. The workshop would be about teaching and knowledge sharing. Kind of like a show and tell about our art.
Group field trip
Going together to the Portland Art Museum or Hallie Ford Museum of Art as a group, and then discussing what we saw!
Group art show
Finding a way to show all of our work together, perhaps in a local gallery space.
Pushing our limits
Working in our mediums, but trying to take it as far as we possibly can. Giving ourselves permission to break the rules and see where it goes.
Film night
Watching a film as a group and then talking about what we saw. What are the art styles and filming technique the film employs? How do the costumes, lighting, sets, or models influence our interpretation of the work? We even mentioned John Carpenter’s The Thing. We also talked about Movie Madness in Portland.
Next meeting
We decided we would start with a Resource Meeting the next time we meet. Each member would have about 5 minutes to talk a bit about their art, favorite creators, where they source supplies, or basically anything else they found interesting.
The date, time, and location are TBD for the next meeting. We plan to meet at least monthly, with optional sub-group meetings more frequently.