Meeting at the South Carolina Arts Commission

Yesterday I pitched CYBER FYBER to three important staff people at the South Carolina Arts Commission. I brought unopened CYBER FYBER mail too....because it is always impressive. The trades were spectacular, of course. Above is Sara June Goldstein, Program Director for Design Arts and Literary Arts and County Coordinator for Calhoun, Lexington and Richland Counties. I'm in Richland County...so she's the representative to whom I first spoke. Sara June set up this meeting and is pictured here opening Elena Chipara's envelope from ROMANIA! Even the stamps were impressively artsy!

Above is Harriett Green, Program Director for Visual Arts...for the entire state. She is opening Linda Cunningham's well padded and equally impressive trade from Canada.

The meeting was held in Executive Director Suzy Surkamer's spacious office. It was a wonderful opportunity to talk about the exhibition, the artists involved, the progress made thus far, and other avenues I might try for funding. It was also the first meeting at which the people involved were thoroughly familiar with the project. They'd all done their "homework", so to speak....which I appreciated so very, very much. No other meeting has been able to talk about the exhibition in detail. This was more than an "introduction"; it seemed much more serious. Unfortunately, the Arts Commission can likely grant no funds because Richland county has a sub-granting agency....the Cultural Council with whom I've already met and applied for a grant. Yet, these people were genuinely interested and said they'd look into any possibility to help...even financially! I considered the forty-five minutes quite successful. I'm grateful that they saw me at all!

Above is Ken May, Deputy Director, showing off Joy Brooks' ATC...with a subtle dragonfly that also appeared on the nice notecard and was the image on the postal stamp too....really impressive details!

(Above and below are other pictures of Sara June and Harriett.)