Forum

There are a lot of posts all over the social media groups about the value of an NAIA membership.  There seems to be a constant barage of comments across the board.   Should I join?  Should I re-up my membership?  What is the NAIA?  What will the NAIA do for me?  What do I get out of my membership fee?  I have been thinking about all of this for a while now and thought today was the day to write my views.  For the record, I am the Communications Chair for the NAIA.  This is me with my grandson Gavin wearing the newspaper hats we made yesterday.
Whether you are a member or whether you aren’t a member is not my business.  We don’t send out birthday cards or discount coffee coupons or free show fees.  We are hard working volunteers trying to actually do something to make a difference out there, whether you join us or not, is up to you.  I know what the NAIA is, I know why it was started because I was there and I know all the hard work that myself and the other board members do.  If you think it’s easy to spend 8-10 hours a week sometimes working for no pay for a group of people who are constantly bitching about what we’re NOT doing in their minds, it’s not.  In fact it’s quite difficult to stay focused when faced with that kind of negativity.
I’m not a politician.  I’m just an artist.  I don’t have an “NAIA Voice and a separate “personal voice” as some suggest I should.  I have my voice, like it or not.  The other day when one of our board members posted about “Made in S America” stickers everyone went crazy.  Has anyone been in the guys studio?  Seen him work?  These are the things my research team works on every day.
I won’t lie to you, when I came on the board two and a half years ago the NAIA was a bit mixed up.  There had been some kind of ugly infighting and with the resignations that followed, the group was a bit disorganized.  I’m not making any excuses; I’m just being honest and telling you the facts.  I considered walking away immediately but the people I met at that first meeting in Detroit were so truly passionate about the health of our livelihood that I had to stay and help.  Do I need additional community service in my life, probably not?  I already spend six hours a week teaching art to the Home School kids of three counties as well as the elders of the island Dementia Group.  But the NAIA needed me.  I have been doing shows since I was 14, I’m 57.  I have seen the beginning of the art shows from a time when you could pull up to Coconut Grove, get a space the morning of the show and fill your pockets with money, to now when it’s hard to know if you’re even going to get in let alone make your expenses.  At my age I am outspoken and completely unafraid to say what needs to be said to show directors when they make bad decisions that affect our lives. 
So we went to work.  I’d say it took about a year to put the organization back together in some kind of working order.  We modernized our website, making it more user friendly and added components to make it easier to navigate.  We realize our forum is passé so we created a Facebook presence where artists and show directors could freely talk about the issues.  The fact that you guys don’t comment much here is not my concern, I realize how timid artists are when it comes to directly mingling with the Dragon (show directors), the forum is here if you want to use it. 
We needed new board members so we started talking to artists and show directors to convince them to join us.  It took two years but I believe we have put together one of the strongest, artist friendly Board of Directors in the country.  The Board consists of 5 full time artists and two show directors with a combined total of 190 years of experience among us.  Our board members include Amy Beeler, jeweler; Lisanne Robinson, hand made paper and sculpture; Terry Corcoran, acrylics; Teresa Saborsky, stone sculptor; and myself, a printmaker and painter.  Our show director members are Stephen King the Director of Des Moines and Sara Shambarger, the Director of Krasl.  Both Stephen and Sara are brilliant, passionate and fair and both truly care about what happens in the art show industry as a whole, not just their jobs and the bottom line.  Then we have the Advisory board which consists of photographer, Bill Kruser and the most amazing Richard (Dick) Lobenthal who is in charge of the NAIA Action Line.
If you want to be amazed, just Google Dick Lobenthal and read about this man.  I have always believed that there are unusual people in the world.  The hard part is to recognize them and then to figure out a way to spend time with them, because they can change your life.  Dick Lobenthal is one of these people.  I feel so fortunate to even know him, let alone to be able to work with him.  His insight and fairness is incredible and he’s on our side folks!  The Action Line alone is a good reason to be a member of the NAIA.  If you have any kind of a show related problem, call Dick and he will go to bat for you. 
We have a vibrant emerging artist program now at the NAIA led by Amy Beeler who links new art show artists with seasoned professional artist mentors to help them ease into the business.
We have spent the last two years teaching the show directors of this country about the importance of the prospectus, how to write a good
Strong rulebook, then how to follow those rules and enforce them at the shows. 
My job at the NAIA is to produce the Independent Artist Newspaper with the editor, gather and write articles that have some meat and then to distribute the IA’s to artists and art festivals all over the country.  My bigger, more important job is to investigate and research problems that are occurring all over the country and then share my results with the shows, their directors and their committees to try to create a fairer playing field for artists.  I have spent over two years researching the biggest problems relating to our industry:  buy/sell imposters, production studios, plagiarism and copyright infringement.  You would be amazed at what I have found and have been able to prove.  Two years ago shows barely ever heard the words buy/sell, now almost all shows, the big and the small, at least know what it is, that it’s out there and that they have to watch out for it.  I spend countless hours sharing information with show directors about how to spot cheaters, who the biggest imposters are and how to prove it.  Then we figure out the best methods to deal with them.  Before the jury is of course the best, but if they slip into their shows, they need to know methods of how to expel them.  
What they do with that knowledge is their own business, it’s their show, the NAIA can’t force them to act.  We can just give them the tools to do the job.  You have to realize the parameters of what we deal with every day.  We have to constantly share our advocacies with the show directors and their committees out there because the majority of them change every year.  You can’t just tell them once, you have to go back and re-educate every year to a new group of people, all of whom want to some how make their mark on their particular show.
I talk to show directors on a daily basis and although you’re not going to see a blinking neon sign announcing the fact that it’s working, it is working.  I am seeing changes across the board for the better, I’m seeing less buy/sell and more awareness and in the long run we will see a better art buying climate for all of us.  Just yesterday I got an email from the director of a show with three sets of images and three different names on the applications for her show.  Guess what, the images were all exactly the same.  So now, thanks to her email and my work for the NAIA, every show in the country will have the names and images of these three imposters within the week, which will open up three spaces in a lot of shows for all of us.
The NAIA is not a union to fight for artists rights as some people seem to think, it is a trade organization put together years ago by artists to try to make the art show world a better place to live and work.  It is a liaison, so to speak, to educate and to bridge the gap between artists and show directors.  We can’t lower show fees or get rid of jury fees or get you guaranteed spaces in shows, but we can talk to the shows and their committees and try to convince them to do the right thing.  We lobby for a better art show environment and try to make them realize that the “Artist” in the “Art Show” is the important component and should be treated as such. 
I’m not going to beg anyone to become or stay a member of the NAIA.  That’s not my job.  What I am going to say is that if we don’t have members, the NAIA will cease to exist and all of the good work that we do accomplish, will stop.  It’s up to YOU!