April 15 likely start of Arts Council membership drive
By Winkie Lee
Published in News on February 27, 2005 2:01 AM
April 15 may be the kick-off date for the Arts Council of Wayne County's membership drive.
A fund drive committee met prior to the Arts Council's board meeting to discuss possibilities.
Treasurer Gwyn Wilson told the board on Thursday afternoon that it had been about three years since the Arts Council had an annual fund drive. In planning one for this year, committee members looked at what had been done in the past and discussed time frames.
"Once we get this in place, we want to continue having an annual fund drive," she said.
In addition, "We want people to know what the arts are doing in this community."
As a way to do that, the drive will not only raise money, but also recruit volunteers.
"Getting people to volunteer makes them feel like they are more a part of the arts," Ms. Wilson said.
"We need to think about membership," said board member Dr. Ron Taylor. "What does it mean to be a member, and what do you get from it? We should have different levels" of membership.
*In other business, Executive Director Alice Strickland told the board that Ms. Wilson, Taylor, Bill Smith, Ven Faulk, Martha Bryan and she had met after fire destroyed the Paramount Theater and Stagestruck warehouse to discuss what they could do to help their affiliate groups.
The fire happened on Saturday, Feb. 19. The Arts Council opened its doors that day to Stagestruck so it could bring in and remove pictures and articles from its scrapbooks that had become wet from the water used to fight the fire. Stagestruck was also given space to meet and sell tickets, Mrs. Strickland said.
One of the courses of action the Arts Council took was talking to Schools Superintendent Dr. Steve Taylor and Assistant Superintendent for Auxiliary Services Sprunt Hill about allowing the affiliates to use school space for their performances.
The men offered Dillard and Goldsboro High School rent free to help the groups with productions that were scheduled to be in the Paramount in the next several weeks.
Mrs. Strickland said she appreciated the schools' generous offer, and that she had been asked that the groups place their requests through the Arts Council.
*Mrs. Strickland told the board that she needs help with the work involved at the council. She used, as an example, having to clean the center and set up chairs for the party held for five Rotary Clubs from Wayne and Greene County on Wednesday. Now she needed to clean up the area again, she said.
"The garden is going to start growing soon, and that needs maintenance," she said.
And she sometimes has to work evenings at the center when it is being rented.
Mrs. Strickland said she had been getting help with maintenance and garden work from inmates in a work program, but had stopped that because of the time requirements involved in picking them up, supervising them, shopping for supplies they needed and taking them back.
She told the board that, in order to do some of the things that she should be doing, such as writing grant proposals, she needed help with matters such as cleaning.
Martha Bryan offered to supervise the inmates so their services could be used again, and Ms. Wilson suggested passing around a sheet for volunteers.