The Board of Visitors of the Lamar Dodd School of Art recently held their Winter meeting on January 11-12, 2018.

The Board of Visitors are champions of the School who support the short and long-term goals of the school. The board recognizes that the Dodd has a never-ending objective to strive for excellence as an academic institution of higher learning in the visual arts, and the board desires to play a vital role is this endeavor.

The weekend commenced with an orientation of new members on the morning of Friday, January 11, 2018, that included a brief history of the school, tour, and an introduction to development.  The new board members were introduced to Professor Ben Britton and Dr. Katie Geha who spoke on their experiences with the Lamar Dodd School of Art.

The theme for the weekend’s activities was entrepreneurship, and how artists by nature must be a type of entrepreneur. Artists must conjure more and more creative paths to income and engage themselves as creative thinkers in order to support themselves as makers. In contemporary culture, it is exceedingly rare to find an artist who survives on their artwork alone. Following this theme, the board was introduced to the new Arts Career and Entrepreneurship Space (ACES) which is co-run by Tif Sigfrids. The ACES office is a resource to students that provides comprehensive career support for students seeking a future in music and/or art/design.

In the afternoon, the full board met for a class on Enameling with Jewelry and Metalworks faculty Demi Thomloudis. By the end of the class Board of Visitors members were able to enamel their own brooches and earrings, as well as understand a bit more about the experience of a Jewelry and Metalworks student. They were also let on a tour of the Thomas Streer Art Complex by Associate Professor Martijn van Wagtendonk.

The day concluded with a dinner held at Broad Street III, an industrial space that will be renovated into a contemporary art gallery in downtown Athens. Following the theme of entrepreneurship, Brian Roth, co-owner Southern Brewing Company, hosted a beer tasting during dinner that credited his brewery’s imaginative use of resources and ingenious brewing techniques to his creative upbringing at the Lamar Dodd School of Art as a Sculpture Major. 

Saturday morning included the Board’s official business meeting and a presentation on the state of the Cortona program, which will be hosting it’s 50th Anniversary Celebration later this year. After lunch, the board was directed to the K. A. Artist Shop in downtown Athens. Another story of alumni entrepreneurship, the K. A. Artist Shop is owned and managed by Kristen McCarthy who earned a BFA in Painting and Drawing. McCarthy’s Shop is a hub within the Athens art community, offering quality art supplies, classes, design services, and gallery space to the Athens community.  

To close the weekend, the group moved next door to Sigfrids and Howards, two new galleries that moved from metropolitan hubs to Athens within the past year. Owners Tif Sigfrids and Ridley Howard (a new board member) spent a large portion of the weekend with the board, recounting their experiences as gallerists and entrepreneurs.