The Annual General Meeting took place Wednesday, 20 November. President Bobi Leutschaft Poitras gave a summary of our BUSY and successful year. (Her speech is below.) The treasurer’s report reflected our comfortable financial position.

Then it was time for fun! Decaf coffee and home baking. Also chocolates from the Maritimes.

And an art book give-away. The Architecture of the Glyptotek was reviewed on our website 11 October. https://cagac.ca/2024/10/11/the-collectif-reads-11oct2024/  by Barbara Lehtiniemi. As she said, “(It) is a coffee-table-worthy book, with over 200 photos—many of them full-page—and other illustrations.” It is a thing of beauty!

Many of the 23 attendees were interested: lucky Chantal Bergeron’s name was drawn.

Then it was on to Show & Tell, Collectif-style. Carole Caissy shared her process, mixing palette knives or credit cards with brush work.

Lynne Ayers’ repurposed art journals (painting and collage in children’s picture books or old novels) are in the background. Folks were fascinated.

Michelle O’Connor brought a replacement piece for the Cline House Merry Mini Show – her works are flying off the wall! Challenging, because Michelle spends two weeks or more, working with very fine brushes.

For a musical interlude, Victoria Stevenson gave an a cappella performance of a favourite song, My Record Player. Bobi performed two of her own works, adding songwriter to her creative CV of painter and poet.

Alison Hall is a deep-rooted sketcher, capturing images of France in this particular sketchbook.

Laura Peck never disappoints! She read from her recently publish memoir, French Toast & Pain Perdu, AND shared one of a series of five elaborate stamp collages.

Photos courtesy Elaine Delves & Laura Peck. Merci!

AGM Speech, 20 November 2024, delivered by President Bobi Leutschaft Poitras

I can’t believe another full year has passed. We are currently 81 members strong, 9 of whom are associate members.  And, as always, The Collectif has been busy! 

We held our 6^th Big Show in April at the Community Living Centre in Alexandria, where 32 of our artists showed 117 works, not including the written submissions. 17 works sold at this show, and a couple of our members also sold some copies of their books.  

Our 7th show at The Glengarry Pioneer Museum in Dunvegan, 23 artists showed 57 works, 4 of which sold.

The 4^th show at the Glengarry Nor’Wester and Loyalist Museum in Williamstown, which was our second annual Juried Show, featured 24 artists showing 60 works, with 6 sales.

That’s 27 sales from our shows this year, not including books.  I’d say we had a fabulous exhibition year!

We held our 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th Write Thing events, in which the writers in our group read 5-minute works of prose, poetry, excerpts from longer works, or longer stories in 5-minute increments.  For the most recent event in October, we added music, and 2 of our members sang us some original tunes.  If you have never attended one of these, I can assure you it’s more fun than you think.  I encourage you to come and check it out in February. 

Our annual Bake Sale, which was on September 14 in Mill Square, was a success, thanks to all the wonderful bakers in our group.  We raised $879 – a nice chunk of the cost of our yearly insurance.

And our website!  Yvonne, Vice President, Treasurer and Website Coordinator, does an amazing job keeping us entertained and informed.  Apart from announcing events in which our members take part, she publishes Collectif Creativity about every 5 days, in which one of our artists is featured.  Please keep submitting photos of your works with a blurb, poetry, writings, or anything else creative you are up to. And please, write your own ads for events you are taking part in – Yvonne will post what you send her!

You may be wondering what happened to WOW, the Windows on Our World display we have done in Alexandria four times.  Since the pandemic and the folding of The Glengarry News, the turnout has been terrible.  The last time we did it in September/October of 2023, we received only a handful of votes and no sales, which indicates a lack of interest and involvement.  WOW is a lot of work – more than it has been worth the last two times we did it.  So, we have decided to stick to what we know is beneficial to our members.  Three shows a year and a bake sale already keep us busy enough!

It was after our first WOW event that we decided to offer a gift to the Township for all of their continued support.  Every fall, we ask our members to submit a photo of a painting they would be willing to gift to the Township, then we submit those images, anonymously.  The Arts, Culture and Heritage Committee then choose the one they would like hanging right here at The Sandfield Centre, quickly becoming known as The Alexandria Louvre.  Lynne Ayers’ watercolour, Glengarry Wetlands was chosen this year and now hangs with 5 others from previous years. Congratulations for the second time, Lynne! Please take a minute afterwards to admire them!  

Enough of the past – now we look ahead to 2025!  We will be holding our annual Big Show once again at the Community Living Centre on April 11^th and 12^th. You will be receiving a call to artists by email a few months before.  The Annual Juried Show will be held in May/June in Williamstown, and the Pioneer Museum Show will be sometime in late August.  Once the exact dates are firmed up, we will let you know.

The Collectif is run exclusively by volunteers.  I want to thank all who have helped in any way – without you nothing we have done or are about to do would be possible.  There are many ways in which to help, so don’t hesitate to volunteer whatever time you have. Not only do we put on great shows, we have a lot of fun doing so!  I’d like to mention here that we still need volunteers for a Poster Committee*.  This involves putting up posters four times a year – 3 shows and 1 bake sale.  Local businesses know us well and it is just a matter of going in with a poster and roll of tape.  We would supply a list of businesses to the Committee. 

I will now ask Yvonne to come up and give the Treasurer’s Report.

*I’m very happy to announce that Lucie Karakashian and Laura Peck formed a Poster Committee during coffee after the meeting. Thank you, Lucie and Laura!