Spring
Creative Resilience Report, May 19-22, 2022
By Eugenia Gwathney, Co-Chair CNCH2022, Area 3
All photos courtesy E. Gwathney
We Planned, You Came; We Planned, You Wove; We Planned, You Bought; We Planned, You Dined; We Planned, You Wore Masks; We Planned, You Celebrated being in the creative place, making, learning, sharing, in the company of our kind.
All in all, the conference was a success.
We planned, You registered. Registration was 204, combined mini and full registrations. Due to the last-minute cancellation of one teacher, we lost a few registrations but most of the members in her classes switched to other classes.
Thank you for the great work by the Program chairs Maureen Miller and Nancy Williams Baron. Additionally, a big thank you to teachers Adrienne Gaskill and Anne Bowers, who took in the displaced weavers.
We Planned evening events, You participated. Friday night the Textile Tableaux imagined by Gloria Johnson, Suzanne Woodhead and Jennifer Dejung of the Reno Fiber Guild turned out to be delightful experience for spectators and participants. It seems most of the guilds decided on the fun side of weaving as a theme. Of course, the clever narrative read by Joan Near was a hoot!
We planned, You dined. The evening dinner al fresco, gave us an opportunity to show off all our clever weaving of varied shawls as the wind came up to cool us, just as we started to gather. Soon the wind stopped, and we were able to enjoy our meal despite a few oops. After dinner we moved indoors for the Keynote Address by Mary Zicafose. Her speech had us enthralled and gave us some food for thought.
We planned, You donated. The guilds presented a total of thirty-six gift baskets. The silent auction was furious near the end, as usual. All the baskets were sold to our generous patrons. The Grant Fund has been replenished with the $3922 realized by the Fun Raiser. (I took the liberty of changing the name to Fun Raiser, as it is so much fun to organize and participate.)
We planned, you shopped. The Marketplace was well attended by the registrants. Day Trippers to the count of seventy-five made the trek to see the vendors. There were nine vendors in twelve booths. John Sutton was our captain in charge of the vendor hall. Bright beautiful yarns of all kinds displayed for visual impact, tools, looms, books, assorted thingamabobs all for purchase.
We planned, you viewed & voted. The Gallery area planned by Cynthia McAfee, Debby Corsini and Madeline Brane, had the setup of a professional gallery owner. The woven art was given a black background as a foil for the colorful display of your talents. You were busy voting on your personal favorites. The judging was done by you the artist weaver, the eye of the beholder. The double weave rug was the overall winner as best in show. Woven by Mary Napier.
We planned, You left a big impression as members of our collective of artist weavers. As you can see there is a plethora of planning to be done to organize a conference for two hundred people.
There are budget concerns — how much can we charge, how many teachers do we need, where can we hold it, what are the alternatives, what do we include, who can do what, can we get enough people to volunteer to work on it? These are the basics that the volunteers had to consider, along with a hundred other little things. Thanks to the Area 4 guilds for their generous help in the planning CNCH 2022. Thank you to all the committee for your hard work and perseverance over the last 2 years.
What does the future hold for CNCH? Can we continue in the same way with our membership aging and the recruitment of new members being more difficult since you can go on YouTube to learn almost anything from threading a needle to making bombs? We are used to conferences with lots of vendors, but now shopping can be done at your desk, kitchen table or recliner.
With the advances in photography all our tactile experience of touching the fiber before buying has gone visual. You use your memory of the touch to feel the yarn, reed, cord. You use your memory of color the see the nuances of hues, shades, intensity. So, do we change or remain static?
Change is inevitable, so we must. How? The how is up to the governing board of CNCH. Will we change the rules, make exceptions, grow a new organization from the past and ease into the new or remain static? This is one of the many considerations to be discussed in August at the Advisory Council meeting. It is time to get on the train or get out of the way. Thank you for coming to Spring: Creative Resilience. You made it a success.