[IMC] Organizing Monthly Urbana Art Walk

[Mary Tangora]

Thank you for contacting us Shawna.
I am curious .
I have to agree with Carolyn for the most part though.
For me I am concerned that you know very little about what is happening in downtown Urbana and question how you can promote what you don't know. Although I do applaud you for being inspired that way.
It is most unfortunate that someone like you didn't show up 10 months ago when the situation was different.

Larry and I are concerned about the lack of communication in Urbana even before you sent this note.

We just saw the Urbana Love tee and were put out that many of the Lincoln Square community were not involved. As for us we are not even sure we were invited to join this project so I have to be a bit happy you included us in this venture. We were not told of the Agora festival as well for what ever reason.
Nor the music festival today on Main St.

Whatever your plans, trying to contact people only by e-mail is problematic especially when businesses like ours get over 200 e-mails per day. I for one don't read e-mail every day like I used to because the spam and advertising level is just too much. Hence we miss information.
Best wishes but I think you need to look a little bit deeper into what you are planning
Sincerely
Mary Tangora
Wind Water & Light Gallery

Sent from my iPhone

On May 10, 2014, at 1:56 PM, Cinema Gallery <carolyn at cinemagallery.cc> wrote:

> 
> I apologize that I don't recognize your name, so tell us what connection
> you have to the arts.  You must not have been
> downtown recently: Heartland and Eclectic have closed, and I think Living
> Yoga Center is moving elsewhere soon if they haven't already. You neglected
> to include International Galleries and the Urbana Museum of Photography in
> your list of venues, and you should also contact C4A to see if they want to
> participate; I don't have their email address, but I added the other two in
> the header above.
> 
> If most of the others are interested in doing this, I'll consider
> participating for one Friday a month in June, July and August, but we have
> tried this kind of thing before without much success. We would need to meet
> with you to hear your plans before agreeing to have you put this together
> on our behalf; nothing is worse than giving a party and having nobody come,
> so it would have to be well planned and publicized. 
> 
> Carolyn Baxley
> Cinema Gallery  
> 
> 
> On Sat, 10 May 2014 12:27:50 -0500, Shawna Arnesen
> <shawnaarnesen at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Dear Urbana Art Community Member,
>> 
>> I am writing Urbana art venues to assess local interest in organizing a
>> monthly art walk downtown. Ideally, the Urbana Art Walk will take place
> on
>> a first or last Friday of every month, from approximately 6-10pm, with
>> various openings/closings/special events taking place at as many
> downtown
>> venues as possible throughout the evening. The various venue events will
> be
>> coordinated and collectively advertised as part of the monthly Urbana
> Art
>> Walk, which will have a website and printed maps and advertisement
>> distributed throughout the city via a variety of media. I am currently
>> trying to identify public funds to cover cost of printed material.
>> 
>> I envision this as a collaborative effort to increase sales for local
>> artists, generate new business for downtown venues, and provide Urbana
>> community members with an enjoyable way to spend a Friday night. I hope
> you
>> share an interest in developing and be part of this project. Please let
> me
>> know if you do and if you have thoughts, suggestions, or ideas. Once
>> interested venues have been identified, we can begin coordinating a
> first
>> monthly Urbana Art Walk for June.
>> I look forward to hearing back.
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> Shawna Arnesen