Board Meeting – June 03, 2025

Vice President Stephanie Swilley opened the meeting. She provided a short update on the workshops planned for the rest of the year and early 2026: Megan Wassom (Encaustic); Hannah Claire (Mindset and Creativity); Deanna SKokan (Plein Air); Danna Fruetel (ScratchBoard); Haley McAndrews (Developing an Online Presence)and Jess Quinn (Pricing Your Art) in February 2026. Diana Turnage offered to contact the Cedar Falls Library for a location for the Scratchboard Workshop and Wendy Ebbers would help with the Clear Lake location for the Encaustic Workshop. Tracy Ingham offered to offer an Acrylic Workshop. Swilley is temporarily coordinating the workshops in the absence of Dana Duesenberg.

Swilley gave an update on membership – we currently have 162 members, 35 less than last year. Increasing membership is one of our important goals. Some regions have few active members. She will send out the regional report numbers.

There was a discussion about ways to reach out to possible members by “going where the artists go” – local fairs, county fairs, Art Palooza, have a booth and distribute flyers. Swilley said we should have a presence where we have volunteers and take advantage of the crowd these events draw. Turnage offered that she is creating a Power Point presentation to help the Board track Iowa Artists’ activity, e.g., budget, membership, workshops, etc., in order to help us analyze progress.

Dianne Liepa, Secretary, asked about approving minutes from the State Meeting in May and whether minutes should be sent out before each meeting for approval. Rather than emailing, it was decided the new procedure would be to put them in the DropBox when they are prepared, then send a notice to the Board that the minutes are available there, and then resend them directly to board meetings before the next meeting.

Kelly Schwartz, Treasurer, reported we have a balance of $12,473.07 after the Regional and State shows. Swilley noted that the Executive Board will get together to work on a budget for next year, then the Board can review it and amend/approve it. Schwartz mentioned that she will be moving the account from Midwest Bank to US Bank, which the Board approved in the past.

Diana Turnage, State Show Coordinator, ordered ribbons for the next two years and wanted to alert the Treasurer and Board.

Danna Fruetel, Newsletter Chair – reported she is preparing a News Page rather than a newsletter, that will appear via email to members approximately every two months.

Fruetel said that the Prairiewoods Director in Cedar Rapids contacted her about getting artists together on their 30th Anniversary. She will get more information about date and activities to share with the Board.

Swilley offered to share information with the new Board members on how to use DropBox – she will send out a tutorial.She noted that the Board needs an official vote to approve a permanent 3-D Award for $50 at the State Show. The Board vote was unanimous.

7:20 pm. Sue Kuennen and Linda Andrews

There was a discussion about the origin of the names for the main awards at the State Show and how the awards were named. Turnage offered to create an exhibit at the State Show that joined the would provide background information on the people who are honored with the named awards.

A lively discussion about having a T-shirt design contest in October was held. Danna offered to coordinate the project.

A question was raised about whether there could be other awards for 3-D entrants in addition to the 3-D award at the State Show. There was a short discussion. 3-D entrants are eligible for all the other awards, at this point, there are no other designated 3-D awards. There was a discussion about ways to recognize specific mediums – possibly through special shows, workshops, periodical meet-ups hosted by IA, trading cards, etc. Swilley suggested we thinkabout options and consider doing something different at the next online show. We should

The meeting adjourned.