Dear Editor:
I read with great interest Joe Del Priore’s critique of Hob’art, Hoboken’s only artists’ cooperative group. I feel a need to reply directly to Mr. Del Priore, to the other members of our group, and the citizens of Hoboken.
Seven years ago we founded Hob’art as a rallying call to area artists to come together to find a permanent home to exhibit our work, offer classes, workshops, and other cultural events like film nights and poetry readings to the citizens of this city.
We decided to charge a membership fee in order to start raising funds to rent or purchase our own space to host the activities listed above.
And yes Joe, you are indeed correct in stating these collected funds are nowhere near enough to cover the cost of buying or leasing space in Hoboken. However, you are incorrect in stating two things: firstly that we charge a fee to show work and secondly that our overhead is zero.
We have held one exhibit at a gallery in Chelsea in which members voluntarily paid a fee to show their work, as that was the policy of the private gallery. We also get charged to show during the Open Studio Tour of Hoboken; this fee comes from our treasury.
As far as our overhead, we have many expenses, which may not be immediately evident. They include: the cost of publicity and printing costs, costs for running the group’s web site, www.hob-art.com, our phone bills and the services of our graphic designer all must be paid through the funds collected from dues.
Our board, as do I, believes that the paying of dues shows commitment on the part of members to work for the good of the entire group. Now Joe, I know that you have made the suggestion repeatedly that we not charge any membership fee at all. I have brought this request to our board and it has been discussed, but rejected. I do apologize to you that I have not personally gotten back to you with this information.
As to the $25 fee for not doing volunteer work for the group, this is standard operating procedure for all the other arts groups that I am a member of. As far as I know we have never enforced this rule, nor charged a single member this fee.
I want to state that most of the members of our group are hard working and dedicated artists who do their fair share of the work required to keep our organization as strong and viable as it is seven years later. I particularly want to thank our dedicated board members.
Joe, you are a terrific member of our group and have participated and worked hard for us. Your artwork is, in fact, exceptional. I appreciate your thoughts and can only invite you to attend our next meeting on May 20, 2009 at 259 First Street and offer you services to our committee on writing a business plan because we sure would appreciate your help. We invite all other artists and interested parties to join us in our continued effort to find exhibition and event space in our beautiful city.
By the way our next show will be held at a new arts venue in Hoboken, 259 First Street on June 18th from 6 until 8 p.m. This will be our opening night for our group show “Hid (In) Hoboken” which runs from June 15 until July 15. Come one, come all – there will be food, drink, art and live music for everyone!
Sincerely,
Liz Cohen, President of Hob’art