 |
|||
|
HOW WE GREW |
|||
|
The unique emphasis and dynamics of the group soon attracted the attention of others with similar fiber art interests and needs. Gradually, new participants expanded the weaving focus of the original six to include other textile-related pursuits.
Until the late 1980's, meetings were held at members’ studios or apartments. When attendance stressed the capacity of these informal situations, meetings moved to a succession of rented locations: The Center for Tapestry Arts, Art in General, The Museum of African Art, Teachers & Writers Collaborative, the A.I.R. Gallery in Chelsea, and, in 2007, the Community Church of New York Unitarian Universalist. Around 1985, TSGNY began sponsoring periodic exhibitions featuring members' art work. In 1998, the American Craft Museum in New York City agreed to show a TSGNY exhibition entitled "9 x 9 x 3." The group planned to tour the exhibition to other venues after it closed. The responsibilities and liabilities of arranging such a national tour plus a steadily increasing membership pushed TSGNY into thinking seriously about formalizing its organizational status.
Bylaws defining the mission, structure, and administration of TSGNY were debated and drafted. After the "initiating" Board of Directors appointed by Nancy Koenigsberg had finalized the Bylaws, TSGNY filed to incorporate and became the Textile Study Group of New York, Inc. on August 23, 2000. The Bylaws were officially adopted by vote of the Full Members at a meeting on March 15, 2001. During the Fall of 2001, a ruling from the IRS allowed TSGNY to operate as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation registered at the office of the Attorney General of New York State.
TSGNY continues to grow in numbers and recognition. The majority of TSGNY’s members live within traveling distance of the organization’s Manhattan base. The roster also includes an increasing number of Full Members and Newsletter Subscription Members who live in other parts of the USA and in other countries. |
|||
| Return to top of page | |||
|
Textile Study Group of New York / info@tsgny.org |
|||
In 1977, six weavers
who met while studying with Gayle Wimmer at the New
School for Social Research in New York City decided to
continue meeting regularly even though their classroom
experience had ended. United by a mutual commitment to
fiber as a medium for artistic expression, they shared
resources, technical information, supportive criticism,
inspiration, and the ambition to keep moving forward.
Monthly sessions
evolved from group-generated critiques and
activities to workshops and lectures by
invited experts. When increasing numbers made
hands-on programs impractical, meetings
centered around speakers who shared their
professional-level work and expertise with a
membership that had multiplied to include
individuals representing diverse fiber
disciplines. The hand-written postcards that
announced the date, time, and place of the
next meeting—adequate when the mailing list
was small—were replaced by photocopied
newsletters. These printed newsletters were
replaced by an enlarged, four-color newsletter
distributed to members by e-mail in April
2006. At the beginning of the 2007−2008 program year, the
e-newsletter became a bi-monthly with meeting
reminders sent to the membership at the
beginning of non-newsletter months.
Up to this time, TSGNY
had grown and established an identity without
ever electing a slate of officers or approving
an operating code. In 1999, under the
leadership of Nancy Koenigsberg, a founding
member of TSGNY and the group's unofficial
"leader" since it began, TSGNY started the
process of incorporation.
Today, the Textile
Study Group of New York, Inc. is governed by
a nine-member Board of Directors elected by
vote of the Full Members. The Board of
Directors selects TSGNY’s President, Vice
President, Secretary, and Treasurer from its
members, manages the group’s affairs, and
appoints committee chairs. The organization is
staffed by volunteers and financed primarily
by contributions from members.