Alliance is the way to support arts community

This letter is for all the artists who have been waiting for years for Sandpoint to be their idea of an artist community. Those who have been wanting for an organized focal point that could further their profession and livelihood. It is now here, the Arts Alliance.

Organizing and successfully functioning through the first two years is the hardest part for a new organization and its already done that. The facility is located for easy access interfacing nicely between business and residential, on Sixth Avenue. It is well equipped for running its in-house and outreach art classes and has produced a roaster of available classes this small town has never had before.

In 1985, a small group of artists tried to make a showplace happen in Sandpoint. There was no support from existing organizations and it didn’t flourish.

For years, artists were contacted for auction donations but interest in the artist stopped there. We all know how organizations can make things happen. What is now organized in Sandpoint is what group in 1985 could only wish for.

Now, venues for individual artist promotion, workshops you have wanted to take by teachers revered in your medium, workshops you have wanted to give for self-promotion, are all possible.

Arts Alliance director Lizzy Hughes is competent, professional and energetic. All the nuts and bolts of a working non-profit organization are well looked after. All the hard part is done.

This letter is my call to all of you. Join it! Give it your membership, input and expectations. Here is a huge chance to make “Sandpoint, an artist community” more than glossy words in some glossy magazine.

ELLEN KLEIN

Sandpoint