One of the new wheels we purchased came with a $70 credit for glaze of our choice.  Ray, the head of our ceramics department, decided to use the credit to test out some brand new colors.  We have a pretty nice glaze selection in our studio, but we like to switch out a glaze recipe here and there to keep things new.  Our order just arrived and I can't wait to see how the test tiles come out.  We have a couple new shades of red, one of the more difficult glaze colors to get just right.  Maybe we'll replace that fussy copper-red soon.  But most exciting?  We got FUCHSIA!  Ceramics will never be the same.

General registration opened at 10am today.  It's been so busy in the office, I can't believe I'm finding time to write this! 

It's only 5pm, and we already have 102 people signed up for spring classes.  As I write this, five of the 11 piano classes we offer are already full!  We're really not kidding when we tell people to call at 10am on the first day of General Registration.  It's the only way to get into our most popular classes.

We'll be here to take registration from 10am-6pm, Monday-Friday.  You can call and register by phone with a VISA or Mastercard, or you can register in person.

James Komen, a recent graduate of USC Film School, is spending the week with our staff and students.  He's capturing the magic of McGroarty on camera to share our awesome-ness with the wider world.  So if you stop by this week and find yourself in the middle of a shot, don't say I didn't warn you!*  You can easily avoid making your film debut with a simple request to James or anyone in the office.  Even though we're big stars now, you can still chat with us.


*Actually, there will be signs up when and where filming is taking place.  You're double warned.

Stay tuned for our latest and greatest partnership: after school art classes for kids at the Verdugo Hills YMCA.  We're ironing out the details now.  Expect to see classes starting in March taught by our very own Monica Hicks.  These kinds of partnerships are great.  It allows McGroarty to reach more students, without building additional classrooms.  It allows the YMCA to offer more opportunities to its members, without reinventing the art education wheel.  We're excited.  Only one small catch: you'll have to be a YMCA member to join.

Whew!  What a week.  The proposed funding cuts to the Department of Cultural Affairs have been abandoned, thanks to a huge outpouring of public support.  I have to admit that I was sweating bullets.  McGroarty is run in partnership with DCA.  We were privatized during a similar budget crisis in the mid-90's, but that doesn't mean we don't rely on support from the city.  The impact of these proposed cuts on McGroarty, at minimum, would have meant the city's refusal to pay $26,000 in already-contracted-and-spent funds.  In a worst case scenario, they would have shut us down:  the McGroarty Arts Center building and grounds belong to the city.

Instead, the system worked!  The city council, including our own Paul Krekorian, listened to the impassioned pleas and economic truths about the importance of the arts and places like McGroarty Arts Center.  The tiny trickle of funding that keeps DCA afloat isn't going away for now.

But budget cuts will still be coming.  McGroarty will be looking for new funding streams and prioritizing.  DCA should do the same.  DCA has spread itself thin working on many valuable programs, but in times like these, DCA leadership needs to focus their limited resources into the most important areas:  grants, public art, and public and private centers.

Today we say goodbye to our amazing intern, Ines Coelho.  Ines has spent 9 months in the McGroarty office working 40 hours a week on marketing, design, and creating the brilliant website on which I am posting this blog.  She has been a delight to work with.  She's charming, efficient, professional, and incredibly positive.  I wish I could express how much value Ines has brought to McGroarty, and how much we will miss her:  we will really really miss her.  Ines returns to her home in Portugal this weekend.  We sent her off with a big dinner at DISH in La Canada on Sunday night, and a small breakfast this morning with just the ladies in the office.  Farewell Ines!  And safe journeys.

I know it seems silly, but we've had a heck of a time finding a site in Sunland-Tujunga to host our free outreach program for low-income, non-mobile seniors.  We've been running the program for a few different senior centers in the San Fernando Valley, and we have another 4 SFV sites showing interest.  We had a round of promising meetings this week, and it's looks like we've finally found a Tujunga site who wants it too.  We'll keep you posted.

McGroarty Arts Center isn't in any danger from the rains.  Luckily our hill didn't burn in the Station Fire (the fire would have had to burn through the entire town to get to McGroarty).  But we are very worried about our students and staff who live in the Foothills.  Lot's of us have packed our bags and companion animals (again) and evacuated (again).  If this year of catastrophic weather is any indication, maybe McGroarty should start offering a few new classes:

The Art of Evacuating
Sandbag Sculptures
Making Movies in Natural Disasters 

You've probably seen the hodge-podge of forty-year-old furniture, the tangled mess of wires, and the awkward layout that is the McGroarty Arts Center reception area.  It's the typical office of a small nonprofit on a tight budget.  But it's time to turn in those broken desks and squeaky chairs for stuff that's shiny and new!  The board of directors has set aside a little cash to upgrade the office, and I spent the afternoon spending it carefully at an office furniture liquidator.  We're going to have a functional space where staff can get more done and students can enroll for class where there's actually space to fill out forms.  Imagine that :).  The new stuff will be here in about two weeks.  Can't wait!

It’s so busy!  The first week of classes always turns into a whirlwind.  Returning students coming back to their favorite classes, lots of new students who just discovered the magic of McGroarty, big art supply orders, teachers putting the finishing touches on their curriculum.  The phones are ringing off the hook this week.  The office is packed.  Email boxes are full.  Our tiny administrative staff can barely keep up, but we love the excitement of the new session. 

All this busyness raises an important question:  how big should McGroarty get?  People love the homey atmosphere at McGroarty.  When you take classes here, you aren’t shuffled through as some nameless number.  The staff and students and teachers know each other.  We’re a family.  And I don’t want that to change.  At the same time, we’ve more than doubled enrollment in the last few years.  We ran 320 classes in 2009.  When you have 700 students coming each week, you have to put some systems in place that make things less personal.  So, how do we meet the needs of our community, while keeping it personal?  It’s a big question that we’re trying to figure out. 

If we ever needed proof that McGroarty events are popular, this weekend provided it.  Torrential rains can't keep this community away from a good party!  With a few pop-up tents and heaters on the veranda, we were good to go.  The Holiday Boutique was as packed as ever.  If you found a parking space in the lot, you were one of the lucky "damp" guests.  The "drenched" guests had to park way down the street and hike their way up the long driveway.  We don't know quite how many people turned up, but there were definitely more than last year.  We sold 380 chili bowls - a new record!

And here I stayed up half the night worried that the storm would keep everyone home.  I should know better.  The people in this community have never been scared to get their feet wet.

Is it just me, or do our decorations get better every year?  Connie's outdoing herself with the lights as always.  The mantels, the windows, the banisters:  it's like McGroarty Arts Center tumbled out of jolly xmas past into 2009.  The upper terrace (behind the office) is getting the royal treatment this year - lots of extra seating for the chili bowl sale.

Last count, the ceramics department has whipped out nearly 500 bowls.  They look amazing by the way.  We're all bracing for the rain, which probably won't show up anyway.  It threatens every year but never attacks.  But rain or shine, the annual holiday boutique will be fab as always.  You're coming right?  Saturday December 12th10am-5pm.