Handmade Tile Association. LLC

Newsletter

Publisher Josh Blanc            Volume No.6    Issue No.4                    Date 8/2/05

Agenda

2006 Handmade Tile Association
Tile writers
2006 directory cost
HTA Sponsorships
Tile Symposium 2006
2007 Coverings in Chicago
Last call Minnesota Tile Festival registration
ASID mailing list
MN State Fair part two
HTA Job Opening
Duluth Meeting
New Newsletter
Next Meeting

2006 Handmade Tile Association

The HTA is preparing for the 2006 season.  In the next couple of weeks members and advertisers will be receiving information on participating in the 2006 directory.  The 2006 directory design will stay very similar with some color changes and continued tweaking of readability.  We will also be working with the Tile Heritage Foundation to do our second national tile program; it has been five years after our first one “Tiles in the Twin Cities”.  New for next year the Minnesota Tile Festival ad in the directory will be a double page spread in the center of the directory that can be pulled out as a poster!  Greg Good our layout designer has organized the layout and is already working on both the tile festival postcard and poster.  
We will also be looking for a new cover image. Any member can submit an entry.  The cover has to be of a historic tile(s) of Minnesota.  We would need a bio of where the tile was found and any history of the piece (either on a building or in a collection, if it is on a building please send picture of building too) it must be at least 300dpi and entered by October 15th.  The concept is to celebrate our tile history front and center.  We will continue our development of articles in the directory as well. 

Tile writers

The directory has five spaces reserved for writers with a $100 stipend for the chosen articles.  If your article is not printed and we use it on the web site it will you will be given a $25 stipend.  I will post the specs and ideas to write about on the HTA web site.  We are also starting a program to sponsor writers.  If you would like to be a sponsor please contact Josh Blanc and he will send you out information.

2006 directory cost

The 2006 directory costs are going to remain almost the same only a few tweaks were made.  Some of our costs have gone up in printing but the expenses have been offset by our increase in membership.  Over the past year the HTA has started to receive a larger portion of memberships from all around the country.  We now have 87 current members up from our original 12 that started with the organization in 1999.   This membership increase seems to be driven by many factors.  Some of the biggest are when the organizations like the Tile Heritage Foundation sends out its e-news.  We get lots of request for our directory and some return our membership form. The other is the HTA web site.  People are finding and downloading the form and sending in memberships. Our directory sells itself, artist from around the country request how they can participate in the next publication all the time.  We hope to see the continued growth the knowledge of the resources that are the Handmade Tile Association all the new memberships help us improve and expand our mission.  I would like to thank to all that have helped keep this tile publication out to the public and the trade keep up the good work!

HTA Sponsorships

In the past couple of years Minnesota has been on a building boom, like many places around the country.  Many of the directory requests the HTA gets are from individuals doing an updates on their homes.  The HTA would like to get the directory in front of more people but to do that it will cost us money.  The HTA will be looking to grow its presence on a regular basis so we have developed a sponsorship program. We are going to try to work with one or two local media groups as well as businesses to draw in a new audience and build the accessibility of the HTA to more home owners.  The sponsorship programs are designed to trade our services for their services. I will post the sponsorship program on the web site please review and I will keep you updated on the progress. 

Tile Symposium 2006

Believe it or not next year is also our 5th year anniversary of the tile symposium in the Twin Cities.  To celebrate the HTA and the Tile Heritage Foundation are planning a new mini symposium.  This symposium is going to be smaller and concentrate around the MN Tile Festival.  One of our big events is going to be a historic and contemporary tile show in the American Swedish Institute.  Currently the planning of the show will feature three historic tile companies from around the country one on the east coast, Midwest and the west coast.  Each display will show the historic tiles and the reproductions being made today.  We are still working out the details of which companies will be participating.  The show will be up in the ASI starting in early September running through October.  There are a couple of tours being planned and one formal dinner.  The tours will concentrate on historic sites the last symposium did not have time to visit and one or two studio tours.  Our goals for the symposium are to continue to build the presence of our tile history and develop its future by bringing attention to our historic sites and artists members.  We are looking for galleries and art centers to show work both local and national.  If you would like to be involved with the planning or volunteer for the program please contact the HTA and we will plug you in.  

2007 Coverings in Chicago

Looking ahead to 2007 the Coverings show will be moving to Chicago from Orlando giving our members a great opportunity to visit the show and maybe participate in it.  I have contacted the Tile Council of America and asked if the HTA can put on a show at the Chicago Coverings.  At an upcoming meeting we will have a discussion of what and how HTA members would like to participate in the Chicago coverings show.  

Last call: Minnesota Tile Festival registration

The Minnesota Tile Festival cut off for registration is August 20th which is right around the corner.  We have about ten inside booth spaces left.  Please contact Norma to reserve your space.
This sale will not be juried.  There are no outside spaces left.  Participants will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.  The fee for an inside eight foot table will be $140 with the option of a second table for an additional $25.  Inside participants must furnish their own display materials which must fit on the tables or take up no more space than the tables.  Chairs and table coverings will be provided for inside tables.
You can download an application at www.handmadetileassociation.org or request an application by mail by contacting Norma Hanlon, 612 824 3325.  Postcards and posters are available.  We will want volunteers to plaster the twin cities with posters in September as well as volunteers for the tile festival itself if you are interested in helping please contact Norma.

ASID mailing list

The HTA has purchased the Minnesota Chapter of the ASID mailing list and will be sending out directories and Tile Festival Postcards to the designers.  The HTA is looking for a volunteer to help with the mailing for August 11th.  Please contact Josh for further details.

MN State Fair part two

By chance the Twin Cities Fine Arts Association which sponsors Art on the Town has a booth at the state fair and members of their organization can have material out during the fair if they donate an art work for silent auction.  Clay Squared is a member and has volunteered to hand out the tile festival postcards and directories.  The HTA will donate artwork that was bid on at the MN Tile Festival but was not paid for to be used for their silent auction. 

HTA Job Opening

After three years of coordinating the Minnesota Tile Festival Norma Hanlon has decided that this year will be her last.  Norma has created diagrams of the layout for the festival and has an application form for all the artists to fill out as well as keeping track of all participants.  She has organized the volunteers and the laid the ground work for future shows.  Thanks to Norma for all her hard work! 
We will be looking for a new individual to run the festival for 2006.  There is a $500 stipend for the job.  It is a great opportunity for someone to get to know how to run a festival and meet lots of artists.  If you are interested please contact Josh Blanc.

New Newsletter

Artists and organizations have been sending a lot more information to the HTA in the past year.  To accommodate this influx of information the HTA will be launching a new newsletter format.  When you open you e-mail you will actually be on the HTA website. It will have images and links to go right to info that is in the newsletter.  There will be no attachments even though it will have images.  With this new method I hope to have a monthly to bi-monthly newsletter to keep members more updated.  Also people who are interested in our newsletter will have the opportunity to sign up and unsubscribe at will.  All members will receive a notification of your e-HTA news in the next month or so.  Non members will be sent out an e-mail to subscribe if they wish.   People without e-mail will still receive there mailed newsletter. 

Duluth Meeting

On our first HTA Duluth trip the HTA had a very packed day of activities.  Karen Kramer did a very nice demo and tour of her new space.  We all painted majolica tiles and Karen will bring them to the next meeting to show our experiments.  Karen studio is in the old Superior WI police station which has been revamped into artist studios and a coffee shop.  It is a vibrant place and transforming all the time. 
We then traveled to Laura Stone’s Studio which was right on Lake Superior and I mean right on the lake.  It was a modest studio full of beautiful mosaic material and stones collected on the shores of the lake.  Laura gave us a demo of how she makes her mosaics.  Her mosaic process is a very time intensive and, by her own admission, obsessive process.  She currently is working on a mural for the Whole Foods store being built in downtown Duluth.  She will send us pictures on completion so we can document the new work and get to view it as we travel to Duluth. 
The group then went on to downtown Duluth to take pictures and document the historic terra cotta.  It was a good adventure with the opportunity to crash an ongoing wedding in one of the hotels packed with tiles both inside and out.  The new finds will be posted on the website over the next month. 
On Sunday a few a smaller group went to Glensheen Mansion which had a stunning body of tiles showcased in the fireplaces, bathrooms, kitchen, and dining rooms.  We were not able to take pictures and the guides did not have much information on the tiles but we recommend every tile maker and enthusiast to take a tour of the mansion, it is a delight. I look forward to going back up to Duluth for another meeting in the next couple of years. 

Next Meeting

Our next meeting will be in October 4th at 5:30 at Mercury Mosaics new studio in North Minneapolis.  Mercedes new studio is in an old bowling alley converted to artist and design studios at 125 W. Broadway.  Directions 125 West Broadway Ave
Mpls MN 55411 This is North Minneapolis On the other side of the river from Clay Squared.  Here is a link to map it on Mapquest.  http://maps.google.com/maps?q=125+West+Broadway+Ave,+minneapolis,+mn&spn=0.020844,0.023255&hl=en

This meeting will be to finalize the 2006 HTA directory people will be able to submit ads and content before the deadline.  We will discuss the tile festival how it went, and next year’s tile symposium ideas.  We will also talk about the 2007 Coverings show.  We will be looking for people who would like to host a meeting at there studio or interesting place.  It will be a pot luck.  Look forward to seeing you all there.