October 2007 Handmade Tile Association Newsletter

Main Body
Tile Festival Review
Thank You Everyone
Below are the stats for the past 6 years of tile festivals
HTA board member steps down and profile of board members

Side Bar
The 2008 Directory Info due October 15th
Image contest for cover of 2008 Directory
Articles for the 2008 Directory
Handmade Tiles used in first all Green Remodeling Project in MN
Faces of the tile festival

Tile Festival Review
The 6th Annual Minnesota Tile Festival is now in the record books and the 2007 tile festival attendance grew just over 16% this year to 823 in attendance. This is our highest rate of growth ever for one year and our second highest attendance ever! Unfortunately we still did not reach our overall goal of 1000. But it probably was unrealistic to believe we could grow 40% in one year but setting the goal helped us strive harder. If we continue to grow at the current rate or around 11% per year we would break the 1000 attendance mark in two years. The question that we most need to address is how did we achieve that growth? What advertising worked what did not? Are we attracting the right type of patrons? If you have ideas please come to the meeting on October 15th and help us set and achieve the next series of goals for the 2008 MN Tile Festival.

Thank You Everyone
Thank you to Nick and Rosie Hielle the tile festival coordinators they have accomplished a lot in the past two years as the coordinators. They developed the "day of" flyer for every patron to know what is going on during the festival and how to navigate the ASI. They have also made many insightful logistical changes to help run the show better from where booths should be set up and how to get information to the patrons.
Thank you to all the volunteers: Patrick Murphy, Larry Loyer, Cathy Bryson, Carol Lichterman, Jennifer Nagel , Jo Anne Hendricks, Robyn Minahan, Jim Swan, Patrick Murphy, Laura Burlisthat. They all make the tile festival run by taking tickets, getting out literature, navigating the mansion, allowing the artist to set up and take down easier, go to the restroom and have a lunch break.

Thank you to all of our artists for participating and showing the community the amazing variety and selection of handmade tile, mosaics and tile art available. Special thanks to Blackhawk Studios for making our 3rd Annual Commemorative tile. They kept with the theme of symbolism with the making of the tile as a hexagon symbolizing the 6th annual tile festival.
Also thank you to Bill Beyer the ASI representative coordinator. Bill planned the event with Nick, Rosie, and Josh to make sure it ran smooth. Bill got the HTA a special room for the Rachel Maloney from Natural Built Homes to speak on Green issues in a last minute request. He also coordinates all the ASI volunteers as well as the staff. He does a lot behind the scenes to make this event a success. Bill has helped take us to the next level.

Below are the stats for the past 6 years of tile festivals

* - 796 were marked on the official sheet - 27 were not marked down on the sheet but we had extra money leading us to believe 27 extra people paid $5 that were unaccounted for creating a total of 823

** This is what we have collected so far
- stands for did not track or did not offer the service or product
na - not available
the attendance does not include artists, volunteers or staff.
Click here to see the results from the artist survey

Where the tile festival notices were posted: Star Tribune calendar, SW Journal, Twin Cities Bungalow Club, The Observer, MN monthly, American Swedish Institute newsletter, Tile Magazine, Tile Heritage Foundation website, HTA website, many of the HTA members websites, there were probably more but this is what we know of.

Paid advertising – AM 950 radio ads(80) The Current 89.3 FM radio ad (10), Blue Green directory (full page ad) Tile Directory (full page ad), MoQ half page ad (trade) postcards(10,000), Blue Sky Guide (coupons), Midwest Art Fair

HTA board member steps down and profile of board members
Jane Swan has decided to step down from the HTA board after five years.  This gives me a chance to talk about what Jane and others on the board have done for the organization.

Jane Swan became a board member when the HTA was deciding between becoming a non profit or a LLC (limited liability company) Jane is an original board member when we decided to become the LLC and it was some of her advice that helped lead us to that decision.  Jane was the first person in our organization to write a grant and win one from the Doty Research grant of the Tile Heritage Foundation for the first full color tile map of Minnesota.  Jane and Josh Blanc had a great time researching and photographing the tile sites and designing and editing the map.  She has also been our membership resource personnel for the past four years.  She is the one sending you your renewal membership notices and organizing and keeping the membership up to date.  Jane will continue this role even as she steps down from the board.  If you get a chance to thank her for her service please do. She has done a wonderful job and we will miss her at our meetings.

We have many other board members who are staying and have played key roles as well.  I will start with Norma Hanlon who also came on the board when the HTA became an LLC too.  Norma is the person who took over the tile festival the year after the first tile symposium in 2002.  With her 30 plus years of experience of arts festivals she developed the entire program most of which we still use in today’s tile festival, from how we register for the festival to how the booths are laid out.  She has also hosted many HTA meetings at her studio and has shared her knowledge and experiences of how to get into arts festival.  Norma has also done tile tours of the twin cities and has had her whole family involved helping the HTA succeed.  Examples include her daughter Laura giving a talk on being a juror at the uptown arts festival and setting up a tour of tiles through the U of M.  Second daughter Kirsten also a HTA artist giving tours of her studio, demos and slide lectures at her studio. As well as her husband Tom who has attended both tile conferences and has volunteered at almost all of our events. 

Laura McCaul also an original board member has been a great mentor for many in the organization.  She has done many demonstrations of her blackware firing at her home for members and at the tile festival.  She created the first commemorative tile for the tile festival and has been a vendor at the show every year.  Laura is also our out state and Wisconsin representative on the board giving the HTA perspective from the artist point of view for artists who do not live in the twin cities. Laura is currently working on how to apply to do a group HTA show at the Phipps Center for the Arts.

Roger Mayland came on to the board three years ago a couple years after he purchased North Prairie Tile.  Roger has brought his marketing experience to the organization and this past year has become the marketing committee head for the tile festival.  He has also represented the manufacturing side of the membership giving the group perspective of issues related to larger productions of handmade tile and historic reproduction issues.   Roger has open up his studio for many HTA meetings and offered a workshop during the last tile conference in 2006.  He also contributed his trade show display for the home and garden show we did in 2006. 

Lucy Yogerst has been a board member since 2005.  Lucy came to us as a nomination from Laura McCaul.  Lucy did the first mosaic workshops at the tile festival and works for the Northern Clay Center for over  20 years as a teacher.  She has been helping us collaborate with the NCC and is currently working on how to apply to do a HTA gallery show at NCC.  Lucy has also worked at the Walker and gives us perspective on organizational thinking. 

Josh Blanc- that is me who writes this newsletter and I listen to all these wonderful people and they help me make decision on how to best guide our programming.  My role is to oversee the day to day operations like advertising, sponsorship, tile festival, developing the directory, hiring staff, organizing the volunteers, and setting up and facilitating both board and membership meetings and all the miscellaneous that just needs to get done. 

If you know of someone you believe should be on the board or you have desires to improve a part of the HTA organization please contact us with a nomination.  We meet three times a year January, August, and December and occasionally on special circumstances.  The board term is a one year term to be voted on every year for office.  Board elections will be held on October 15th.  We had no new nominations for the 2008 year but we are always looking for enthusiastic and dedicated people to improve the organization for 2009.

Next Handmade Tile Association Meeting

Clay Squared to Infinity
34 13th Ave NE
Minneapolis, MN 55413

When- October 15th 2007
Time - 6pm
Potluck

Agenda
Final day to put ads into the 2008 Directory without late fee.
Review of the MN Tile Festival
Planning for 2008 Tile Festival - Create committee
Vote for 2008 Board of Directors
last day to submit for the cover of 2008 Directory
Articles due for 2008 directory
Plan for 2008 Year - What do we want to do as an organization
We are looking for spaces to have meetings through out 2008 if you want to host a meeting or you want to go to a special place please bring your suggestions and contacts to the meeting

The 2008 Directory Info due October 15th

Click here for ad rate info

Image contest for cover of 2008 Directory
For the past four years the HTA selects a historic tile or installation to be the cover of the directory. If you have a historic tile or pictures of historic tiles you would like to submit please contact the HTA and we will get you all the specifics.

Articles for the 2008 Directory
Every year we try to have up to five educational articles in the directory. The HTA pays $100 for each article accepted for the publication. If you are interested in writing on a topic related to tiles please click here for the specs

Handmade Tiles used in first all Green Remodeling Project in MN

Clay Squared to Infinity handmade tile was used in as part of the first Minnesota GreenStar Remodeling Project.   The remodeling project was contracted out from Castle Building & Remodeling

ASID member Katie Jaydan selected a 2" x 2" field tile "Ginger Snaps" for the backsplash project at 2601 36th Ave NE in St. Anthony Minnesota.   

Castle Building & Remodeling cordially invites you celebrate on

Friday, October 12, 2007
10:00 – 11:00 AM

2601 – 36th Avenue Northeast
St. Anthony, MN 55418

Faces of the tile festival:

Crowds waiting to get in

Lucy Yogerst

Karin Kraemer

inside

Northern Clay Center

Bob and Musof

Leann Johnson

Nancy and AJ

Robyn-Minahan super volunteer

Pat Larson

Rachel giving talk on green tiles

Scott Weaver