It has certainly been a challenging and interesting year! Creative Activities and VSA arts of WA just celebrated the first anniversary of their partnership – and at their November meeting, the Board of Directors reviewed program and organizational accomplishments for the past year and agreed that both organizations have emerged stronger and more able to provide needed services. Even challenges and adversity presented opportunities for growth and learning – each step along the way adding to the successes we have earned this past year.
For me, the most frustrating have been those challenges over which we had no control; it turned out that every single event we organized this year suffered from some kind of (mostly natural) disaster. The first date for the Community Meeting was canceled due to the snow of December ’08; the first re-scheduled date was again postponed by an ice storm; ArtSpring!09 happened just as the swine flu appeared and schools were closing left and right; the Including Samuel Film Preview saw a security guard locking the venue’s doors in the 20 minutes before the event; and the recent No Boundaries Opening Reception had to be postponed when the Seattle Center House (and surrounding neighborhood) lost power. I mean, really now.
So, we can not help but believe that 2010 is going to be better! Our organizations are stronger, we have more support, bigger goals, and more clients. We are planning some exciting events and adding some new opportunities and resources. Every day we get more and more inquiries about our programming and calls from other organizations wanting to explore new partnership opportunities. I hope you will join with us – and stay tuned for another exciting – and challenging – year!