May 2020 No. 6 And now we also have an About us leaflet which can be downloaded by members from the website and used to promote the group where opportunities arise. Bulk copies can be provided on request. Organisational changes included the departure of longstanding committee members Robert and Jay Charnock FRPS and the arrival of John Cavana ARPS, Robert Herringshaw ARPS and Wendy Meagher LRPS who, along with Janie Chapman LRPS, took immediate responsibility for the exhibition programme, securing a new venue in Doncaster and preparing the 2020 event. Our annually required RPS Volunteer Hours Submission for the Charity Commission makes for tedious reading but does highlight the vast amount and range of work undertaken by the committee, magazine guest editors and other helpers who clocked up nearly 2500 hours between them on behalf of the Visual Art Group membership.
The Members’ Print Exhibition Each year the Visual Art Group delivers a major print exhibition, offering all its members the opportunity to have their work displayed and viewed in gallery conditions. The 2019 exhibition started at the Clocktower Museum in Croydon and was officially opened by Mike Taylor, Chief Operating Officer of The Royal Photographic Society.
LOOKING BACK – LOOKING FORWARD 2019 – 2020 The coronavirus shutdown has given many of us time to reflect and contemplate, and also an opportunity to capture and illustrate much of what has been happening within the RPS Visual Art Group over the last year and a half. During 2019 the Visual Art Group has continued to thrive and develop. Group membership numbered 960 at the end of the year, an increase of 16; places for our residential weekends were snapped up within days; our members’ print exhibition went from strength to strength; and our Visual Art magazine has been highly acclaimed for its aesthetic qualities. We have also established a regular e-Newsletter, and our closed Facebook group of some 550 members has strengthened our social network presence, attracting distinguished photographers, not exclusively from within the RPS, which in turn has lifted the quality of content and activity.
Selected prints then joined the annual exhibition of the Richmond and Twickenham Photographic Society (featuring between 400-500 prints and a continuous PDI display which included work from local students) and went on to the 157th Edinburgh International Exhibition of Photography, organised by the Edinburgh Photographic Society for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. With a new venue, our exhibition programme concluded in December. The Point, a contemporary art gallery and home to Doncaster Community Arts, was able to provide us with an impressive finale – a truly Herculean task for the staff who only weeks earlier had suffered heavily in some of the worst flooding the area had experienced in living memory. Feedback from members and the general public was very positive, and despite its proximity to Christmas, some 379 visitors attended. “I got to see the 2019 exhibition at Doncaster, and it was most impressive and inspiring, both from the point of view of the images themselves and the presentation. I hope it was much viewed during the year, it was certainly worth it.”