Dear Hyla,

Well, this eNews is a bit late because - well - just because. There is a lot of good news and a lot of sad news. Read on......

Enjoy!

Hyla

Executive Director

Pat Enos

~January 23, 2024~

Pat grew up in Milwaukee and graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. In 1971 she met her partner Kris Gleisner and in 1980 they moved to Sunny Valley, Oregon. The house they purchased was run down so they built a new one. Eventually they moved into town and lived in the same home for 25 years. They recently celebrated their 52nd anniversary prior to Pat's passing.

Pat was an art instructor at Rogue Community College for 35 years. Kris estimated that since the class size had to be at least 20 students, and there were two semesters each year, that Pat interacted with over 1000 people. The people who studied with Pat enjoyed her methods of teaching and learned a lot from her techniques.

Pat was an active community member. She was on the CoPA (Committee on Public Art for the City of Grants Pass) and chair for a number of years. During her tenure, the committee really got a lot of things accomplished. She was on the Grants Pass Tree Advisory Committee and the Josephine County Cultural Coalition. She was a wonderful member of the Museum's Exhibition Department and we all benefitted from her amazing knowledge and insight. She curated a couple of exhibits and was always on point with the organization and lighting of the art.

On the home front, Pat and Kris were foster kitten raisers. Pat estimated that they had raised (and adopted out) over 80 kittens. Today, Kris has six of the cats. Three were "foster failures" and they decided to keep them. Three were others they raised. Kris says the cats miss Pat, but they are getting used to her absence.

Pat told Kris she absolutely did not want a funeral or a celebration of life. Nor did she want an obituary in the paper. BUT - so many people want to honor her friendship and their appreciate of Pat. So, here's what we are going to do.

Please write a story of any length about your interaction with Pat. You can then put the stories in the mail to the Museum's PO Box or email them to me. If emailed, I will print them out and compile them for Kris. In this way, we can weave a quilt of caring about Pat for Kris.

Mail to

Grants Pass Museum of Art, P.O. Box 966, Grants Pass, OR 97528

OR email: [email protected]

Barb Hochberg

~February 1, 2024~

Barb was born on the East Coast and lived in a few other places before landing in Grants Pass. Once here she began working for Fire Mountain Gems and was there for 22 years before she retired two weeks before she passed away. She also worked part time for Lisa Berger who is an acupuncture therapist.

Barb was truly adored by so many people. She had a gift of humor and was able to join words together in amazing ways. If we ever needed a title for something, we asked Barb. She was a great listener and enjoyed the arts. She had season tickets to many of the cultural activities in Southern Oregon. She also loved shopping. Shoefly was one of her favorite haunts.

The home she purchased was filled with art. Every corner of every room had something wonderful. Her backyard was totally unique. In fact, it was on the museum's Art in the Garden tour and its title was the Ungarden Garden because there were almost no real plants. She had metal trees created by Janet Higgins and there were pottery birds everywhere created by Gwen Childs.

Her community involvement was amazing. She was on the CoPA committee for the city and coined the name Art in Motion for the art on the buses. She was also on the Tourism Committee which she chaired for a number of years. In fact, she was named the City's favorite volunteer by former Mayor Darren Fowler.

The list goes on: Board member for Women's Crisis Support Team and Barnstormers Theatre. On the steering committee for The Hearth (and was a storyteller as well four times since 2015). She participated on the committee for Art Along the Rogue since its inception, helped with Rcc's Firehouse Gallery's holiday Sawbucks to C Notes sale, and helped with Rogue Winterfest. She was a tutor for English as a second language. She was also on the Josephine County Cultural Coalition board.

For the museum: she was part of the Black, White, & the Blues committee, an Art in the Garden coordinator for years, and was a member of the Acquisition Committee. She helped dream up the idea for the museum's art films and coined the name "Sunday Afternoon at the Museum with Artists." Oh, and Barb was an amazing artist and always participated in the annual Membership Exhibit.

Barb's niece Karen (from San Diego) is helping to keep Barb's memory alive. To that end we are going to have a celebration of life at the museum. Here are the details - save the date of April 26 which would have been Barb's birthday. It will be sort of an open house and you can come and talk about Barb and share some memories. We will post more information in our Aril eNewsletter.

Click below to register for classes

Betty LaDuke was honored by President Rick Baily of SOU, along with Lawson Inada and Senora Chela Tapp Kocks. They were all instructors during the same time frame and influenced so many students.

What an honor to receive the President's Medal. It is Southern Oregon University's highest honor.

So many people seemed to have difficulties "finding" the museum, we decided to break through the wall between Gallery One and the museum lobby on the street level. Our wonderful contractor Ben Qual (Qual Construction) worked on the museum side to prepare everything so the Gallery didn't have to close at all. (The museum was closed for the holidays)

Finally the day came when Ben opened up the Gallery side. Immediately the museum lobby was brighter and seemed so much larger.

Thanks to the Four Way Community Foundation and the Carpenter Foundation for believing in us and supporting the Portal!

Virginia and her family donated all of Virginia's art to the museum following her passing in March of 2023. Virginia wanted to help the museum financially so we decided to sell her art in place of our normal first of the year fund raisers.

Prior to opening to the public, we had a reception for the family. Thirty five family members came. Some hadn't seen each other for 15 years! Here we see Richard Andrade, Virginia's husband of 40 years talking to one of our greeters, Cindy Van Dine.

This was a very joyful event.

We had flowers and food and wine and lots of great conversations.

Seeing the vast collection of Virginia's art was a thrill for all.

And now the art is on sale and you can own a gorgeous work of art by Virginia Andrade. Some and see - and buy. This sale replaces our normal fundraiser so it's important to help sustain the museum's operations and programs.

Second Friday - February 9

7pm - 9pm

Free

Read a poem, listen to poems, enjoy the company of fun people.

Optional theme for January:

The road to.....

Concerts are scheduled for most months in 2024.

Sunday, March 10 we celebrate St. Patricks day with a celtic group called Counter Current.

Thursday, April 18 is Rough & Tumble with Scott Tyler and Mallory Graham

Thursday, May 9 is Claude Bourbon from England

Thursday, July 25 is Rupert Wates from New York

Thursday, August 22 is Ted Ganger from Germany

Thursday, September 26 is Dana Cooper from Texas

Thursday, October 17 is Patrick Sampson Music from New York

and Thursday, November 14 is Chris Baron Music from Portland, Oregon

Tickets are available now on the website. CLICK HERE!

HELP US TO PROVIDE YOU WITH

CULTURAL EXPERIENCES

Over the last 44 years, the Museum has showcased art that connects us across time, geography, and cultural differences. We couldn’t fulfill our important mission without the generous support of our members and donors. Today, will you go above and beyond and make a gift to empower our vital work of connecting our community with the power of art?

You just never know what will inspire art.

In this video - we must raise a glass to make it work!