About
ACCI
History
of the Arts & Crafts Cooperative, Inc.
The Arts & Crafts Cooperative, Incorporated
(ACCI) was started by a small group of artists and craftsmen in the mid-1950s
and was incorporated in 1959. Originally, sales of arts and crafts were
held once or twice a year in the University Avenue Coop meeting room.
But in 1960, the Shattuck Avenue Cooperative opened and ACCI moved into
a nearby building at 1652 Shattuck, a building we still occupy, and, as
of 1976, own. It is located in the heart of North Berkeley surrounded
by world-renowned restaurants and high-end shops.
The handsome brick building, formerly a French laundry, has been extensively
remodeled and renovated over the years to provide a functional, well-lighted
space for displaying a wide range of work by member artists, including
ceramics, glass, jewelry, photography, textiles, sculpture, paintings
and other fine art. We have continued to attract first-rate member artists,
and the clientele has come to look upon ACCI as a place to find fresh,
unusual, distinctive work of the highest quality.
Originally an all-volunteer organization, ACCI now has a paid staff that
includes a gallery director, assistant to the director, and several part-time
sales and display staff. We still could not do what we do without the
thousands of volunteer hours that have been put in by hundreds of artist
members and community members over the years.
In joining ACCI, you become a member of the oldest arts and crafts cooperative
west of the Mississippi.
Mission
of Cooperative
The aim of the Coop is to offer the public a broad range of
Fine Art and Crafts of top quality and originality at attractive prices.
We provide our membership base with a retail outlet, for work which ranges
from Ceramics and Jewelry, Paintings, Photography, Sculpture, works in
Wood, Glass and Metal. We seek to create a sympathetic environment for
exploration of the Arts both for members and the community at large.
The
Staff
The
people at ACCI are obviously what make everything hum: the artists who
create the work and volunteer their hours, the staff who display and enthusiastically
sell work to customers (as well as being creative artists themselves),
and the Board who oversees all issues of business, finance, quality, and
policy. All are indispensable.
This section introduces you to the staff, explains the
makeup of the Board, and provides a list of member artists by category.
Lisah Horner, Gallery Director
Lisah received her degree from Ringling School of Art & Design in
Sarasota, FL. Her printmaking has been shown throughout the United States
and was featured in the Biennale Internazionale Dell'Arte Contemporanea,
in Florence, Italy as well as at the Schneider Museum of Art in Ashland,
Oregon.
Lisah is a former director of Artisans Gallery in Mill Valley and was
the founding Executive Director of the Alameda Art Center. She has been
interviewed by Stanford Magazine, as well as radio stations KPFA and KQED,
and was recently featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered.”
She has lectured and served on panels for the Berkeley Art Center, the
Fairfield Visual Arts Association, and RESOLVE. Lisah served on the board
of directors of the ACCI Gallery in Berkeley before becoming the gallery’s
executive director in October 2005. In her various positions as gallery
director, she has produced over 100 regional and national juried exhibitions.
Ken Whitaker: Assistant to the Director
A native Californian, Ken graduated with a BFA from the California Institute
of the Arts in Valencia, CA, where he designed his own curriculum in animation
and set design. He also began figurative sculpture work and studied under
master sculptor Bob Cunningham. He began his career as a model maker,
sculptor, and prop artist in the entertainment and theme park industry,
for companies that included Walt Disney Imagineering and Landmark Entertainment.
Some of the television and film projects he’s worked on include
Bump in the Night, Anaconda, Ants, and The Haunting. He also had the opportunity
to create some large-scale, fantastic creatures for projects that included
Children’s Fairy Land in Oakland. Ken makes his home in Richmond,
and his current creative passion is tile making, which he works on in
his Oakland studio.
Dina Gewing: Display, Sales, and Customer/Member Service
Dina was born and raised in the Berkeley-Oakland area and began potting
in the Studio One summer art camp at the age of eight. She went on to
study production pottery with Al Johnsen at the University of California
at Santa Cruz and then transferred to Alfred New York State School of
Ceramics. At Alfred she studied clay and glaze chemistry, kiln design,
and a new “way of seeing.” She also graduated from the California
Culinary Academy and now combines a love of cooking with a love of making
teapots and other ware related to food.
For Dina, her ceramic pots are a figurative work: bellies filled with
sidesplitting laughter, adorned with the finest of jewelry, and topped
with a decorative hat, ready for a party. Says Dina, “I put a little
bit of my soul into each pot, the metaphorical grain of sand in an oyster
that over time turns into a pearl.” Dina is a member of ACCI and
the Berkeley Potters Guild, as well as an exhibiting member of the ACGA.
Elisabeth Arena: Sales and Customer/Member Service
Elisabeth is originally from the Northeast.
She has a Master of Fine Arts degree and has attended Tufts University
and the School of the Museum of Fine arts in Boston, Radford University
in Virginia, and Studio Art Centers International (SACI) in Florence,
Italy. In addition to working at ACCI, she paints in gouach and works
as a potter and art instructor.
The
Board
The ACCI
Board of Directors is made up of member artists and others
who have a strong background in business and/or finance. Currently there
are 7 members: Kirk McCarthy, President; Tedi Siminowsky, Vice President;
Ken Potter, Secretary; members at large Carol Goldman, Dobee Snowber,
and Rich Hausman; and Lisah Horner (Ex Officio). Short bios of most Board
members are provided on the ACCI website.
Selection
and Jury
In order to maintain standards of excellence
and originality in what is exhibited and sold, all work--both from current,
and prospective Art coop members--must be submitted to the appropriate
jury of peers for review. All accepted work must be suitable for display
or hanging and no work will be offered for sale until the artist is an
active, share holding member of the Berkeley Art Coop. The Coop retains
a percentage of the sales price on all items, as its commission.
Volunteers
Our arts cooperative could not succeed without the generous volunteer
help of its members. The active volunteer also benefits by getting to
know ACCI staff and fellow artists, gaining or honing skills in display,
marketing, and sale of artwork, and knowing they’re contributing
to the success of the cooperative.
Each artist agrees, as part of his or her membership, to contribute 20
hours of volunteer time per (calendar) year, or opt to pay a $300 fee
in lieu of working those hours, or to work half the hours and pay for
half the hours.
Ways to Volunteer
In the past, people have brought a broad range of skills
to bear on promoting ACCI to the public or sharing creative ideas with
other artists. Members have mounted evenings of poetry reading, flamenco
dancing, children’s art classes, talks on the psychology of the
creative process, and workshops in many mediums. Others have brought skills
related to banking, promotion, video expertise, bookkeeping, writing and
editing, and just plain muscle.
The gallery has many needs and we know you have many skills. Look over
the ideas below and see where you might like to contribute. Or let us
know if you could help in ways we haven’t thought of yet:
· Help put up and take down monthly shows (rearrange
inventory, move display pedestals/walls, paint walls, create signage,
etc.)
· Provide temporary gallery staffing, front sales counter
· Put on a workshop or demonstration
· Participate in juries
· Enter data on the office computer
· Do general gallery maintenance |
