Last day of Spring Term

On Wednesday 30th March, the last day of our Spring term, a presentation was made to Billy Russell recognising his work for the club.  Roy Naylor explained how some years ago he took over the position of Deputy Honorary Treasurer which ensured he was at Committee and became aware of the fact that some members could neither see nor hear the Artist when a demonstration took place.  Billy invited Roy to accompany him when he purchased a camera and camcorder, sound system and in due course a data projector. Billy videoed the demonstrations which were projected live on to a screen and everyone was able to both see and hear the artist.  But Billy didn’t stop there: he transferred the videos on to DVDs and members were enabled, through the treasurer, to purchase a copy for their own use. ​

Every significant Vis Art event was photographed and the results logged in albums. These albums are a great resource for the club as our membership changes with time and for a walk down memory lane. Roy thanked Billy for all he has done for the club.
In reply, Billy commented although not as active as before he still enjoys the company and comraderie he finds at Vis Art and thanked Barbara for her work in keeping the club vibrant.
Barbara Morrison then presented Billy with a glass plaque engraved with the words:   
“In recognition of your friendship and generosity to members of Vis Art, in pioneering the creation and archiving of Audio-Visual records.”  She added that we still use the equipment Billy sourced for us more than 10 years ago as it is of such high quality; but now the video is uploaded to YouTube and members can watch at their leisure.
 
Maria Hunter explained how Billy still has a well-catalogued store of videos and that these have been digitised, and uploaded to our website (www.ballymenavisart.com) for members to view.  However, should anyone wish to use the DVD format then a video library has been in operation for many years. Proceedings were closed when Billy was presented with a card congratulating him and his wife Evelyn on their Diamond Wedding Anniversary which took place on the 19th March.
Bobby Carson also had a significant birthday and a congratulatory card was presented by Barbara.  Bobby thanked us saying that he had one every year and just wished this one was for forty or fifty years less.  We hope to celebrate many more of  Bobby's birthdays in the future.
Our “end of year” exhibition of Paintings is presently in the Pop-Up Shop in the Tower Centre in Ballymena and remains open until Saturday 9th April, so take the opportunity to see and enjoy what we do and perhaps purchase a unique gift for a loved one or yourself.
Until we resume our weekly meetings at the Golf Club in September we will be painting en plein air, a list of dates and venues will be published in the web site over  Easter.