From the Queens Chronicle by Paula Neudorf:
The Jackson Heights Art Club is struggling to stay afloat, while two other similar art clubs in Queens have closed in the last two years, according to Rob Lesser, the club’s membership coordinator.
The Alliance of Queens Artists and the Flushing Art League of Queens both shut down over financial concerns, Lesser said.
“The money has come down to a dribble lately,” Lesser said of the organization, which has been providing the area with art classes and events for the last 64 years.
The club pays for its art teachers and the rent at St. Mark’s Church in Jackson Heights through a combination of membership dues, class fees and some City Council funding. But it’s bringing in less than half the money it had two years ago, Lesser said.
“I’m a big supporter of the Jackson Heights Art Club,” said Councilman Danny Dromm (D-Jackson Heights), who devoted $3,500 of his discretionary “member item” funds to the club last year, and did so again this year.
At present, the club has 87 members, according to Geraldine Benfante, a volunteer at the club who also oversees membership. One of the biggest difficulties facing the club is that many of its members are getting older.
“I have members that don’t even attend the club,” she said.
This coming fall, the club will try to offer an art class nearly every day of the week, including mixed media classes on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays; a watercolor evening course on Monday; and an oil and acrylic course on Tuesday.
Members of the club pay a $75 annual fee, which entitles them to pay less for classes. Any adult or child, regardless of membership status, can take classes at the club, Lesser said.
Lesser invited former members of the Alliance of Queens Artists and Flushing Art League of Queens to consider joining the Jackson Heights Art Club.
Yvonne Sumner, who has been a member of the club since 1992, hoped the club would weather this storm as it’s weathered others. Sumner, now in her 70s, moved to Jackson Heights from England in 1963.
“We’d really like to keep them going as long as we can,” she said.
To find out more about the club, call Benfante at (718) 446-4709 or visit jacksonheightsartclub.org.
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