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The Philadelphia Sketch Club's
Capital Campaign


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"Portrait of a Dream"

Mission Statement

The New Spirit of Art

"Art," it has been said, "is something we can live without. But without which life is not worth living." But where does this "art" come from? All those drawings, paintings, photographs, prints, and illustrations, all that architecture, sculpture, jewelry, furniture, fabrics, calligraphy, and other wonderful things that vary and enrich our lives?

Art, and the techniques for making it, are created and handed down from generation to generation by men and women who take it upon themselves to teach and encourage others to become artists. Every artist working today, amateur and professional alike, owes a debt of gratitude to those who have gone before. The Philadelphia Sketch Club, founded in 1860, represents a vital link between the splendid past of American art and its future in the Philadelphia community. This unique organization and its historic building, supported almost entirely by its membership, has served the public continuously as an arts center, museum, and educational and historical resource since shortly before Abraham Lincoln assumed the presidency. Hundreds of artists, including some of the most famous names in American painting, sculpture, and illustration, and thousands of teachers, students, and art lovers have found the Sketch Club a common ground for self-expression, innovation, and achievement in art.

Today, the Sketch Club is poised to renew its mission through a capital campaign aimed at restoring and improving its historic home, strengthening its membership and financial base, forging stronger bonds with the community, and intensifying and broadening its traditional educational activities.

The total "Sketch Club experience," which embraces warm social exchange and camaraderie, community service, and artistic growth and development is unlike that offered by any other arts group. The Sketch Club brings the knowledge and practice of fine art directly to its members and students, offering them hands-on experience and bringing them face-to-face with those who not only understand art well, but devote their lives to its practice. Securing the Club's future represents an important goal for all those concerned, empowering and encouraging new young artists and preserving an artistic legacy that is part of the history and character of the City of Philadelphia.

A vibrant new art spirit is in the air at the Philadelphia Sketch Club, a spirit of dedication, determination, and renewal. We invite you to become part of this exciting time by supporting the Preservation Trust Campaign. This document highlights the Philadelphia Sketch Club's vision for its future. Somewhere in the goals described below is a rewarding opportunity for you to help revitalize a cultural resource and fine arts organization unique in America's history.

Preserving a Heritage

Tucked away at 235 South Camac Street on Philadelphia's charming "Little Street of Clubs," the Philadelphia Sketch Club brings life and energy to that part of Center City where the residential community meets the business and professional worlds. Its presence there, for all but a few years of this volatile century, contributes to the stability, security, and value of the neighborhood. In many ways, the Sketch Club embodies the fierce independence and sense of responsibility to the home, the community, and the city so characteristic of Philadelphians, both native and adopted. Even as many of its neighbors fled from the challenge and change all major cities have faced in the past few decades, the Sketch Club stayed put, carrying on business as usual.

Within shouting distance of Philadelphia's proposed new "Avenue of the Arts," the Club is well positioned both physically and intellectually to play a role in strengthening the Center City arts scene during the twenty-first century. It would like nothing better than to see its lights burning night and day once again as artists and patrons revel in the enthusiasm and esprit de corps the Sketch Club evokes from all who pass through its doors. In the exciting environment of a creative arts explosion unparalleled in Philadelphia's history, young painters, sculptors, and other artists need low-cost, high-touch environments to pursue professional and artistic growth. They need to meet and work with experienced artists. They need a place to exhibit the works they create. Motivating and encouraging such future artists and art teachers by supplying them with these opportunities remains central to the Sketch Club's mission.

But time and circumstance affect even the hardiest organizations. Most pressing among all the Club's challenges, if it is to seize the day, is preserving the Club's historically certified building and grounds and safeguarding the contents of its art collections, library, and archives. These last have already been acknowledged as an important part of America's cultural heritage. No less an authority than the Smithsonian Institution has microfilmed a major portion of the Club's archives for the "Archives of American Art," and made this material available at library centers throughout the United States.

Before it can address other goals and issues, the Sketch Club must first deal with serious challenges to its structural integrity both within and without the walls.

Built from 1822 to 1828, the Club's "clubhouse" has major problems which include

Needed too, are new lighting for the main gallery and improved access for physically challenged artists and visitors. Once these major problems are resolved, the Club hopes to restore as much of the building's interior as possible to its original condition by replastering walls and ceilings, refinishing old moldings, restoring mantelpieces and fireplaces, and refinishing all floors and woodwork in general. Also targeted are redesigned storage space, new security systems, and renovation of the restrooms, kitchen, and meeting and activity rooms.

The Philadelphia Sketch Club's mission has always been in the interest of others. All its classes, exhibitions, and lectures have been and are for the benefit and edification of the public. And the Club is proud that its membership voluntarily donates thousands of hours each year to maintain these programs and keep the facilities operational and in good repair. In the past few years, membership contributions totaling $12,768 were used to rebuild the collapsed nine-foot garden wall and a chimney just about to fall. A second chimney was also relined. In fact, The Preservation Trust, started by members on their own initiative and with their own funds, is intended to sustain and preserve the Club for the future community. An internal fund drive, seeking nearly $10,000, was started for this purpose. As a result, more than $5,000 was raised almost immediately to sand and refinish the floor of the gallery.

However, launching the full-scale restoration effort needed to meet the Sketch Club's goals for the next century is clearly beyond all practical financial means, even for an organization which has prided itself on sustaining its mission largely through the dues and individual generosity of its membership for more than 135 years.

The importance of saving the building can not be understated. In many ways, the Sketch Club is the building. A powerful synergy exists between the Club's membership and its home that could never be realized under other circumstances.

Gifts of spendable funds totaling at least $125,000 are sought for this purpose.

A Foundation for the Future

 As times change, the Philadelphia Sketch Club is learning to change with them. Once able to meet its fiscal responsibilities solely through the dues of its members, class enrollments, sales from exhibitions, and fund-raising events held during the year, the Club now realizes that new sources of support, including amassing additional endowment, must be found to meet urgent preservation needs, respond to new opportunities in the visual arts, and insure growth and development in a culturally diverse urban society. In 1992, to raise funds the Club was forced to part with its collection of rare letters written and signed by Thomas Eakins. To prevent anything like this from happening again, development has been made a permanent function of the Club's Board of Directors. Both increased volunteer activity and professional fund-raising advice are being sought to channel the Club's efforts in the right direction. Some success has already resulted from these changes. In recent years, the Sketch Club has secured grants from the Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation, Texaco Corporation, and the Philadelphia Historic Preservation Corporation. New grant requests continue to be submitted to arts-oriented corporations, foundations, and individuals, including the new Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance.

Responding to Community Needs

A physically restored, financially sound Sketch Club affords many long-term advantages to Philadelphia. It will assure a more inviting look to its historic street and neighborhood, it will continue to serve as an important art history resource for both local and national experts, and it will allow persons from every kind of background to meet together to discuss art and to study studio painting, print making, drawing and other subjects within walking distance of their homes or businesses. The Sketch Club's exhibitions, always free to the public, also afford an opportunity for social and cultural exchanges. The Club's reputation and location alone no longer suffice to attract new members and students. Many persons living, working, and studying nearby are unaware of the opportunities that exist for them just around the corner. Therefore, marketing and publicity efforts are being planned to increase Club membership, broaden the audience for its exhibitions and educational programs, and serve center city residential populations more effectively. Carrying out these plans, which include "open house" days, direct mail solicitations, distribution of newsletters, flyers, and brochures, and greater involvement with other clubs, area businesses, community organizations, and the National Park Service, City, and School District will also require higher levels of nontraditional support.

One of the Sketch Club's community goals for the future is to make the deans of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the University of the Arts, and the president of Washington Square West adjunct members of the Sketch Club's Board of Directors. This move alone should help to create a larger membership pool among students and teachers at these institutions and keep the club in tune with community objectives. To forge stronger ties with City government, the Club is considering offering honorary membership to the mayor.

Another goal is to become an umbrella organization for visual arts organizations who have no permanent home of their own for meetings and exhibitions. This not only holds the potential for increased revenues from rentals, but could lead to a substantial increase in Club members and "enrich" the membership through greater diversity of sex, age, ethnic, and cultural viewpoints.

The Sketch Club also hopes to tie its programs, activities, and social events more closely with those of neighboring organizations on the street such as the Charlotte Cushman Club (originally an actress hostel), the Plastic Club (originally women artists), and the Franklin Club (writers and publishers). It also hopes to reach out to Thomas Jefferson University (home of The Gross Clinic, Thomas Eakins's most famous work) and the Pennsylvania Historical Society (The Club's archives, dating from 1860, are available to art historians, scholars, and the general public).

To achieve these aims, at least $25,000 in gifts, grants, and bequests, is being sought for expanded marketing, publicity, and advertising efforts over the next three to five years.

Expanding and Upgrading Educational Programs

The Sketch Club's original purpose, to take part in drawing and painting as a member of a group, is reflected in one of its most important primary activities. A weekly schedule of low-cost life and costume modeling workshops, held in the gallery on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, lets artists work in the medium of their choice and proceed at their own pace. It is not unusual to see men and women working in media ranging from pencil and pastel to watercolors and oils. The Club also offers a printmaking workshop. At least 250 workshops in all are held each year. The Sketch Club hopes to provide opportunities in other media, for example, workshops in photography or sculpture.

To improve instruction and provide more challenging opportunities for advanced artists, the Club plans to introduce a series of "master classes" in various media and featuring leading nationally known artists as instructors. The Club hopes to draw on the support of its own membership, many of whom are professional artists with national reputations to institute this series. It also hopes to attract the participation of faculty members from such schools as the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the University of the Arts, the Moore College of Art and Design, and other teaching institutions. Master classes will provide additional revenues to the Sketch Club and give it a higher profile in the arts community.

The Sketch Club's complementary art education effort, one of its most successful activities, is it's exhibitions held from September to June in the Gallery. These exhibitions include the work of members, art school and high school students, and local artists. Some are juried shows, offering prizes to successful competitors. Others are invitational events, intended to give beginning or nonprofessional artists the opportunity to display their works. The eight shows currently offered free to the public include the pastel show, the print show, the workshops show, the photography show, the members show, the student show (for area high school artists), the prestigious small oils show, held annually since 1865, which bestows the famous Sketch Club Medal, designed by R. Tait McKenzie, on the winner, and the John Geiszel watercolor show, one of the area's premier watercolor competitions with works by Philadelphia's leading practitioners of this demanding art. The student shows, held to encourage young artists, draw exhibitors from the area's art school undergraduates and city and suburban high schools. This is one of the few shows open to such young artists.

Monthly meetings also offer lectures and demonstrations by experts in arts ranging from calligraphy and political cartooning to mold making, miniature sculpture, and iron work techniques. Guest speakers traditionally speak without honoraria.

To secure the future of its life classes and workshops, to attract the highest caliber of instructors for its master classes, and to establish a fund to provide a small honorarium and cover travel and lodging expenses for guest speakers in the future, the Sketch Club seeks spendable or endowment funds totaling $25,000.

A New Beginning for Art in Philadelphia

American art continues to gain new respect all around the world. One of the most popular traveling exhibits a few years ago was the Thomas Eakins retrospective seen in such cities as Boston, Washington, D.C., and Paris. The National Portrait Gallery in London also held a big Eakins show. Other shows, such as recent ones on the West in American Art, American impressionist painters, and American illustrators and illustration in Washington, New York, and London all featured Philadelphia artists whose names are closely affiliated with the Sketch Club-Thomas Moran, Edward Redfield, and N.C. Wyeth, for instance. Modern-day members continue to win prestigious awards from such prominent art groups as the American Watercolor Society and the National Academy of Design. Many Sketch Club artists have been the subject of articles in popular art magazines such as American Artist and The Artist. The Sketch Club itself also often appears in local newspapers as a "leading character" on the Philadelphia art scene.

Now, with the establishment of the "Avenue of the Arts" along south Broad Street, the city is poised once again to become a national force in the visual and performing arts. The Sketch Club offers all of us the opportunity to forge a living link among past, present, and future art movements and to bring together people and organizations dedicated to advancing the arts. In reaching out to the public and encouraging groups and individuals to meet, to exchange ideas, and to achieve excellence in the arts together, The Philadelphia Sketch Club can contribute significantly to the new celebration of art in Philadelphia.

Although defining what is and what is not art will always draw a crowd, artists everywhere agree on one thing. Art is the only way we have to express the inexpressible. Art fulfills a basic need in all of us, and its language is universal.

With your help, The Philadelphia Sketch Club can add the final brushstrokes to its vision for the future and complete the portrait of its dream: to continue its work as an accessible and vital agency of this beautiful and lasting need that brings us all together.

Gift Opportunities 

The Sketch Club's aims span a range of opportunities for persons and organizations wishing to take part in The Preservation Trust Campaign. They include

Below is a list of specific opportunities to secure the future of the Philadelphia Sketch Club and advance its mission for your consideration. Gifts ranging from $250 to $25,000 are sought.

Renovations

Restoration

Exhibitions

Communications

General Support

How You Can Make Your Gift

Corporate and Foundation gifts to nonprofit organizations are defined by state and federal law. Individuals have a number of options. These include

Cash gifts

  Unrestricted cash gifts are the easiest, most effective gifts to make. Donors have the double satisfaction of gaining a direct tax benefit and seeing their gift go right to work. They are also most useful to the Sketch Club because they allow the Board of Directors to apply them immediately to areas of greatest need or opportunity.

Securities

  Stocks and bonds can be donated too. Appreciated securities should have been held by the donor for more than one year at the time of the gift. For tax purposes they can be deducted at fair market value and without capital gains tax on unrealized appreciation. Securities held less than one year may be deducted at cost.

Real Property

  Land or buildings may be donated to the Sketch Club. Real property gifts must be held more than one year by the owner at the time of the gift. Such gifts usually may be deducted at fair market value. There is no capital gains tax on unrealized appreciation. Property owned less than one year is deductible at cost.

Life Insurance

  Naming the Sketch Club as owner and irrevocable beneficiary of a life insurance policy will let the donor make a large gift that might not otherwise be possible. Premium payments are deductible. Existing policies may also be donated and a deduction taken for approximately the cash surrender value.

Bequests

  You can remember the Sketch Club in your will and direct the gift toward a purpose of your own choosing. Unrestricted bequests, however, are often more useful and effective in the long term.

Matching Gifts

  Double the value of your donation. Some employers will match all or part of a gift made by an employee to a nonprofit charitable organization. Check with your company's Human Resources or Personnel Office.

The Philadelphia Sketch Club is a tax-exempt nonprofit organization as defined under section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Service Code. Gifts to the Sketch Club are eligible for deductions as a charitable contribution to the extent that no consideration is received as set forth in the guidelines of Revenue Ruling 67-246. In all cases, persons or organizations making gifts to the Sketch Club should consult with their attorneys or financial advisors before acting.

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The Philadelphia Sketch Club, 235 S. Camac St. (between 12th & 13th, Locust & Spruce Sts)
is located in Center City Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA. 215-545-9298.

Copyright ©1998-2007 The Philadelphia Sketch Club All rights reserved.
www.sketchclub.org/grants/index.html Last modified November 5, 2001.
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