A Message from Luis Purón, Executive Director

Dear Patron for the Arts,

It has been a terrific summer in Rockport!  The summer exhibits featuring Jeffrey Neel McDaniel and former Art Festival Master Artists celebrated our artistic legacy with aplomb.  Last week we had a terrific closing reception for both exhibitions and it was very well attended. 

 Next up is our final exhibit before we move out of the beautiful Baker Law building at the end of September.  Elena has curated a fantastic show featuring the exciting work of Nigerian born artist, Austin Uzor.   

The first blockbuster show in the new building will be Birds in Art, which is traveling to us from the prestigious Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin.  That show opens in January 2023 and closes in March.  You will want to make sure you keep your membership active so you can take part in special activities we will be offering for members only.

We will spend the final quarter of the year preparing for the future, looking at how we can improve our existing programs and launch new ones.  The performing, media, culinary and literary arts has always been part of our charter.  Now we will have space dedicated for these activities.

Until we receive a Certificate of Occupancy from our partner, the City of Rockport, we will continue to operate out of Market Center building owned by Albert Johnson.  Once we are ready to move, we will be having a huge garage sale of all existing furniture and equipment we have in our rental spaces.  More on that as it develops!  Funds from that sale will benefit the furniture, fixtures and equipment budget of our capital project.

In June we completed strategic brand positioning work for the Rockport Conference Center (The ROCC).  We hired Jeff Hunt and his team of creatives at Legend Labs in Austin, Texas.  Their work involved creating a new logo for this new brand, developing a marketing plan and suggesting improvements to the website- The-Rocc.com.  In August and September, we will be collaborating with Legend Labs again to create collateral marketing materials. 

 In the past seven years, we have taken thousands of small steps to get to this point.  And I’m not going to lie to you, there have been many pitfalls.  Despite them, your support has gotten us to this point.  For that I am forever thankful. 

Yours truly,

Luis Purón