15 years and counting

Yesterday I went to the regular Thursday morning artist breakfast only to find that there was just one other artist in attendance. This is a rarity. for 15 years, give or take a few months, a group of mid-career Louisville artists have been meeting for breakfast every Thursday morning. What began as a group of 8 has included more than 50 artists through the years. Most weeks there are about 10 artists who show up between 8:45and 9:20am. while this has always been an open meeting the group has embraced the arrival of some artists and seemingly ignored others who dropped out after 2 or 3 visits.

All of this began when a fellow Louisville Visual Art Association Board member asked me to introduce her to some local artists. She was a senior level banker getting ready to retire and so she could concentrate on painting. She asked me to set up a lunch meting but I told her that, unlike 9-5 workers, no artist I knew would be willing to interrupt a studio day just to have lunch and just chat. I also told her that I often met artist friends for breakfast and thought that might work better. We each decided to invite an artist friend for breakfast the following week. That next week the 4 of us decided this might be a great way to keep in touch with artists since the only time we ever seemed to get together was during openings when there was no way to have any sort of serious discussion or exchange of information while standing around in  a crowd. We decided to each ask another artist to meet the following week at which time we collectively decided this was a very good idea indeed.

From this simple idea an institution was born. We began at one restaurant until their prices got so high that some people stopped coming for economic reasons. We then moved to a very small downtown diner where we took over their back room and terrorized their quirky 1950's style waitress for a couple of years. Their crowded condition and smoking policy drove us into suburbia for about 5 years until that restaurant/deli lost it's lease. We now meet at the edge of downtown in a lovely restaurant where we simply push another table together as the group enlarges from week to week. Once again we are on a first name basis with the waitress and have the gratitude of the owner for increasing his Thursday morning business.

The most interesting thing is how many of the artists from that first year still come several times each month. As some people have moved out of town others have moved in to fill their places yet there is still a core group of 8-10 who have continued from those beginning months. Most of us are in our late 50's to mid 60's now but several are over 75 and a few are in their 30's. Lots of experience to share . Lots of talent around 1 table. All in all, it's probably the best idea I ever had!! So being there with only 1 other person yesterday was a fluke that happens several times a year.Iit gave me a chance to really have a serious conversation with someone I knew only slightly and that was an amazingly enjoyable hour.