I am pleased to report to you a great deal of very exciting news about the Art League in West Hartford. As we enter our Seventieth Anniversary year we are bigger, stronger and more successful today in our mission to educate, entertain and enlighten our member communities, than we have been at any time in our history. Every stage of our progress has been an exciting point, from our founding by Gertrude Hough Patterson and Rebecca Field Jones in 1934, to our important acquisition of the historic buildings that now comprise our campus, to our growth sufficient to have a managing director.

I believe this is again one of our most exciting times, and I’m delighted to be here helping that development to our next stage. Right now we are finishing our spring season with the beautiful Student Show hanging as the backdrop to our dinner. We have presented our annual Pollack scholarship to an outstanding student artist Jennifer Kalisz, from Bristol. We are in the midst of our broadest range of art class offerings in some time, ranging across drawing, watercolor, landscape painting, collage, pastel and pottery. Membership has grown more than 6%. We recently completed the fifth new successful Master Artist workshop, whose faculty has included nationally known artists: Zbigniew Grzyb, Chet Kempcynski, Cary Smith, Frank Federico, and Jonathan Talbot. In a few weeks we will start our third year of offering our arts summer camp, which has not only been enthusiastically accepted by area families, but has grown each year and with it has grown our financial resources as this is one of our most successful programs ever.

Those financial resources have derived not only from our successful programs, but also our recognition by an increasing number of charitable organizations as being worthy of support, as we take our place amongst the established arts scene in Connecticut. We have in this fiscal year received significant support from The Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation, The Hartford Courant Foundation, The Ensworth Charitable Foundation, and the Greater Hartford Arts Council, totaling grants in the amount of $22,000. As gratifying has been our support from you - our members, our steady participants, students and patrons. I am pleased to report that as of this time we have raised more than $6,500 in our annual and special funds campaign, a 10% increase over last year.

With these increased resources we have during this year addressed some much needed infrastructure improvements. We have new heating systems in both our Saltbox and Clubhouse gallery buildings. We have painted the Saltbox, added electrical capacity in our Schoolhouse instructional building and are about to commence improvements in handicapped accessibility and improving gallery lighting. We are very excited that we have been able to introduce an entirely new program for us, with our substantial commitment to pottery classes, by acquiring six wheels and a kiln in our Schoolhouse. We invite you all to come visit and see any of our classes in action.

Far from being all students, teachers and building maintainers, however, we have also managed to have some fun this year. We had a very successful joint event with the Alliance Française in the fall, celebrating the Beaujolais Nouveau season with a sell-out group of one hundred fifty friends. We have had a wonderful series of opening events, thanks to our dedicated volunteers. And tonight, June 7, 2003 we are celebrating those volunteers and many other special individuals who have all made the Art League what it is at "The Art League Celebrates."

Robert A. Firger, President
West Hartford Art League, Inc.
June 7, 2003
Presented at the Annual Meeting and distributed at the Gala

Irving Kahn has always loved art.

In his native Germany and first years in the United States, he often sketched – landscapes and abstracts – but never had formal study. That changed in 1959, when Irving Kahn discovered the West Hartford Art League. He took classes from noted artist Irving Katzenstein, but eventually became more administrator and art champion than artist.

In 1976, Bernard Vinick took on the task of converting the Woodruff-Allen House into the Saltbox. Irving became his eager pupil and wanted to learn "the trade." An ongoing lack of classrooms continued to constrain the growth of the Art League, and Irving set out to solve the problem.

In 1986, the Town of West Hartford was caretaker of property from the defunct Buena Vista Golf Club: a simple golf shed – a shelter only, with no walls. Irving questioned the Town’s Recreation Department about plans for the structure. Eventually the shed and the adjoining land were acquired under a $1 per year lease for an indefinite period, as long as the structures were used for art and its promotion.

Irving got to work. He made a list of local foundations and potential donor companies, and began calling upon them for funding. Eventually, $250,000 was raised for remodeling. The shed was completely transformed into the Clubhouse Gallery we know today, the only thing remaining from its Buena Vista Golf Club days being the floor. (If you look closely, you can still see the tiny holes left by the golfers’ spikes!) This new building was to be a multiple-use facility – an art gallery, a gathering place and classroom space. Movable walls and rolling panels – ideas Irving had seen in a museum – contributed to the versatility.

Irving Kahn’s dream was a definite success, and today, 17 years after its conversion from a shed, the Clubhouse Gallery remains a vital part of the success of the West Hartford Art League.

Irving is quick to point out that he was not the only individual instrumental in the transformation. He may have headed the effort, but the members of the organization really made it happen. Their funds (contributions of any amount were accepted), suggestions, and support of the idea were truly the driving forces. Irving is most proud of the fact that it was this "joint effort" that made the Clubhouse Gallery possible.

The West Hartford Art League has reached its goal of becoming a regional center for the arts, in large part because of the work of Irving Kahn. Today, he is retired from The Kahn Companies, which he founded in 1945, but still finds time to be active in the Art League and other organizations. He is a Life Member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, is a member of the Farmington Toastmasters Club and is a member of Congregation Tikvoh Chadoshoh in Bloomfield.

Irving and his wife Margaret were married in 1946, and are the parents of Jeffrey, Peter and David. They have four grandchildren.

Congratulations, Irving, and many thanks from the West Hartford Art League!

-- Debra Welch Grehn --