Local sculptor Tom Driscoll has supported ICE Gallery since the beginning and we are very excited to return the favor. We are extremely proud and honored to have Tom’s work be a part of our last exhibition. We hope you will attend. Friday, December 7th, 6pm – 9pm.
Here are some examples of Tom’s work.
Photo by Kinsee Morlan
The reason we never fixed the roof:
Once all of our donations were collected the next step was to contact the property management and talk to them about drafting a new lease agreement. We wanted it in writing that if we spent the time and money to fix the roof that they wouldn’t raise our rent or evict us prematurely. We never got the opportunity to talk to the property manager. He dodged us for weeks. Weeks turned into months. We had been trying since spring to get a hold of the guy. We just recently gave up.
What killed ICE? What now?:
We got information a couple weeks ago that a local architect was buying the property, the whole block in fact, and had plans to demolish the building in order to build new housing and shopping. We found this out not from the owner of our building but through mutual friends of the architect. We still had yet to hear from the owner. Through yet another friend who used to work for the architect we found out that the plans for demo weren’t going to be implemented for at least a few months. So we scrapped all plans to fix the building (obviously) and decided we’d temporarily patch the roof and try to have at least a couple more shows before it all ended. We finally heard from the owner this week. Our eviction notice came via their lawyers. We have to be out by January 1st.
The good news:
As far as ICE goes, well, it’s dead. If there’s no old ice factory then what’s the point in calling it ICE Gallery? However, the ICE gang has been offered a new space in a very interesting art and design building that will open next year. We’re so excited! So plan on seeing more activity from us in the months to come. We’ll keep you in the loop as more details are solidified. In addition, we’re planning on having one more opening before January 1st. We’re very happy that our good friend Tom Driscoll is planning on doing a site specific installation before fate deals it’s final blow.
Barring any further unforeseen circumstances, the opening for Tom Driscoll’s show will be Friday December 7th – details to come. We can’t wait to see what Tom comes up with!
We are so very grateful to everyone that came out to the openings and to all who showed interest in what we do.
A special thanks to those who donated to the “Save ICE Gallery” fund earlier this year:
Philipp Scholz Ritterman, Pamela Putian, Edith Baumann, Joan & Reuben Baron, Amanda Durbin, Mathew Simms, Harmony Murphy, Naomi Tarle, Marissa Feliciano, DJ Mane One, Jenna Jacobs, Juan Villescas, Paul Roberts, Kinsee Morlan, Ben Strauss-Malcolm, Christina Hendershaw, Therese James Chung, Jeannie Armstrong, Sarah Trujillo-Porter, Alex Calderon, Jon Hall, Seth Combs, Mara De Luca
If we somehow forgot your name (we hope not!), let us know.
THANKS AGAIN EVERYONE!
Don’t worry, we’re not going anywhere. We’ve got big plans for 2013. 😉
Well, we’re still gearing up to replace the roof but it’s been a slow process. Our fundraiser late last year was just short of being a failure. However, thanks to 23 very gracious individuals, we did obtain about $2700 which we are still sitting on. The next step is to find a roofer/contractor who can give us some free step by step advice on how to do the job ourselves (anybody know one?). We don’t even know if it’s going to be possible with only $3000, but what other choice is there? Such is life. We’re still going to try our hardest.
On a brighter note, when we do finally get ICE back on it’s feet (hopefully by the fall) one of our first orders of business will be to have an exhibition with local artist Tom Driscoll.
In the past, ICE has been solely at the disposal of the 4 guys involved (and we’re still not going to be taking submissions or anything like that) – but when our buddy Tom Driscoll invited us to see his studio, we were all so impressed that we knew we wanted to show his work (he also got extra points for being the only local artist to come to every opening at ICE, usually accompanied by another great San Diego artist, Richard Allen Morris). Tom is a highly under appreciated artist that has been making art in San Diego for many years (he even used to have a studio right across the street from ICE!) We know Tom will do something great with our space, but until that time please enjoy some photos we took during our visit to Toms studio (the slideshow can be viewed full screen):
Even though ICE is in hibernation (soon to awaken by summer we hope), the ICE gang has been active. You can see one such example this Thursday, the 15th of March, by visiting an exhibition of new works by Lee Lavy at the San Diego State University Fine Arts Department in room 418C. We’ll be there from 5pm – 9pm and we hope to see you there as well.
WE DIDN’T MEET OUR GOAL BY THE DEADLINE BUT WE CAN STILL USE YOUR HELP. PLEASE KEEP READING FOR MORE INFO.
If you’ve been following our progress through the USA Projects site you may already know that we did not meet our fundraising goal by the deadline. One of the stipulations of posting a project on USA is that you must reach your goal by the deadline or you won’t receive any of the pledged funds. However, before the deadline we were able to raise $4085 thanks to the generosity of 36 individuals. That’s pretty good! In addition to that $4085, another individual has promised a substantial pledge. So combined with what’s already been pledged, plus the funds we already have, the ICE fund could potentially have over $6000. That’s where you come in. Even though it’s less than our original fundraising goal, we feel like $6000 is too much money to give up, but we need your help
Your task is simple. Our USA fundraiser is over, but we’re asking you to still pledge to the cause. However, instead of doing it through USA we’re asking you to send us your pledge via a check or PayPal. Checks are preferable due to PayPal taking 3%, but for those of you donating via credit card, PayPal would be just fine (if you’d prefer to use PayPal, we’ll send information on how to do that). We realize a check is a few extra steps for you, what with the actual writing and mailing, but if need be we’ll even send you a self addressed stamped envelope. 🙂 Plus we are still offering one of a kind pieces of art from Michael, Lee, and Tom in exchange for your pledge. You actually get something in return for your philanthropy!
We are determined to keep our space any way we can, but we can’t do it without your help. Please email icegallerysd@gmail.com if you would like to pledge and tell us how you would like to send it (check or PayPal. or for those in town we can come and pick it up from you). Remember, if everyone who already pledged keeps their commitment we’ll end up with over $6000. Plus there’s time for people that didn’t pledge during the fundraiser to still do so. We’re incredibly anxious to get our space fixed so that we can go back to making bigger and better installations this year.
We look forward to hearing from you,
Michael, Thomas, Joseph, Lee
For those of you who thought we were out of our mind to try and raise $20,000 in 30 days (us included), we’ve got a new, possibly more attainable goal. USA Projects has lowered our fundraising goal to $12,000 and extended our deadline to January 7th (our original end date was 12/30). That’s good news because the lowered fundraising amount automatically put us at 26% of our goal. That means that we now qualify for the Artist2Artist Fund which allows us to receive 1 to 1 match funding for up to $1000. So, the next $1,000 we raise means we’re actually getting $2,000 (that would give us a jump to 42% of our goal).
Thanks to 25 very kind individuals we’ve raised over $3,000. If we can just get another 75 people to pledge in the same manner we’ll make it to our goal. Considering there are 4 of us trying to raise that money, 100 donors doesn’t seem that unattainable.
We’d also like to remind people that pledging a donation isn’t an entirely one sided gesture. We’re offering some great “perks” in exchange for your kindness. Some of which include one of a kind drawings by Michael James Armstrong, limited edition wood block prints by Lee Lavy, and one of a kind sculptures by Thomas DeMello. And as always with USA Projects, your donation is tax deductible.
Email us if you have any questions, and check out our project page if you’d like to pledge a donation: USA Projects
If you’ve read our About page then you know that long before ICE was an exhibition space it was and still is a low cost art studio space. For as long as we’ve been renting the space, and for other tenants before us, the roof has leaked. In addition to the roof being in bad shape, the rest of the building in general has been no prize to look at or reside in. Despite these flaws the leaky roof has been somewhat manageable…until this year. When the first rains came this year we saw just how bad the roof had become. It no longer leaks, it pours – and It’s become way too much for us to maintain.
In a last ditch effort to save our space, before we reluctantly abandon what has become a source of great enjoyment and pride for us, we decided to set up a fund raising project on the site unitedstatesartists.org. It’s similar to Kickstarter, but the difference is that in addition to being somewhat exclusive in that you have to be screened or invited by a USA.org fellow, USA.org is specifically for artists. We were lucky enough to be invited to join the site by none other than Doug Wheeler, one of our favorite west coast artists.
Should we attain our fund raising goal, our project will entail professionally fixing the roof as well as totally gutting the inside of the building. We wish to turn ICE into one big open exhibition space by knocking down all interior walls and getting rid of what is currently three art studios in the rear of the building. This will double the amount of space we have to use for exhibitions to roughly 1200 sq. ft.!
We realize our fund raising goal is highly ambitious, but this is our last chance to keep ICE alive. If we’re unable to fix our roof, we’ll have no further option but to vacate what has been a low cost haven for local San Diego artists for years. If you would like to contribute to our survival please visit OUR PROJECT PAGE. Your efforts will not go unrewarded. We have different incentives for the various donation levels – everything from wood block prints by Lee to actual pages from Michael’s sketch book.
Thank you to all who have supported us,
Michael James Armstrong, Thomas DeMello, Lee Lavy, Joseph Huppert
Finally, shots from Michael’s last exhibition. This piece was next to impossible to capture in photos, but we know some of you who didn’t get to see it in person are curious what it looked like. So, click the image below to see all the shots.
Thanks to Joan and Reuben Baron for mentioning ICE and Michael James Armstrong in their Light and Space article for artcritical. It gives us a thrill to be mentioned in the same article as some of our inspirations. The whole article is a good read, but the best part is the last sentence of the 6th paragraph. 😉
In other news, we’re not dead yet. Plans are in the works to try and raise money to fix ICE Gallery. More info and photos are coming soon, we promise.
the two photos above are a view of Michael’s show that most people didn’t get to see.
Ice Gallery 