Following on from the news that CMPG member Ryan Libre will open his Documentary Arts Asia Gallery on Saturday evening (see Wyndham's previous post for details), I dropped Ryan a line to confirm whether he was seeking donations of prints from the 2012 CMPG Exhibition. Ryan's response is as follows:

"Documentary Arts Asia is looking for prints, mounted or unmounted,
to be sold at our silent auction on the last day of the festival Feb
26th. The photos will be displayed all day and bidding will start in the
evening. It will be held in the garden of the lanna architectural
center durning the sunday market, so presumably it will be a good
crowd... All profits will go toward funding next year's photo and
festival. We are getting some other very nice prints donated as well, so please come and look, you may find something you like also.

If you wish to donate please inform us by mail to ryan@cdaf.asia or call
083-153-7763   

We will be at the closing, to pick up your prints.

Thank you and hope to see you all at our opening party or in the
gallery sometime soon."

Ryan

So, if you have a print or prints from the exhibition that you would like to donate, please drop Ryan a line before Sunday and tell him your name and the title/s, and, by the sounds of it, he plans to come and collect them (Wyndham: I presume Ryan has or will liaise with you about this).

Joe

I am having trouble understanding the situation here. This appears to be a new gallery or "non-profit organisation" which charges 1000Bt for Photo 101 classes and wishes to sell our pictures to fund next years "festival"?

From what I understand, DAA seeks funds to support: a gallery in Chiang Mai where documentary artists can exhibit their work and highlight important social topics, as well as a satellite DAA centre in Kachin State, Burma; an Artist in Residence program (I believe the first will be a Thai photographer documenting human trafficking); a library of books and dvds available to view; an annual festival.

I assume Ryan (and probably other DAA supporters in the future) will conduct paid workshops as another means to raise funds for the DAA project, and I can't really see what the objection to that might be.

I agree that Ryan's message that I received by email and posted to the group forum was not terribly clear about how funds generated by our print donations would be used by DAA, but reading the DAA website should provide a lot more information:

http://www.documentary-arts-asia.org/

And, of course, the best thing would be to come along tomorrow and ask Ryan all about it in person...

Joe

I think you can rest assured that any money that Ryan raises will go to fund projects that will benefit both the visual arts in Chiang Mai and the politically and economically disadvantaged of SE Asia. I'm donating and encourage other members to do so too.

Try and make it to the opening where, as Joe says, the message will hopefully be put across more clearly.