President’s Report

Thank you to the ISEA board, committee members, volunteers and supportive members for making 2025 another successful year.  Please take time to read the following reports which will give you more insight into what ISEA has accomplished in 2025.  Looking forward to continuing to work with all of you in 2026.

Sincerely, Patti Sevensma, ISEA President

Treasurer’s Report

Because of our membership support, annual fees, donations, and a successful symposium, ISEA completed another year financially secure. The board would like to thank all of our members, patron members, and private donors for their support of our community of artists!

The passing of Renee Kahn, our friend and fellow ISEA member/volunteer and board member, brought great sorrow to so many of us. Renee was an important member of our ISEA family, and because of this and her love of ISEA, her family listed us as one of the organizations to make a memorial donation to. ISEA collected $2,500.00 in her name, and at the request of her husband, Sewell, the Renee Kahn Legacy Award will be presented at our venue-based exhibition, INNOVATIONS for at least the next five years. This is the second memorial fund that we manage and distribute annually. The Renate Trapkowski Legacy Award being the first. Both awards are a wonderful tribute to these lovely women. ISEA is honored to manage both of these Legacy funds and awards.

The 2026 Budget was approved by board members during our December meeting. We have budgeted 5 scholarship awards for 2026, all up to $500 each.

Respectfully Submitted by

The ISEA Financial Committee

Kimberly Grace Gill, Patti Sevensma and Marian Thompson

Committee Reports:

Art Innovation Talks:

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:  Kimberly Grace Gill and Marylu Dykstra (co-chairs), Jenni Bateman, Haley Joseph, Renee Kahn, April Rimpo, Patti Sevensma, Liz Walker.

The year 2025 saw the passing of dear friend and committee member, Renee Kahn, for whom we still mourn.

The committee had decided to reduce the number of presentations to twice a year and had two scheduled, but one individual had to cancel due to personal reasons.  Therefore, we had one AIT in 2025 with Kat Manton-Jones on November 6, 2025 at 2 pm Eastern time.  In 2024, the committee decided to cease the AIT presentations due to the amount of work involved and the lack of available and willing presenters.  

The video has now been edited and placed on the ISEA AIT website.

Respectfully submitted by:  Marylu Dykstra, ISEA-MF and Kimberly Grace Gill, ISEA-MF Co-chairs

Annual Exhibition Catalog:

This year's Innovations Catalog Committee was busy compiling information for our 2025 Innovations Catalog and related certificates. I am pleased to report that the Catalog was again beautifully designed by John Labots who did another wonderful job of organizing and creating the 2025 Innovations Catalog and certificates. 

Special thanks to the Exhibition Intake Committee and so many other volunteers who help every year to compile the content information necessary for a successful catalog. And a huge thank you to Marylu Dykstra, Bill Armitage and Patti Sevensma for lending their editing skills. 

This year's catalog was printed by Gilson Graphics and the certificates were printed by Hooper Printing, both of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

New this year was the creation of a single mailing by combining both Innovations and the Utterly Profound certificates, and the 2025 Catalog while also including any appropriate honor pins, etc. The Mailing happened in mid-December and was coordinated by Patti Sevensma and Bill Armitage.

On behalf of the Committee, I hope everyone enjoyed receiving the 2025 catalog! 

Respectfully submitted,

Gary Eldridge

Innovations Catalog Committee, John Labots, Gary Eldridge, Patti Sevensma

Communications Committee

Mary-Jane Morris of South Africa continues to do an amazing job compiling the newsletter.  My involvement continues by gathering articles and information and sending it to Mary-Jane.  I also proof and make edits as necessary.  Bill Armitage, from the board, proofs for language and errors, while Patti has oversight on content.  In 2025 we did a series highlighting the board members so that our ISEA members could get to know us better.  For 2026 I would like to highlight long-term volunteers, including Mary-Jane.  

After all is checked, I send the newsletter to the membership.  This process has been working very well.

The Communications Schedule has been updated but is pending some volunteer staffing changes, once those changes have been made the schedule will be issued.  

Respectfully submitted by:

Marylu Dykstra, ISEA-MF

Communications Committee Chairperson 

Exhibition Intake Committee

Schedule for ISEA exhibits 2026 

●      Making Our Marks – Intake January 15 to February 1, 2026

Jurying February 5 to 10 for awards only.  Everyone is invited to show their work.

Announcement February 15^th.

●      Utterly Profound 2026 – Intake April 1 to 15, Jurying April 16 to 23, Awards and Acceptance Announcement April 27^th.

●      INNOVATIONS 2026 – Intake June 1 to 30^th, Jurying July 1 to 10, Accept Invite and pay handling July 15 to 30^th,

Post Accepted Artists July 31^st, 2026  Jurying for Awards can be done between November 6^th and November 13^th.  ISEA will not be giving awards until December 4^th during our 3 day symposium. There will be a first Friday, Awards Reception the evening of December 4^th, 2026

Experimental Artists International - FaceBook Group   No report

Jury Committee

Doris Charest and Joanna Coke have been members of this committee for several years.  We want to thank Joanna Coke for her involvement as she has asked to leave the committee.  ISEA will be looking for two more volunteers to help Doris continue doing this very important committee work.  Thank you, Doris, your help is much appreciated.

All new signature members have been notified and sent their certificates for 2025.  The committee found these jurors: Making Our Marks, Doris Charest & Elaine Wiener Reed, INNOVATIONS 2026, Ash Dahlke, Utterly Profound, Dilys Jackson.

Respectfully submitted, Patti Sevensma, advisor

Legal Committee

• • Marylu Dykstra, ISEA-MF (Chair)
  • Linda Cowles
  • Velvet Rattelade

• Year in Review:

• • The committee reviewed the contract and made editing suggestions on the lodging contract with Spark by Hilton Ormond 
  •  Oceanfront for the symposium in Ormond Beach, Florida in September 2025.
  • The committee reviewed the contract and made editing suggestions on the contract for rooms at the Tubac Golf Resort and Spa for    ISEA 2026 symposium in Arizona.  This review was done in February 2025.
  • The committee reviewed the contract and made a number of editing suggestions on the contract for INNOVATIONS 2029 in the Ironwood Gallery of the    Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Arizona.  This review was done in May and June 2025.

Respectfully submitted by:

Marylu Dykstra, ISEA-MF

Chair

Membership Committee & Book Club

ISEA currently has over 400 active members. The committee is working to expand our membership base and explore new ways to enrich the ISEA experience for our community of artists. 

April Rimpo has created two helpful instructions for our members. To receive a copy of our annual catalog, it’s necessary that your Full Mailing Address within your contact profile is correct. Please review the attached PDF to make sure your contact information is current and also formatted correctly for mailing. She also included a “How to be part of the ISEA Directory” instructions for those members not currently listed. It will appear within our website under the Help and Membership tabs. If you have any questions, please contact the membership committee at membership@iseaartexhibit.org and we would be happy to assist you.

 

LaVonne Marshall successfully launched our ISEA Book Club last March. The club reads both fiction and nonfiction and meets on Zoom where LaVonne leads lively discussions that are inspiring to all participants. Next on the list is “Big Magic” by Elizabeth Gilbert with a Zoom meeting on Thursday, January 22^nd at 6:30 pm EST. All ISEA members are invited to join; please contact LaVonne at volunteer@iseaartexhibit.org. to be included in the ISEA Book Club emails.

Promoting volunteerism is a priority for the membership committee, as it builds relationships among members and helps support our artist community. It takes many volunteers to maintain and grow our organization, plan symposia, manage our 3 annual exhibitions, create and mail our annual catalog, promote social media content, process our member scholarships, and the list goes on and on! If you ’re interested in volunteering for ISEA, please read forthcoming emails about volunteer positions or contact LaVonne directly at volunteer@iseaartexhibit.org. 

A huge Thank You to all of our current dedicated ISEA Volunteers!! Your time, support and hard work is very much appreciated!

 

Respectfully submitted by,

The Membership Committee

April Rimpo and Kimberly Gill - Co-Chairpersons

LaVonne Marshall - Volunteer Coordinator

Volunteer Coordinator

ISEA has had an exciting and successful year because members freely offer their time and talent to the cause. Some members step up to help with a specific event, like those who worked to bring this year's INNOVATIONS Symposium to life in Ormond Beach, Florida. Others sign on to provide ongoing support to a specific committee. Both are valued and appreciated immensely.

This year, the call went out to the membership for help with Social Media, Exhibition Intake, and, most recently, for Marketing/Media support. I am always excited to learn about each member who answers the call and the specific talents they bring as a volunteer to ISEA. ISEA is an organization that thrives with talented members who donate their time. Together we can do great things.

Thank you to all who have answered the call.

This year, I will be sending out calls for help with the Juror’s Committee and also the Catalog Committee. Please consider volunteering. 

Respectfully Submitted by

LaVonne Marshall, Volunteer Coordinator

Scholarships Committee

• • Marylu Dykstra  (Chair)
  • Elaine Weiner-Reed  (rotated off the committee December 31, 2025)
  • Liz Lystra
  • Marsha Kartzman
  • Fran Dorr
  • Jean Griffin
  • Linda Vroegindewey
  • Patti Sevensma (tie breaker)

• INSTRUCTION SHEET ACCOMPANYING THE ANNOUNCEMENT LETTER UPDATED
  In August 2025, the announcement letter that is emailed with the invitation to submit an application was updated to further clarify necessary details for the committee to be able to objectively score each application.  The main changes are to Point Number 5 starting with “Explain…”  The new instruction sheet will be used in 2025.  We have also added in USD to help with payment of the scholarship invoices.

  
  EMAIL FORWARDER GLITCH
  We had intermittent service from the email forwarder, resulting in some members of the committee receiving one or two applications and someone else receiving three, and committee members received different applications.  After attempting to track down the problem (thank you to Jeannine Hamilton, volunteer), the only resolution I could think of was to substitute my email as the main contact.  As a result, the Wild Apricot email template was revised, the charter was redone, the instruction sheet was revised, and the website was updated (thank you April Rimpo and Patti Sevensma) to reflect the modification.  
  
  

  WEBSITE ADJUSTMENTS 
  April Rimpo relocated the scholarship details and instruction section to the top (just under the Fresh Artists piece) so that it is easier to find.  It was at the bottom of the page, but with so many scholarships, it was not as visible as it should be.
  
  

  2025 SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS
  For the year 2025, we awarded five members scholarships in alphabetical order:

• • Judi Bradford
  • Kathy Kitz
  • Natasha Ramras
  • Aida Tejada
  • Beau Wild 

Social Media Committee

   Thank you to our 2025 team: Dida Andr, Kim Klabe, Annette Shope, and April Rimpo

  We're looking forward to adding some new members to our team in 2026.

Let us know if you can help by emailing us at Membership@@iseaartexhibit.org 

Websites Committee

   Jeannine Hamilton, BlueHost & Regfox,  ISEA - April Rimpo, LaVonne Marshall, and Patti Sevensma

Comment:  If you see something on the website not updated, please let this committee know. We have this happen every few of these this month.  Usually happens when we change over to the next exhibition.  There are 3 or 4 layers of pages that need to be updated at that time.

Development - Awards, and Sponsors Committee

ISEA is proud to have the following support for ISEA 2025: