Vina Curtis was the Head and Heart of our Society Events for many years and we salute her and thank her so much for all the hard work she put in over those years, arranging and managing the Call for Art, Judging, Exhibit Management, Venues, etc. She is our Honorary member who has been a pillar in our Society.

She has a few words to say to all our members, a bit about the history of NVWS and how important it has been for all our local watercolor artists over the years.

Our Heritage as Members of the Nevada Watercolor Society

by Vina Curtis

"Once upon a time there were only 10 members of the Nevada Watercolor Society. Well, they weren’t exactly members, but they were 10 friends who enjoyed painting with watercolors, but there was no watercolor society in Nevada back then. However, Myra Da Costa had a vision for assisting future watercolorists.

Myra approached her friends, Suzanne Allen, Alice Atkinson, Carol Blake, Lucile Bruner, Laura Belle Kelch, Shirley Oaks, Dorothy Paulsen, Cliff Segerblom, and Betty Twers with her plan and they all agreed to help.  A lawyer was hired, and the hard work began. Then the Nevada Watercolor Society became established on August 4, 1969.

You may wonder why we should be thankful to Myra and her friends. Well, an organization where we can meet with other artists, workshops with internationally acclaimed artists, art shows juried by well-known artists, demos by other artists. All these activities fulfill the purpose of our society which is to encourage, promote and advance watercolor painting through the education of the artist and general public.

The outcome is that we have a legacy we can be proud of that has been handed down over the decades by caring artists who have been willing to volunteer for the various committee Chairs.

You, too, are invited to join the special ranks of artists who together make sure that you have opportunities to grow as an artist. There is a show and Exhibits Chairman we who makes sure we have places to show our work with 3 shows a year, a workshop chairman who makes sure that we have internationally known artists to teach, and a program chairman to plan activities and guest speakers for our monthly meetings.

There are many other opportunities you can consider: Secretary, Photographer, Publicity, scholarships, Equipment manager, nomination committee and more. As you can see, it takes many committees working together on the Board to make any organization a success.

You can find the descriptions of each committee in the Standing Rules on the website.

We look forward to seeing future volunteers who will join the board to help keep this NVWS Legacy running at its best." 

                                                                                    ----     Vina Curtis