NEW-BORN BAMM TAKES ITS FIRST STEP

And a highly successful step it was - the first Annual General Meeting of the British Association for Modern Mosaic took place in the University of North London's Stapleton House on Saturday, October 30th 1999, and was generally acknowledged a triumph.

The day began with a visit to the Mosaic Workshop studio just up the Holloway Road from Stapleton House. There Emma Biggs and Tessa Hunkin welcomed BAMM members, and gave them coffee and a tour.

The AGM followed. Fifty-six members attended, almost half the total membership, which on that day stood at 120 - very satisfactory, considering BAMM was only launched in June '99. A show of hands indicated that just under half those present were professional mosaicists - one of them, Line Bergene, all the way from Norway.

The meeting took its appointed course and went remarkably smoothly; the Constitution, for example, was discussed and adopted without a single amendment, a tribute to many hours of work by the Steering Committee, who were warmly thanked both for that and all the other work they had done in preparing the AGM and producing the first issue of BAMM's newsletter, "Grout".

The President and Principal Officers, all previously nominated, were duly elected, and then a total of seven ordinary Executive Committee members, most of whom had volunteered on the spot. Finally, all the other proposed offices were filled, half of them also by volunteers from the floor. Highly gratifying.

The results of that voting and appointing and co-opting are as follows:- Elaine M. Goodwin (President). Then come the Principal Officers - Paul Bentley (Chairman), Leslie Clifton (Vice Chairman), Dorothy Bosomworth (Secretary), and Glen Morgan (Treasurer). The five ordinary Executive Committee members are Bob Field, Ros Wates, Caryl Patterson, Liz De'Ath and Trudi Lloyd-Williams. The two co-opted committee members are Paul Siggins and Claire Cotterill. The Appointed Officers are Lindy Ayubi (Membership Secretary), Annie Pinder (Minutes Secretary), Pat Witts (Newsletter Editor and Journal Editor), Anne Read (Events Secretary), and Fiona Siggins (Publicity Officer and Fundraising Officer). The job of Exhibitions Officer is to be shared between Trudi Lloyd-Williams, Leslie Clifton and Claire Cotterill.

AGMs have a reputation for being either dull or stormy, but this one was chatty and good-humoured, and finished in plenty of time for a lengthy buffet lunch, where the members - all labelled, by the way - could mingle and munch and take advantage of the splendid array of mosaic books arranged by Chris Blanchett of Buckland Books, Littlehampton, England (e-mail: cblanchett@lineone.net).

After lunch, the Symposium. The new President, Elaine M. Goodwin, who is the fons et origo of BAMM, expressed her delight that the association had come into being, and outlined plans and hopes for the future. Then one of BAMM's patrons, Jane Muir, a very experienced and distinguished mosaic artist, gave an illustrated talk about her mentor, the great Hans Unger, and told the story of her own development as a mosaicist. Spell-binding stuff.

After tea and more net-working Emma Biggs of Mosaic Workshop gave an illustrated talk about the work of her studio. Like Jane Muir she is refreshingly direct and honest; for instance, about problems associated with various projects. It was a pleasure to sit at the feet of two of the best people in the mosaic business, and listen and learn.

Finally Dorothy Bosomworth, BAMM Secretary, gave an illustrated talk about the mosaics of St. Paul's Cathedral, London, which was a model of high-powered scholarly research.

All in all, it was difficult to see how BAMM's inaugural day could have been improved on, and Bob Field, himself a mosaic artist, was thanked and congratulated on arranging it. It seems safe to say that all those present are looking forward to the next BAMM event has in mind, a weekend devoted to the mosaics of the Russian artist Boris Anrep, in London, in the spring of 2000. To be followed by a visit to Exeter in the summer for the exhibition "Mosaic: A Living Art - an Anglo-Italian Celebration"... To be followed by the next AGM-cum-Symposium.

Paul Bentley

HOW B.A.M.M. CAME TO BE

BAMM was born on 14th June 1999 at Exeter University, and the godfather was the Vice-Chancellor, Sir Geoffrey Holland. The occasion was the private view of an exhibition called "Five British Mosaicists", featuring the work of Jane Muir, one of BAMM's patrons, Maggie Howarth, Andrew Logan, Jan Williams and Elaine M. Goodwin herself, who lives in Exeter and over the years has made it a centre of mosaic excellence. Another of BAMM's patrons, Sir Alan Campbell, former British ambassador to Italy, was present at the launch as a distinguished symbol of British mosaic's strong Anglo-Italian links.

WHAT IS B.A.M.M. AND HOW DO I JOIN IT?

Membership of BAMM is open to all mosaicists, both professional and amateur, and to other lovers of the medium. The aims of the association are to promote, encourage and support excellence in contemporary mosaic art, and to raise public awareness of modern mosaic art and of the artists creating it.