70 years of PVAA

POMONA VALLEY ART ASSOCIATION HISTORY FACTS AND TIME-LINE 

By Linda Hauser Board Member and Historian 

PVAA Celebrates 25 Years of Themed Monthly Art Shows

PVAA’s Monthly Art Shows began in 1998 shortly after we moved into our new Gallery SOHO in the Pomona Arts Colony. Through the years we have had hundreds of varying themes, most coinciding with the seasons and holidays. Some of the most popular and revisited monthly shows each year have been “The Red Show”,

“Trees and Flowers”, “Animals”, “Landscapes”, “Favorite Places” among many others.

The Monthly Show entries had always been displayed in our Gallery SOHO until the Covid pandemic, then it became necessary to showcase our Monthly Show in an online format. With the help of several of our highly skilled and knowledgeable gallery members, a 3D virtual online gallery, KunstMatrix, was implemented. It has served as a valuable format for the viewing and enjoyment of our Monthly Shows.

Beginning in 2024, PVAA has been invited by the Claremont City Hall to hold a Tri-Annual PVAA Art Show instead of our Monthly Art Shows. Information and rules will be forthcoming once dates have been

finalized. We are excited to have this opportunity at the Claremont City Hall and to have the ability to view our PVAA members artwork in person once again.

Our Past Location of Gallery SOHO in Pomona , Progress Building .

As PVAA’s Historian, Linda Hauser looks forward to sharing some of PVAA’s 70+ year history. In future editions of our newsletters, she will try to showcase various interesting events and photos from our archives.

We have many albums containing vintage photos and scrap books filled with newspaper articles which have become yellowed with time.

We are fortunate to have notebooks full of PVAA’s original board minutes, including the minutes from the first board meeting in January, 1952. We think you will find the early board minutes very interesting, as I certainly did. This is an excerpt from the May 19th, 1952 board meeting minutes.

“The matter of association annual dues was introduced and following discussion it was moved and carried that the dues be as follows:”

For one member………………… …$5.00 For two members of one family…….$8.00 Patron………………………………. $15.00 Student………………………………$1.50

Our annual membership dues hasn’t increased substantially in seventy years, $35.00 seems quite reasonable. In an online comparison, the value of $5.00 in 1952 is worth over $55.00 today.

Linda Hauser , PVAA Historian

HISTORIAN ARTICLE 

PVAA NEWSLETTER – JULY 2023 

Many of you may not realize, in the early years of PVAA, our artists enjoyed the opportunity of having monthly Revolving Art Shows that benefited a variety of businesses in the Pomona Valley.  

For many years, PVAA’s Revolving Show Chairman would coordinate with businesses and interested artists who would showcase their artwork.  Those businesses included banks, dentist and doctor’s offices, restaurants, department stores, libraries, colleges, and many other locations.  Not only did it benefit the beauty in these establishments, but it gave the artists a great opportunity to share and sell their artwork in addition to their gallery exhibitions and art shows.  

How many of you remember these well-known businesses that PVAA’s artists provided with beautiful artwork?  Unfortunately, many of these business’ no longer exist, they included:   

Buffums’; J.P Evans; Pomona Board of Realtors; Pomona Public Library; La Verne College, Kellogg West, Cal Poly; United California Bank; Pomona First Federal Savings and Loan; Security Pacific Bank; Catron Motors and many more.

Through the years, PVAA has given us a great opportunity to share our artwork and our passion for the love of art to our community. 

Linda Hauser

PVAA Historian