Maine Fiberarts

What it reported doing in 2024

Exhibitions/Art Representation/General Programming: Now in our 24th year, Maine Fiberarts continued its tradition of presenting fiber artwork by Maine artists at its Topsham Center/Gallery in group and solo exhibitions. These included: Pay Attention! November 8, 2023-January 16, 2024 featuring work by 13 Maine artists including quilts, sculpture, a fabric teapot, crochet work, knitted gauntlet mittens and more. Woven Tapestries by Morris David Dorenfeld, May 8-August 15, 2024. The work included not only tapestries and needlepoints by this well-known Maine artist (now deceased) but his collection of vintage basketry. Fabric, Clay, Found Objects: The Curious World of Barbara Bean, September 4-November 14, 2024 including fiber art, assemblage, clay, and botanical ink drawings by one artist. Barbaras studio and art were documented through photography, through a Fiber Folio story about her life, and through listings on our Online Art Shop. A reception was held in September and our director helped her write and deliver a talk about her work. Finally, Knitting! exhibited in the second room of the galleryincluded work by 17 different knitters showing work that was sculptural or wearable. The knitted work was not for sale but provided inspiration to our visitors and to the 40 members of a knitting cruise ship (Craft Cruises) who toured the gallery one day in September.Imagine Fiber Art: Work by Members of Maine Fiberarts, November 16, 2024-February 1, 2025 including the work of 18 artists and showing a variety of techniques. Hundreds of visitors from Maine, the US and Canada attended these shows and people expressed great interest in the work. For each show, we visited studios, collected work, photographed the shows and added material to our websites and informational newsletters. Artists gave talks about their process and people were encouraged to contact the artists for workshops or for more information. Work was also posted to our Online Art Shop for each show with photos, descriptive writings and measurements for each item.Ongoing Outreach & Digital and Printed Tour Map Activities We continued to answer questions by phone, email and social media about where to take a fiber arts class, what to see when visiting Maine, where to take in an exhibition, or how to find a fiber farm when visiting Western Maine. We remade our website at www.mainefiberarts.org to improve navigation and ease-of-use and incorporated our second website www.mainefiberfolio.com into its holdings for a more seamless presentation. We told hundreds of people where to donate or sell their used fiber equipment. We recommended artists who teach and who demonstrate for galleries, festivals and learning centers. We answered questions about fiber art techniques and referred people to our free online PDF or to printed copies of our book, LEARNING FIBER ART: A Guide to Maine Teaching Resources. We referred people to our two regional maps on Midcoast Maine and on Western Maine and sent people off to explore new locations. We continued distributing tour maps through Maine Fiberarts, The Center for Maine Crafts, and through participating sites. We also made several visits to outlying rural destinations in order to widen our outreach and to fulfill our organizations statewide mission.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 70.9%; rating input score 71
• Program expense ratio: 78.9%; rating input score 79

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 10.2%; rating input score 62; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.48; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 60.5%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: -2.4% per year; rating input score 0; 41st percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: -0.6% per year; rating input score 0; 49th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 3.7% per year; rating input score 100; 53rd percentile among comparable filings