To Our Members

OAL History

In 1909, a group of 40 graduates of the Columbus Art School (now Columbus College of Art & Design) formed the Columbus Art Students League for the purpose of organizing artists with an objective of “mutual and public benefit.” 124 years later, that vision has become the Ohio Art League and has affected the lives of thousands of Ohio artists including such distinguished members as Alice Schille, Roy Lichtenstein, Emerson Burkhart, and George Bellows.

OAL in 2024

The Ohio Art League has prided itself as one of the longest running membership-based arts organization in Ohio. Currently our membership spans approximately 156 zip codes across the state. Even though the largest base of our members resides in Central Ohio, OAL is representing artists in all of the major cities and many rural areas. In 2024 OAL has seen major growth in the addition of regular exhibitions at RAW Gallery, the Broad Street Presbyterian Church, the addition of a new Board Member and the first full year of operating with an Executive Direct and Programming Assistant.

OAL Looking Ahead

The Ohio Art League is excited about 2025 as we have received a handful of grants that will allow us to provide additional artists opportunities and expand partnerships with other organizations. As we continue to stick to our traditions of the over 100 years of Thumb Box Exhibitions, providing statewide juried exhibitions, and continuing our exhibition of public art at the John Glenn International Airport, we are looking forward to the additional programming we are able to offer through our new partnerships, exploring new ways to connect with what artists need to develop their personal artists careers, and where possible uplift our members accomplishments, the work they create, and be a showcase of the powerful art that is created across the state of Ohio.

Laura Savage
Executive Director
April 2025

SUMMARY

 Exhibition Summary

We had a complete season of exhibitions in very prominent locations throughout Columbus. These shows resulted in a handful of sales that benefitted both the league and the artists.

Spring Juried Exhibition

The 2024 Spring Juried Exhibition took place at the Upper Arlington Concourse Gallery and showcased selected artworks from 36 members statewide.

The exhibition juror was Natalia Arbelaez.

As part of the exhibition Ohio Art League Awarded 5 artists.

• Best of Show - Ashley Bevington "April Showers"
• 2^nd Place – Paul Kroner "Bird 'n Hand"
• 3^rd Place – Kim Elliott "The Coptic Angels Mourn"
• Honorable Mentions – Kim Elliott "The Coptic Angels Mourn,” Paul Rienzo "Spurned,” Ashley Bevington "Livin'"

This exhibition saw $725 in total sales of artwork.

Fall Juried Exhibition

The 2024 Fall Juried Exhibition took place at Richard M. Ross Art Museum and showcased 90 artworks from members state-wide. 

The exhibition juror was Philip Sugden, from Bluffton University.

As part of the exhibition Ohio Art League Awarded 6 artists.

•    Best of Show – Lou Camerato "Window From the Ukraine"
•    2nd Place – Glenn Mackie "The Last Show"
•    3rd Place – John Lauer "Study for Ishmael + Queequeg"

• Honorable Mentions – Maria-Francesca Fleming "Amsterdam Highway," Cat Mailloux "My Bright Abyss,” Brian Duran "Germination"

This exhibition saw $2,375 in total sales of artwork.

Thumb Box Exhibition

 

The 108th Thumb Box Exhibition took place in 2024 at RAW Gallery. 
The exhibition saw 67 members submit over 100 artworks. All works that were dropped off for the exhibition were exhibited. 
Thumb Box saw $2,517.46 total sales in 2024. Additional sales happened after the new year in 2025 and will be reflected in the 2025 report.

Gateway to the Arts Exhibitions

  

In 2024, the Gateway to the Arts showcased 6 exhibitions. 

•    Brittany Cosgrove   December 2023 - January 2024 
•    Said Oladejo-Lawal    February 2024 - March 2024  
•    Anna Sokol   April 2024 - May 2024
•    Charlotte Belland June 2024 - July 2024
•    Jessica Wojtasek and Jennifer Jolley Brown  August 2024 - September 2024
•    Ardine Nelson October 2024 - November 2024

The Gateway to the Arts generated a total $6,910 sales of artworks during the 2024 exhibition season.

Broad Street Presbyterian 

 

BSP generated a total $0 sales of artworks during the 2024 exhibition season. The 2024 Season was the beginning of this new group exhibition opportunity and saw only one exhibition before the end of the year.

RAW Gallery

  

RAW generated a total $ 3,660.76 sales of artworks during the 2024 exhibition season
Each of the exhibitions also included an artists talk which was recorded and is featured on the Ohio Art League YouTube  channel thanks to the general donation of our board member Nikki Swift.

Hop on High

 

The Short North Arts District invited the Ohio Art League to participate in their Hop on High during the summer of 2024. 
During the one day pop up the exhibition of member work generated 1 sale for a total of $46.51.

Events Summary

OAL Tonight!

The Ohio Art League continues to host the OAL Tonight! monthly meetings online as this allows members from across the state to attend our meetings. The topics of these meetings range from meeting the jurors of the spring and fall juried exhibitions, sharing updates on upcoming and current exhibitions, highlighting members non OAL exhibitions and sharing artists’ works in progress. In 2024 OAL started off the year with meeting the new Director Laura Savage and then invited several artists to come and speak about their own works and their art career. 

Invited speakers and topics included: Kathy Signorino from Ohio Arts Council, Kirsta Benedetti, Spring Juror Natalia Arbelaez, Charlotte Belland, Cindy Rasche, Karen Snouffer, Barbara Vogel, Eileen Woods, Tom Baillieul and Jim Bowling.

Featured Artists

Ohio Art League Regularly features a member artist on our website with a bio, artist statement, and examples of their work. In 2024 we featured the following artists: Cee, Matt Swift, Victoria Lavorini, Adrian Waggoner, Patrick Affourtit, Sharon Anderson, Jennifer Jolley Brown, Tracee Hein, Emily Morgan, Ashley Bevington, Paul Kroner, and Lynda McClanahan.

Social events and fundraisers

During 2024 Ohio Art League held two social gatherings that were also tied to fundraising activities for the organization. Ohio Art League collaborated with City Barbeque and Buffalo Wild Wings to hold two separate gatherings that invited members to come and join the organization for food and refreshments. These gatherings were set up so that the establishments would donate a portion of all sales back to the organization in the form of a check or gift cards towards future purchases. 
City Barbeque’s event raised a total of $37.15 and the Buffalo Wild Wings event generated a gift card of $20 that was then use to purchase refreshments for the 2024 Thumb Box exhibition.

Grants Summary

Columbus Foundation Sustaining Funds

During 2024, the Ohio Art League continued to receive Sustaining Funds from The Columbus Foundation.

Ohio Arts Council Arts Rise

This grant created a program that allowed the Ohio Art League to partner with Art Possible Ohio, a state wide organization that supports artist with disabilities, to offer free membership and exhibition opportunities to Ohio Art League for all selected participants in the Art Possible Ohio Accessible Expression exhibition. The $5000 grant helps cover membership cost, exhibition cost, and operational support cost during the grant period.

Ohio Arts Council Art Start

This grant helped the Ohio Art League create a grant funded mentorship opportunity that paired two sets of two artists together in mentoring relationships in order to produce new works. The $750 grant with a $750 required cash match from Ohio Art League paid each artist group the full grant amount to support their mentoring activities. This grant program continued into the 2025 season and will generate exhibitions in the 2026 season. Selected artists participants were: Group 1 - Cindy Butler Rasche & Neha Dadhich, Group 2 - Robie Benve & Dawn Petrill

Greater Columbus Arts Council Project and Series Grant

The Greater Columbus Arts Council Project and Series grant allowed the Ohio Art League to access funds to support exhibitions at the Gateway to the Arts through our partnership with the John Glenn International Airport for the Fall 2024 to Fall 2025 Season. The Ohio Art League received 25% of the originally requested amount of the original grant amount. OAL was awarded $3,900 that was then spread equally across paying an honorarium to each artist to support their exhibition costs, create a full year show card, and additional support for exhibition, insurance, and installation cost that are typically fully covered by Ohio Art League.

Fiscal Initiatives

The Ohio Art League has ceased operations in 400 West Rich.  The board did not feel that the increases in rent were an appropriate use of membership and grant funds.  Due to the generosity of previous Ohio Art League President George Leach, Ohio Art League has worked out an agreement to operate out of RAW Gallery which provides us with a regular exhibition space and ability to hold regular gallery operation hours for the first time since prior to 2019.

Leadership Updates

 In 2024 AJ Vanderelli has joined the Board of Trustees. Her experience with community organizing and exhibitions will be a great value to the Ohio Art League’s leadership.
2024 is the first full year of have an Executive Director since prior to 2019. Laura Savage, previously of Hammonds Harkins Galleries has been doing an amazing job of connecting with members, organizing new programming, and performing her duties of day to day operation of the Ohio Art League. 

Membership

The board is added discounted membership levels for teachers 
 Membership at the $500+ level will now provide discounts on artwork. This will promote collectors and art’s patrons to join and support the league and our artists.
Ohio Art League has always been proud to represent a community of artists that practice in a plethora of mediums. Currently OAL’s over 380 active members practice artforms across 12 mediums.

297 artists claim to work in 2 or more mediums.

Our members attended 145 different colleges or schools

OAL Members by Artistic Medium

OAL Member Gender

OAL Member Age

OAL Member Ethnicity

OAL Member Monthly Quantity

Membership Data Table

Artist/Enthusiast: Start – 314, End – 338

Discounted Artist/Enthusiast - Students only: Start – 13, End – 21

Military/Veterans: Start –11, End – 11

Board of Trustees: Start – 7, End – 7

OAL Associate: Start – 5, End – 11

Priscilla R. Tyson Cultural Arts Center : Start – 0, End – 10

K-12 Art Educator Membership - Discounted : Start – 0, End – 4

Family/Joint: Start – 1, End – 6

Benefactor: Start – 0, End – 0

Patron: Start – 0, End – 3

Partner: Start – 0, End – 0

OAL Supporter: Start – 2, End – 2

OAL Summary: Start –432, End – 484

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Profit & Loss for Period Covering 01/01/2024 to 12/31/2024                                             

 Income                                                  

Gifts Received                   $2,106.98

 Total Grants                      $15,396.00

 Interest Income                 $2.39

 Membership                      $19,805.63

 Other Income                    $37.15

 Shows                                                   

           FJE Sales                $2,375.00

          Gateway Sales        $ 6,910.00

           SJE Sales                $ 725.00

           Thumb Box Sales    $ 2,517.46   

           RAW                        $ 3,660.76

           Others                     $ 46.51

Total Show Income            $15,234.73

Total Income                      $ 53,920.88

Expenses                                               

Operations               $ 335.31      

             Insurance              $ 1,280.00

             Phone                    $ 204.33      

             Rent                       $ 175 

            Subscriptions           $ 706.22

            Shipping/Postage    $ 257.21

            Card Processing     $ 1,169.44   

      Admin Services           $ 39,921.60

      Marketing                                $ 161.63

      Shows                                               

           First Financial          $ 75.00

            FJE                         $ 3,181.00

           Gateway                  $ 7,648.80

            SJE                          $ 2,053.75   

            Thumb Box             $ 1,784.25   

            BSP                         $ 350.00

            RAW                        $ 2,831.25

            Other                       $ 559.05

Total Show Expenses        $18,483.10  

Total Expenses                  $61,401.37

Net loss for Period                          

$7,3780.49

 

 NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

 

 Debt

The Ohio Art League currently has no debts.

Savings

The board has realized that a strong organization cannot confidently move forward without dedicated staff.  In 2023 we hired a Programming Assistant and an Executive Director to give members more support moving forward.  2024 is the first full year that Ohio Art League has operated with paid staff since prior to 2019. During this year, this staff along with board members have worked hard and has almost doubled the organizations incoming revenue. Unfortunately, additional program costs, rising cost of operations such as our membership, email and website subscription to Wild Apricot, the organization has ended the year with a shortfall that has been absorbed by the organizations savings.

Concerns

Our current concerns are focused on two major themes: Philanthropy and Operational Cost. In 2025 we will be working to obtain sustaining funds from the Ohio Arts Council for the first time since before 2019. We will be working to lower cost of operations to help with the difference in our revenue and expenditures.  We will also be looking at ways to create sustainable efficiencies with the organizations structures as we have an aging set of Board of Members who have been in their roles for over five years.

Take Aways

The Ohio Art League is on an upward trajectory in all areas but in 2025 needs to explore avenues to account for the difference between the typical membership cost of $50 and the actual operational cost per member of $142. 

Goals

• The Ohio Art League is on track to apply for OAC sustaining funds in 2025. 
• The Ohio Art League is still a looking for our own space to house us permanently.  This is a long-term goal that will require saving and planning into the future.
• The Ohio Art League is looking to expand partnership opportunities. 
• The Ohio Art League is looking to grow membership offerings through discounts and special programming.
• The Ohio Art League will be evaluating organization structure to create more sustainable efficiencies for the long term success of the organization.