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LOST HOUSING, NEED HELP MOVING AND GETTING STARTED AGAIN.
We are very thankful to all those generous people who have donated so far to help us after losing our rental home and having a very difficult finding a suitable place within our means to move to and set a new place to prepare our teaching materials and lessons.
We are entering stage 2 of our struggle to overcome the loss of our housing so suddenly and unexpectedly.
At 80 years of age it’s so much more difficult to completely change everything about our lives and still maintain an income to keep doing what we feel we were destined to do.
Paint and teach.
Hopefully we have acquired housing but are incurring the expenses of the move, the high cost of storing much of our equipment, supplies and past drawings and paintings to preserve them.
I addition, our income is going to be less as we restructure our lives and livelihoods from our new housing.
What we need now is to spread this appeal beyond our friends and associates to those who wish to help support art and talent at a local level, as we have spent the last few decades doing.
If you wish to support a couple who have dedicated their lives to art and teaching art now is the time.
Jim Smyth is a familiar and respected artist and art teacher as is his wife, Brigitte Curt. Jim has taught drawing and painting to thousands of bay area adult students for over 45 years, many reaching professional recognition.
Brigitte has taught painting for over 25 years here on the peninsula, specializing on Plien Air landscape, capturing the beauty of the natural world around us, as well as in her native France.
They have taken their students on painting workshops to France for 20 years and created multiple bonds, in the art community, of great significance in the bay area.
However, we are about to lose these cultural treasures due to spiraling rents.
They have been evicted from their low rent house where they lived, prepared their classes and created original work for over 30 years so it can be sold very soon.
They are struggling to find affordable housing while in the odd position of having to help artists and teachers to remain in the community.
Without assistance they will have to leave the Bay Area within a few weeks.
Their devoted students are searching desperately for a home for their beloved teachers without success so far.
A Man and His Dog
They urgently need financial help to cover the cost of storage for the large amount of educational material they use, including an entire art library and a large amount of still life objects, including a lot of educational materials they use in their classes, all acquired and maintained at their own expense.
They also need funds for moving their personal belongings and educational materials, help cover the costs of deposits and securities for new housing.
They have only a few weeks to find a new home that they can afford. They need to store 30 years of history and move to a new location from where they can commute to their classes on the Peninsula.
At the moment Brigitte and Jim are facing homelessness as their combined salaries cannot support the out of control rent requirements.
They will consequently lose their teaching positions and their livelihood and join the 150,000 people living in their car of van.
All of you know that moving requires a lot of expenditures and physical efforts.
They are both well above the retirement age and wish to continue teaching but will have to hire much of the labor of moving and/or storing all our positions.
Our goal is to raise $50,000 to help keep these artists and teachers in our community for the foreseeable future.
Please contribute as much as you can so that they can continue contributing so much to their students and the local art community.
Brigitte has offered to donate an original 9 x 12 Plein Air painting to anyone donating $350 or more.
Life Treasures: Brigitte teaching at the Baylands in Winter
We are very thankful to all those generous people who have donated so far to help us after losing our rental home and having a very difficult finding a suitable place within our means to move to and set a new place to prepare our teaching materials and lessons.
We are entering stage 2 of our struggle to overcome the loss of our housing so suddenly and unexpectedly.
At 80 years of age it’s so much more difficult to completely change everything about our lives and still maintain an income to keep doing what we feel we were destined to do.
Paint and teach.
Hopefully we have acquired housing but are incurring the expenses of the move, the high cost of storing much of our equipment, supplies and past drawings and paintings to preserve them.
I addition, our income is going to be less as we restructure our lives and livelihoods from our new housing.
What we need now is to spread this appeal beyond our friends and associates to those who wish to help support art and talent at a local level, as we have spent the last few decades doing.
If you wish to support a couple who have dedicated their lives to art and teaching art now is the time.
Jim Smyth is a familiar and respected artist and art teacher as is his wife, Brigitte Curt. Jim has taught drawing and painting to thousands of bay area adult students for over 45 years, many reaching professional recognition.
Brigitte has taught painting for over 25 years here on the peninsula, specializing on Plien Air landscape, capturing the beauty of the natural world around us, as well as in her native France.
They have taken their students on painting workshops to France for 20 years and created multiple bonds, in the art community, of great significance in the bay area.
However, we are about to lose these cultural treasures due to spiraling rents.
They have been evicted from their low rent house where they lived, prepared their classes and created original work for over 30 years so it can be sold very soon.
They are struggling to find affordable housing while in the odd position of having to help artists and teachers to remain in the community.
Without assistance they will have to leave the Bay Area within a few weeks.
Their devoted students are searching desperately for a home for their beloved teachers without success so far.
A Man and His Dog
They urgently need financial help to cover the cost of storage for the large amount of educational material they use, including an entire art library and a large amount of still life objects, including a lot of educational materials they use in their classes, all acquired and maintained at their own expense.
They also need funds for moving their personal belongings and educational materials, help cover the costs of deposits and securities for new housing.
They have only a few weeks to find a new home that they can afford. They need to store 30 years of history and move to a new location from where they can commute to their classes on the Peninsula.
At the moment Brigitte and Jim are facing homelessness as their combined salaries cannot support the out of control rent requirements.
They will consequently lose their teaching positions and their livelihood and join the 150,000 people living in their car of van.
All of you know that moving requires a lot of expenditures and physical efforts.
They are both well above the retirement age and wish to continue teaching but will have to hire much of the labor of moving and/or storing all our positions.
Our goal is to raise $50,000 to help keep these artists and teachers in our community for the foreseeable future.
Please contribute as much as you can so that they can continue contributing so much to their students and the local art community.
Brigitte has offered to donate an original 9 x 12 Plein Air painting to anyone donating $350 or more.
Life Treasures: Brigitte teaching at the Baylands in Winter