e-mail: zavrel@meaus.com
Friends,
We hope that you have enjoyed visiting our web site. Come back again to keep informed about new events at the Museum. But some day do visit us in person!
The Museum is located 20 minutes by car from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, and about 35 minutes south from Niagara Falls. We located in the historical heart of Clarence, surrounded by many antique shops. Our immediate neighbors are the popular Asa Ransom House - a fine restaurant and one of the 'Romantic Inns' of America, the Clarence Historical Museum and the Clarence Town Park.
Through my own personal engagement to promote a cultural dialog between Europe and America over the past 20 years, I came to know and became friends with a number of leading European artists, intellectuals, and scientists. Also they are interested in having closer contact with Americans, and over the two decades they have supported the work of the Museum in many ways.
The Museum has a growing and quite interesting collection of 20th and 21st century of the classical-realistic tradition. Since most other art museums and galleries show mostly "modern abstract art", our collection sets us apart. Visitors tell us again and again how impressed they are to find such a fine collection in Buffalo. The Museum has been open since 1994, and is becoming known and respected also in Europe.
We have a fine collection of bronze and marble sculptures and reliefs, portrait-busts, lithographs, woodcuts, etchings, and paintings by prominent European artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Among them are Kurt Arentz, Salvador Dali, Arno Breker, Ernst Fuchs, Jean Cocteau, Henry Moore, Marc Chagall, Charles Despiau, Paul Belmondo, and others.
In 2002, the "Eleanor and Wilson Greatbatch Collection" was established to honor not only the famous inventor of the pacemaker, but inventors in general. Artists from all over the world now have the opportunity to donate one of their representative works of art to this unique collection.
But now we urgently need to put the Museum on a more secure financial basis. Then we will be able to start on our major dream for the future - SCULPTURE GARDEN.
The piece of land behind the Museum, with a few trees and a little brook will make a nice setting for the Sculpture Garden. We have already set up the first large sculpture - the "Big Looper" by Alan van Every. Two other sculptures already in our collection - "Ode to Joy" by the Swiss sculptor Renate Stendar, and "Sea Otter" by the famous artist Kurt Arentz from Germany are also meant for the garden.
Because of my long engagement in the artistic dialog with Europe (all done on a people-to-people basis, with no government support at all!), some of these artist-friends will let us have one or two of their works of art on very favorable terms. But these opportunities do not last indefinitely. Like with everything else that happens in life, "when the constellations are right" one has to say "yes" at once. From experience we know that a missed opportunity will never come back again.
Therefore, we need to have adequate financial resources. And when the right moment comes, we will have the sculptures produced and shipped to us immediately.
In this way, we will build up an impressive collection of larger bronze sculptures by prominent European artists of our time. We hope that by the year 2009 the Sculpture Garden will become a unique and attractive addition not only to our Museum, but also will benefit the Town of Clarence as an increasingly popular tourist destination.
However, to succeed we need help.
We have put together an outline of the various options that are available to our potential sponsors. Please consider your financial possibilities and your inclinations, and think about how you can support our work.
To accomplish something great and worthwhile is not easy. It requires not only the initial enthusiasm, but the strength and energy to continue for an extended time, often under unfavorable circumstances.
Those of us who have started the Museum and brought it along this far, have reached the end of our financial possibilities a long time ago. Now we can go forward only with the help new friends, new lovers of art and new supporters ... will you help?
"Die Zukunft ist heute" - "THE FUTURE IS TODAY" was a motto of a dear artist-friend of mine, and I fully agree with that. It means, 'what we do today will be our future tomorrow.' Let us shape it together!
We look forward to hear from you.
Sincerely,
Consul B. John Zavrel
Director
For most people, a donation of CASH is the most familiar and most frequently used method of charitable giving.
Since the Museum of European Art is a tax-exempt, non-profit organization, deductions are tax-deductible to the donors in the year in which they make them.
But there are other ways in which one can make a donation at this time to the Museum:
1) Make a donation of stocks
2) Make a donation of property (real estate, personal property, etc.)
3) Make a donation of a works of art, rare art books, coin or stamp collections, etc.
The donor gets a tax-deduction for the CURRENT MARKET VALUE of the item donated. In the case of highly appreciated property (such as stocks, land, buildings or works of art) this can result in a substantial tax saving to the donor.
Make a BEQUEST IN ONE'S WILL for a charitable donation to the Museum in the form of cash, stocks, real estate or works of art.
Also in these cases, the estate will be able to take a deduction for the charitable donation equal to the CURRENT MARKET VALUE of the item donated.
This can be especially advantageous to the donor when there is a substantial estate which may include assets and property which is valuable, but which cannot be converted to cash on a short notice (such as a closely held business, valuable art collection, undeveloped land, etc.)
For future expansion and success of the Museum in the long run, finding some major donors is of VITAL importance.
B. John Zavrel, Director
MUSEUM OF EUROPEAN ART
10545 Main Street
Clarence, NY 14031
Enclosed is my tax-deductible cash donation of $ _______ to support the work of the Museum as follows (please circle one):
1) Pay off the mortgage
2) Establish the Sculpture Garden
3) General purposes
I also wish to make a tax-deductible donation of stocks or property to the Museum, as follows (please describe):
Please contact me to make arrangements for the transfer.
I would like to make a major commitment to support the future, long-term development and success of the Museum by making a bequest in my will. I wish to leave the following property as a charitable, tax deductible donation donation to the Museum:
Please contact me to make arrangements.
Name _____________________________________
Street ____________________________________
City _________________State ______ZIP _______
Telephone _________________ Fax _____________
e-mail _____________________________________
THE MUSEUM OF EUROPEAN ART
10545 MAIN STREET, CLARENCE, NEW YORK 14031 (U.S.A)
Tel.: (716) 759-6078, Fax: (716) 759-1983, E-mail: zavrel@meaus.com
World Wide Web: http://www.meaus.com
Non-profit educational organization; tax-exempt under IRC 501 (c) (3).
B. John Zavrel Founder &
Director
HONORARY MEMBERS & ADVISORS: Kurt Arentz (Germany), Renate Stendar (Switzerland), Alessandra Della Valentina (Italy), Ruth Zucker (Israel), Jan Künster (Germany), Ernst Fuchs (Austria), Marco Bodenstein (Germany), Herman Pfattheicher (Belgium), A. Vojtek (Czech Republic), Helga Tiemann (Germany), Prof. Arcadi Nebolsine (New York), Dominique Egret (France), Patrick Adenauer, Prof. Peter Ludwig (Germany), Roger Peyrefitte (France).
Collection: Sculptures, lithographs,
marble and bronze reliefs, paintings, and drawings by
important artists of the 20th century. Archives on the
artists in the collection. Art books and rare books
library. Major
Goals: Pay off the existing
mortgage and loans Establish the Sculpture
Garden Expand the art
collection