Two hundred seems like such a small number when the daily newspapers are constantly reporting about millions or billions of things, but two hundred issues of The Opus Visual Arts Newsletter is a milestone to all of us who have worked on it over the years. I have a copy of every edition, including the very primitive first one that was mailed to Opus artists in May of 1986. During the nineteen years of its existence, the vision of the newsletter has basically remained unchanged.

A testament to the wisdom of its founder, Opus President, David van Berckel, who knew what he wanted—yes, he wanted to tell customers about Opus products, but he also wanted to inform, share, and inspire. With David's vision defined, the challenge fell to staff to design and write a newsletter that would achieve his objectives. While many valued staff have contributed over the years, the bulk of the work and the credit for improvements that you see today are the result of the current Marketing staff, Nadine, Jennifer, Mia, Tami and Colene.

Over time, this publication has been an integral part of several dynamic initiatives. In the early 90s, through this medium, we organized literally hundreds of courses and workshops—from small classes to a 3-day trade show at Robson Square. It has also played a critical role for Artropolis—the organizers of BC's largest visual art exhibitions. It has become the community resource that David van Berckel envisioned nineteen years ago, a vision that has been recognized by winning two Vancouver Business and the Arts Awards. Also, during the life of this newsletter, Opus has grown from a single store to five stores plus the national mail
order service.

We have received thousands of letters and emails from our readers. This is no exaggeration—one editorial alone produced roughly 150 letters or telephone calls to us. Only three letters to me have expressed displeasure and they were not critical of the newsletter, just the editorial. Virtually all the rest express appreciation for information or inspiration that the writer has found in our publication, and these letters tell me that all of us who have worked on it over the years have succeeded in achieving David van Berckel's vision. We have created a community of individual visual artists through this medium.

I remember once writing about a Shell Oil boat that had a few empty staterooms on it that they were willing to give to an artist, as well as time in their supply offices in the Canadian High Arctic, in exchange, I believe, for some artwork for their corporate headquarters. Many months later I received a letter and some images from an artist who had read about the opportunity and taken it. His letter raved about working in the northern light during the long, long days.

I also remember and will never forget the many responses to the article I wrote after finding my birth mother. My reunion convinced me that passion for the arts is genetic and I wrote about that. Some of the responses to that editorial from birth mothers and adoptees overwhelmed me. And I took tremendous pride in introducing so many of you to the Guerrilla Girls and in championing CAR/FAC and its Copyright Collective.

By informing you with excellent, free tax advice through the kindness of Robert McMurray, by explaining changes in tax law including those won by our friend Toni Onley, and by providing information on specific government tax information bulletins, we have enabled a great number of Canadian visual artists to increase and understand their tax deductions.

And finally, I remember countless requests to reprint various editorials. Reprint requests always meant a great deal to me, particularly when it was a university professor or an arts organization that I respected wanting to share it with students or artist collectives. With the advent of email, it has been amazing to get questions and comments from readers in Europe and scattered throughout the US. The reprints, and the posting of the newsletter on the Opus website (www.opusframing.com) have vastly expanded our readership.

Being the editorial voice of The Opus Visual Arts Newsletter has had a huge and positive impact on my life. So often, when being introduced to someone, the stranger says to me, "Oh I know you, you write the Opus newsletter." It has always struck me that they "know" me as a result of reading my writing. That’s how personal editorial writing is. But their sense of knowing me leads to the warmest of welcomes every time.

This newsletter helps to build relationships between Opus, the writers and you, the reader. And like any successful relationship, the partnership requires honesty, integrity and dependability. To the best of our ability, that is what we have strived to achieve and I think we have done a pretty good job based on those thousands
of letters.

This is what I have often said to friends: "The Opus Newsletter is, essentially, a corporate communications publication; a monthly marketing tool. But we have created a newsletter for artists and for Opus that makes people want subscriptions. Lots and lots of people have written to say how they look forward to reading it every month. Nothing makes me prouder than that!"

Thank you to every one of you who has written to us over the years with praise, criticism, ideas, questions and suggestions. Ours is a visual world and visual artists and designers give shape to that world and its ideas. We are leaders, we are visionaries and like all professionals, we are bettered through communication with our peers. This newsletter helps make that connection for the people we respect most—you— our readers, our customers, our friends.