Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 23, 2003)
BY SYLVIE PEDERSON seven feathers hotel & casino resort FIGHT NIGHT Saturday, November 8 at 7 p.m. Tickets $39, $29 & $19 7 scheduled bouts of Fight Night action! Tickets are on sale at the Box Office, Safeway TicketWest Outlets or call 800-992-TIXX. Must be 12 or older. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. I-5, Exit 99 or 98 • Canyonville, OR 1.800.548.8461 • sevenfeathers.com High Ambitions DIVA planned as a full-blown visual arts center. D IVA, the Downtown Initiative for the Visual Arts, is a multi-use vi- sual arts facility at 110 W. Broadway, next to parking facilities, the bus station and the library. The public is invited to the formal opening of DIVA from 5 to 8 pm Friday, Nov. 7. Expect several exhibitions and a reception. DIVA is part of a history of arts-related venues and activities in downtown Eugene that has resulted, according to a recent City Club survey, in about 200 sites connected to the arts located within the eight-square-block area between 3rd and 11th avenues and Lincoln and High streets. have a building with two entrances, but share a gift-shop where we’d offer local arts for sale. We both attract students, give slide and power-point presentations. The city badly needs a public meeting-room, a place for fund-raising events — a function that muse- ums always have. We could organize joint art and history walking tours.” Financially, “our long-term goal is to work toward getting three endowments funded by bequest of people with a vested in- terest in the visual arts,” Stender said. It would include: 1) an operational endowment such as the Silva Endowment for the Performing Arts to pay bills and fund the new The development is good economic news, because the arts are considered a leading factor in stimulating economic prosperity. An informal arts and culture district has emerged in downtown Eugene, with the word “art” conceived broadly enough to include ven- ues and ventures from fine arts to tattoo art, from the Hult Center to the Saturday Market, OFAM’s Shedd to WOW Hall, the library, the- aters (Lord Leebrick, Actors Cabaret, McDonald), art galleries, cafés with rotating art exhibits, Brush-Fire ceramics, outdoor art, frame shops, bookshops and art supplies. The development is good economic news, because the arts are considered a leading fac- tor in stimulating economic prosperity. DIVA is “an effort to bring the visual arts into ‘parity’ with the performing arts,” said Carolyn Kranzler, the driving force behind the facility. DIVA implements the stated goals for the visual arts of the ArtsPlan pro- posal, which a citizen task force produced in 1994-95 and the City Council endorsed in January 1996. One of DIVA’s primary goals is to unify the local visual arts. “We want to be the hub of activity in terms of the visual arts in town, the way the Hult Center is the hub for per- forming arts,” Randall Stender, chair of DIVA’s steering committee, said. “We hope to be a catalyst for a downtown revival.” The DIVA team wants downtown to become a “nexus for visual arts activities,” he says. The ultimate goal is for DIVA to grow into a full-blown visual arts center with a perma- nent building of its own downtown. The team would like to build the center across from the Court House on Lane County property known as the Butterfly parking lot. If large enough, the facility might include artist stu- dios for rent. “A bigger location would have the ability to accommodate a permanent collection to- gether with temporary exhibits, storage, events, teaching, space for people to meet,” Maude Kerns Art Center’s Karen Pavelec pointed out. “Right now we’re losing a lot of artwork created in Eugene, because artists move away, and art done here is donated or bought outside of Lane County.” Kranzler hopes that Lane County Historic Museum could share the center’s building. “They’re both public buildings with similar functions,” she explained. “We need the same kind of climate control in terms of exhibi- tions, preservation and storage. We could 20 OCTOBER 23, 2003 building; 2) a special projects endowment similar to the Hult endowment to provide for traveling exhibits, purchase awards, commis- sions and competitions such as public sculp- ture; and 3) a collection fund to build and sus- tain a permanent regional art collection. These endowments would apply strictly for a future visual arts center. DIVA has not yet started fund-raising, ac- cording to Kranzler, and about $60,000 is needed to cover the coming year’s expenses. “We’d like to make DIVA self-sufficient through commissions generated through sales, memberships, tuition,” Stender said. MKAC and Gallery at the Airport will co- ordinate their exhibits with DIVA and will or- ganize the first few shows. MKAC became DIVA’s fiscal agent in March 2003 while DIVA applies for its own nonprofit status. MKAC will not give up its historic church site on W. 15th Avenue, but the center has long felt the need for a downtown presence. DIVA will provide an exhibit space and host some youth classes for the center. DIVA wel- comes volunteers and is looking for students to fill intern positions. DIVA plans accessible exhibits, curated as well as juried, including youth exhibits that will involve children from elementary to high school. The new facility hopes youth with young urban tastes for fashion design, exper- imental film and video, animation, computer art and printmaking will use the center. “I en- visage people coming at all times of day and being involved, not just coming to look,” said committee member Carole Patterson. DIVA contacted a group of artists, who expressed the need for a digital camera, scan- ner and computer to help artists put together portfolios. Four artists serve on DIVA’s steer- ing committee: Jerry Ross, Tenold Peterson, Patterson and Hallis. Patterson said they want DIVA to be “a place for networking, with a café atmosphere.” Kranzler would like DIVA to be a place where artists and the public gather for social evenings, where artists would bring their art and set up on the sidewalk, and where an an- nual art ball would draw people in costume. Ross has suggested creating a Mayor’s Art Show purchase award that would go toward DIVA housing a permanent regional art col- lection. ew
