GO! MaGaZINE • PAGE 7
Thursday, July 29, 2021 • ThE BullETIN
bendbulletin.com/gosee
CENTRAL OREGON ARTS SCENE
Art in the High
Desert hangs it up
New leadership would be
needed for highly ranked
juried art show to continue
BY DAVID JASPER
The Bulletin
T
he future of Art in the High
Desert is up in the air, but
one thing is not: Dave and
Carla Fox, the founders and primary
keepers of Bend’s premier art show
over the past 12 years, are ready to
Chandler Photography/submitted photo
break away.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced the can-
cellation of the late-August show two con-
secutive years.
“It just seemed like this is a sensible time
to kind of let it fade into the darkness out
there,” Dave Fox said. “It may be that down
the road, there might be another possibility
to put something together, once things kind
of settle out, if they do in our lifetimes.”
Getting a glimpse of life outside the
show’s demands played a factor in their de-
cision, as did other considerations — ones
involving family time and four grandkids
they don’t usually see in the summertime.
“Too much work to do,” Carla Fox said.
In a telling anecdote, Fox told GO! that in
2008, the show’s inaugural year, she and
Dave bought kayaks. They used them only a
few times that summer.
When AHD was canceled last year, they
used their boats again — for the first time in
12 years.
“I was overwhelmed when I figured that
out,” Fox said.
Then there’s the income lost by divert-
ing their attention away from her art career,
Art in the High Desert had been an August pres-
ence in the Old Mill District since 2008. It was
canceled this year and last due to COVID-19,
and its founders are stepping away. New lead-
ership will be required to keep it alive.
part of which involves teaching. The work
of planning, organizing, finding sponsors,
jurying and more that the show requires be-
gins eight to 10 months ahead of the show.
Prior to last year, through the Herculean
efforts of the Foxes and the nonprofit’s small
working board, Art in the High Desert took
place annually on the west bank of the De-
schutes River, where it passes through the
Old Mill District. Through the years, the
intent and execution of AHD remained the
same: hosting a competitive art show hon-
oring juried artists from around the country
and region, right in the Foxes home of Cen-
tral Oregon.
By design, Art in the High Desert never
sought to be a festival, the Foxes noted. Ab-
sent were the spectacle and multiple ame-
nities of other events, such as live music,
jumpy houses, beer gardens and food ven-
dors.
Continued on next page