Collective spirit

Sunday, Nov. 27, 2005 | 3:10 a.m.

Las Vegas Sun

The auction is from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday at the Ice House, 650 S. Main St. The evening includes music by the Las Vegas Jazz Society and hors d'oeuvres. Admission is $40 at the door, $35 in advance. Admission is $40 at the door, $35 in advance

For more information, call the CAC at 382-3886.

Artist Jennifer Gilbert walked into the Contemporary Arts Collective the Friday before last, plunked down her iron art piece and hurried out.

No time for small talk. The gallery was empty. The walls were bare. The last exhibit, a sound installation, had been disassembled and director Natalia Ortiz was collecting works donated by artists for the upcoming auction, the CAC's main fundraiser.

The gallery was lined with a varied collection of work by Las Vegas artists. There was a mixed-media photo work by Diane Bush, a small figurative painting by Susanne Forestieri, Marty Walsh's portrait of ketchup and mustard bottles, and a photo by Wes Myles.

Other auction items include a glass-fusion piece by Barbara and Larry Domsky, works by Mark Brandvik, Yvonne Lung, Jorge Catoni and Jerry Misko.

The open cooler stuffed with water bottles thawing in the sun?

"Oh, that's just a cooler," Ortiz said with a smile.

It never hurts to check, especially given that the CAC oscillates wildly between edgy contemporary art, traditional work and experimental efforts.

The items for the auction, to be held Saturday at the Ice House, are a mix of styles. If all goes right, the auction will help fund next year's budget of $75,000 and contribute to CAC's capital campaign.

The 16-year-old organization is needing money. Its membership, now at 700, includes 500 artists. The rest are patrons, gallery owners and supporters of the arts.

Looking around the sunlit gallery that faces Charleston Boulevard from the Arts Factory, Ortiz said, "It's well known that we've outgrown our space. It's one of our longterm goals to have a space that can accommodate two galleries."

The mere fact that the CAC is even around today is a testament to the passion of its volunteers.

Unlike other organizations -- Allied Arts Council and the Nevada Institute for Contemporary Art, for example -- the CAC has managed to survive. Board members have come and gone frequently, burned out and moved on. Ideals have changed. Arguments over what art is and isn't have continued. Four years ago the CAC almost folded, said artist Bush, a former president of the CAC.

Yet the CAC remains an anchor in the community, a revolving door for artists and cultural patrons.

"For anybody who becomes involved in the culture of Las Vegas, it becomes a rite of passage," said Brian "Paco" Alvarez, vice president of the board. "The CAC is one of those labors of love. You want to see it succeed. The CAC could have folded many times in the past, but it persevered.

"We have our critics. Some people would like to see the CAC in the idealized version. We all have an idealized version of what art is and we all have different concepts of what contemporary art should be.

"It's gone from edgy to traditional to edgy again."

But, Alvarez added, "Every six months the city changes so the CAC and other cultural institutions have to change."

Finding Space

The CAC was founded as an artist-run organization in 1989 by students at UNLV's new Department of Art. It opened its gallery, the Temporary Contemporary Gallery on Maryland Parkway, then moved to a more affordable location downtown.

At the time there was no First Friday, Dust Gallery, Arts Factory or Godt-Cleary Projects. Surprised members watched as a hearty crowd turned out for its mixed-artist exhibit, "Mona! Mona! Mona!" which was a compilation of renditions based on the da Vinci masterpiece.

"There were thousands of people out on the street," said Jim Stanford, who has been with the CAC since its early days and owned the now defunct Smallworks and Lost Vegas galleries.

"It really blew my mind because I didn't know that many people were interested in contemporary art," Stanford said. "The funniest part is that nobody had been downtown to do anything."

Over the years, CAC's roster board members has included a long list of natives and newcomers.

Its current president, Jacie Maynard, has a business background. She's credited with getting the group's budget out of the red, increasing membership nearly seven-fold and creating associate business partners while "cross-polinating" with other groups who are not traditionally involved in the arts.

A part-time real estate agent, Maynard operates two galleries that feature her husband Lincoln Maynard's work, and oversees CAC's day-to-day operations. Maynard, who grew up in Las Vegas as a child of Strip entertainers, is known to be aggressive in gaining community support for the CAC. "People look at me and say, 'Oh God, she's going to ask me for money,' " Maynard said with a laugh. "And I do.

"CAC is growing up. To take the CAC to another level, we're going to need a new building. We have less than 1,000 square feet. It's like 900 and some change."

But, she said, "With the space we have, we do a pretty good job."

And it's more than exhibits at the CAC. The Art Educators of Southern Nevada hold meetings there. There are workshops and Tuesday night life-drawing classes.

Having only one gallery limits the amount of member work that is shown, leaving some members frustrated. But the CAC has taken alternative measures: Its satellite exhibit program allows for member art to be shown in lobbies of local businesses. After more than 400 pieces were submitted for a recent juried show, the gallery opened a second exhibit, "Salon de Refuse," across the street from its gallery at Anne Kellog's boutique, Paperdoll.

Cutting edges

The most contentious issue among CAC members today is what kind of art to feature. Artist styles and levels of quality vary wildly and nothing, despite its artistic value or nonvalue, is ever embraced by all.

"In the beginning, the idea was that it was going to be very cutting-edge, California gallery style and the shows would be very small," said Forestieri, who was around during the group's inception, served on the board and recently led a workshop at the CAC.

Board members have said that "purists" at UNLV have not liked the direction the organization is headed. But more experimental exhibits don't always draw crowds.

"The sound installation was really hard for a lot of people," Ortiz said. "It involved a little more participation of viewers, partly because we're so used to art as visual."

But the CAC invited artists from the Nevada Blind Center to attend the exhibit and sit in on a curatorial talk.

"It was really nice," Ortiz said. "The whole show was about disregarding (the visual). Here these people totally disregarded the visual elements, paying attention to the sounds and how they were put together."

Earlier this year the gallery brought in "The Cult of Potato." The exhibit was also experimental, Ortiz said, but had more of a fun component.

Opinions vary. Misko says that he'd like to see more contemporary work, but understands that there is a large membership that is trying to be democratic. Stanford says the gallery should be viewed as an alternative space because the CAC " can show things that wouldn't be in a library setting."

Forestieri said that as a figurative painter, she has found many of the CAC exhibits to be boring.

However, Forestieri said, "I think they're doing the right thing. I don't expect everything to be fabulous. And some of the best exhibits I've seen have been at the CAC."

Given the diverse viewpoints, Maynard simply says, "It's a collective."

"Collective is the operative word here," she said. "It just isn't one group of people. It's about all groups of people."

The auction will be followed by the mixed-media installation "Observable Inhumanity: a result of Human Anesthesia." The exhibit features artists Catoni, KD Matheson and Kate Jackson and opens Dec. 21.

"Weird and Wondrous," a national juried show of experimental and new media art, opens in February, followed by another juried show and a Stephen Hendee and Catherine Borg installation exhibit.

Alvarez said the CAC can stay on a steady course by respecting the group historically but keeping in touch with new demands.

"They are definitely in a stronger place in terms of support," said Naomi Arin, who owns Dust Gallery with Jerry Misko. "Jacie Maynard is doing a really great job at raising money and keeping the doors open.

"They're like this grandaddy. I wish they would find comfort in not knowing who they are because that's who they are. That's how they've managed to survive. They are constantly changing whether they want to or not."

Regarding the growth, Misko said, "It's the way it had to be to keep it alive. Some people are excited about it. Some people aren't too happy.

"It's been a backbone in the arts community for a long time. "It has its history with the Vegas art scene. You do your time at the CAC and prove that you're serious about the Vegas art scene."

And member service?

"Just the fact that they're staying open is serving the members well."

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