Downtown Cape's Visual Arts Cooperative will hold opening

Some of the 41 artists in the new Visual Arts Cooperative opening today in downtown Cape Girardeau have never seen their work displayed at an art gallery before. Others are veterans of the gallery game, but this new opportunity is just as important to them.

For co-op founder Dr. Jean Chapman, a Biblical admonition explains artists' need to exhibit their work. "Don't put a basket over your candle," he said. "Most artists have few opportunities to show their art."

Work by members of the co-op will occupy all three galleries when the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri reopens in its new quarters at 34 N. Main St. today. Beginning in April, work by co-op members will be exhibited in only one of the galleries, with the arts council's regular schedule of local and national shows resuming in the other two galleries.

For the past few weeks, the galleries have rung with the sounds of drills and hammers while some members of the co-op painted and spackled walls to ready the building for the opening. Each artist pays $10 per month for the right to display one work in the gallery per month. On a rotating basis, the artists also get to put their work in one of the gallery's three Main Street display windows for a month.

The arts council previously was located in offices at 119 Independence St.

The move gives the organization the space to expand to a third gallery and to provide demonstrations. Putting the galleries closer to the heart of downtown means they now will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays to take advantage of Main Street foot traffic.

"This is going to be wonderful for the artists and a good addition to Main Street," said executive director Becky Fulgham.

"It's the space. It's the visibility," says James V. Parker, the well-known local artist who founded the University Museum and was its director for many years before his retirement.

When Chapman first proposed the co-op idea, organizers wondered whether the necessary 40 artists could be found to cover the rental costs. They would have been excited to find 20. The coop now has a waiting list of 11 artists who want to be members of the co-op. One member, recent Southeast graduate Matt Miller, won a scholarship provided by some of the other members.

Most of the artists are from Cape Girardeau, but there also are members from Jackson, Charleston, Sikeston, Millersville and Perryville. Many of the names in the membership are familiar because of their past involvement with arts council shows or the arts: Chapman, Parker, Southeast art professor Dr. Edwin Smith, muralist and sidewalk artist Craig Thomas, computer artist Dr. Max Cordonnier, Shawnee Community College art instructor Brenda Seyer, Central High School teacher Judy Barks-Westrich, former Southeast art professor Rick Proctor, former Jackson High School teacher Herb Wickham, Missouri Wall of Fame creator Margaret Dement of Sikeston, Jackson artist Vicki Outman, Southeast art professor Lane Fabrick, 82-year-old Cape Girardeau artist Lou Varro, downtown artist/musician Don Greenwood, Cape Girardeau photographer and orthodontist Dr. David Crowe, and stained glass artist Robert Parsons.

Others like Tom Ward, owner of a Cape Girardeau barbershop, are having a new experience. "I'm a real rookie," he says.

The portrait painter has taken a workshop from Daniel Greene, who painted the portrait of Eleanor Roosevelt that hangs in the White House. But aside from hanging a few of his pastels on the wall of his shop, Ward has never shown his work to the public before.

"I joined for the exposure," he said, "just to become more familiar with the art world."

Richard Webb started painting, sculpting wood and making ceramics when he retired from Procter & Gamble 10 years ago. His work has been displayed in a few nonlocal shows. The coop is "a great opportunity for local artists to have their work seen and to be in a nice gallery," he says.

He makes raku and pit-fired ceramics. "It's a creative process in its own right," he says. "You don't know how it will turn out."

Coop member Priscilla Kasten of Millersville, Mo., was a pharmaceutical rep before her daughter, Drew Anna, was born more than 3 years ago. Her interest in art resurfaced when she decided not to go back to work. "Art is something you almost get infected with," she says. Her husband, Mike, bought her her first set of oil paints.

Kasten's work has been included in some arts council shows. Joining the coop was a natural next step, she said. "It's a continual learning thing. I just want to get better."

Parker belong to a co-op when he lived in Phoenix and says, "It works." But most of the artists are strangers to the workings. The membership and their art are juried by a committee. One committee member doesn't want any functioning crafts in the gallery, others don't mind as long as they are high quality. There are issues about what kinds of framing are acceptable. "The board is still working through a lot of this," Thomas says.

Scott Kelley, a Cape Girardeau free-lance artist, said the co-op is a godsend for area artists. "This allows us to get our artwork up in people's eyes and in people's faces. We need that in this area."

Outman used to be a high school art teacher. She has won juror's awards in two "Art for the Health of It" competitions, including this year's, and has shown in galleries all over Southeast Missouri. She says the co-op can benefit the public as much as the artists. "It's a great opportunity for the public. They can buy original works of art at far lower prices than in big cities."

Everything in the Visual Arts Cooperative gallery is for sale. Co-op members pay 10 percent commission to the arts council on sales compared to the commissions of 30 to 50 percent artists pay to commercial galleries. "We can keep the price lower so more people can buy," Outman says.

Cordonnier, a retired literature professor known especially for work that illustrates his reading tastes in Chaucer and Blake, creates his art on a computer and displays it in his own online gallery. Being a member of the coop presents a dilemma for him because he thinks of his art as electronic and digital -- not something to be framed and hung in a standing art gallery.

But while working to get the gallery ready, Cordonnier has been encouraged to notice that the downtown streets are usually crowded.

"This will succeed as the downtown does, as the other businesses thrive," he said.

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182