Perfecting the art of opening night

Last night at 5:30 p.m., a small group of people were scattered around the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri, taking in the new exhibits that will hang in the arts council during September.

Wine was being poured into small plastic glasses. Tables full of crackers, cookies, vegetables, cheese and assorted dips and spreads were in one of the art council's three galleries. Already people were gathering into small groups and talking, catching up on what the other person has been up to since they last spoke.

The arts council door was continually in motion as more people arrived for the arts council's First Friday opening.

First Friday openings are held the first Friday of every month, when new exhibits are installed and revealed to the public.

Although the arts council's exhibits are changed on a monthly basis, other area art galleries participate in First Fridays whenever they have new exhibits.

The arts council's openings take place from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. When other area galleries hold openings, the times are staggered so people can attend more than one.

Since the arts council moved from a space at the corner of Spanish and Independence streets to a much larger space on Main Street in March 2003, the First Friday openings have undergone a renaissance of sorts.

One of the reasons for the event's growth is that the larger space allowed the arts council to start the visual arts cooperative, which brought in more people every month to the openings.

And around the same time as the arts council's move, the Schock Community Arts Center opened in Scott City, the Garden Gallery opened in Cape Girardeau and the H&H Building on Broadway started to occasionally house art exhibits.

"It's just been really exciting," said arts council director Rebecca Fulgham about First Friday's growth.

Fulgham said on average, the openings bring in between 200 and 300 people. August's opening featured an exhibit by David and Taylor Crowe, and it set a record with 443 people.

While the arts council was not full of wall-to-wall people as it was last month, the traffic throughout the evening was fairly constant.

The evening started slowly, with people casually poring over the artwork of plein-air landscape painter Roger Brown in the Lorimier Gallery and the newest work of the visual arts cooperative in the recently named Jean Chapman Gallery.

The installation piece by Wisconsin artist Erin Tapley in Gallery 100 was met with a little more trepidation by the early arrivals. The Chinese-influenced piece, titled "Thinking Inside the Box," had mostly red tissue paper taking up almost every part of the gallery. On the walls, the material was arranged to resemble Chinese characters, while what looked like streamers were overhead and on the floor the material was constructed into bags.

One early arrival was Southeast Missouri State University art professor Dr. Sam Bishop, a gallery regular for at least the past 10 years.

Bishop always brings along company. He requires his art appreciation students to attend.

Bishop is far from being the only member of the university faculty who has made a habit of coming to the arts council on the first Friday of every month.

"Almost all the entire art staff comes down," he said. "A lot of the area art teachers come down."

Almost as soon as Bishop said this, he was greeted by Central High School art teacher and arts council co-op member Judy Barks-Westrich.

Barks-Westrich is another regular at openings.

"You will always have the very sincere arts supporters" in attendance, Barks-Westrich said. Although they might not be artists, these people are "serious and passionate about their interest in the arts," she said.

At 6:15 p.m., the arts council's opening had grown more crowded. Fewer people were closely examining the artwork. It was a time to talk.

Around this point co-op members Sharon Forthofer and Annie Schuchart arrived together, having just finished dinner.

"We have such a good time," Schuchart said. "For the artists, it's an exciting feeling because there's a bunch of like-minded people there."

The door to the arts council opened more frequently as the hour wore on. By 6:45 p.m., the arts council's First Friday opening was at its apex with laughter and the art of conversation.

kalfisi@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182