Art Shows will spruce up Salem Conference Center

October 8, 2006

Salem Mayor Janet Taylor is joining forces with the Salem Conference Center and gallery owner Mary Lou Zeek to bring art, in both temporary and permanent installations, to the center.

The first Maypr's Invitational Art Show is set to open in July, on the eve of the Salem Art Fair & Festival.  A mayor's reception will inaugurate the exhibit, which opens to the public the following day.

The exhibit will run for a year at the center, to be followed annually by additional art shows.

"It will be all Oregon artists," Taylor said. "I would love it to be a theme of Salem.

The first year will be paintings, and Taylor said she would like the second year to be sculptures, with the arwork displayed on the plaza outside the center.  The sculptures may overflow into downtown Salem.

The goal is to build a permanent collections of art at the center, both to shocase Oregon artists and to promote the area. The paintings in the first exhibit will be on display in the first-floor lobby and maybe on part of the second floor. 

Through sponsofwhips, there will be a mayor's purchase awared each year to put a work of art from each show in the center permanently.  Two secondary awards also will be given.

"I think it's going to be a jump start for that facility." Taylor said. "I think we can build something good there."

Chrissie Bertsvch, the conference center general manager, said the inviational is another positive move, coming on top of improvements such as new carpet and new furniture which will be installed soon.

"It'll do nothing but benefit our involvement in downtown," she said of the invitational. "Just the whole overall package. Everything is exciting right now.

Zeek already has identified artists who w8ill be invited to be in the exhibit.  There will be a total of 20.

It's very exciting," Zeek said. "We just had to go about it very slow, but it's going to be a great job for the conference center."

She said the first letters will go out to artists in November.

"It will just be the invitation asking the," Zeek said. "When they say yes, we'll send them a prospectus."

Although most of the artists will be committing their work without it being purchased for the center, they will get exposure and maybe sales.

"It's a great opportunity to have your work exposesd to the community and people who come to the state." she said.

She is working with Bertsch and their consultant, Shelly Curtis, the curator and manager of the touring "Art About Agriculture" show for Oregon State University's College of Agriculture.

Curtis will be in charge of organizing the show, and Taylor said she will take the lead in finding sponsors to buy the art.

The conference center will pay Curtis out of its operational budget, Bertsch said.

Zeek's "Details Show," featuring photography by Kelly James, already is on display in the windows of the center for an indefinate run