Treasures a real variety show

Exhibit shows work from many media

By Steve Arney
sarney@pantagraph.com

BLOOMINGTON -- McLean County Arts Center's main gallery is loaded with oil paintings, collages, glasswork, sculpture and photography -- both standard photo art and digitally manipulated pieces.

Styles like realism, abstract, neo-geo -- you-name-it -- line walls of the Brandt Gallery and spill into the lobby.

On and on, there are styles, formats and framing nuances at the art center's 30th annual Holiday Treasures Exhibit.

Holiday Treasures opens tonight with a $25-per-person gala that features live music, food, drink and -- the hallmark of the exhibition -- art sales. The gala runs from 5 to 8 p.m.

Arts center Executive Director Doug Johnson said 15 percent to 20 percent of the exhibit will sell during the gala.

So one could say that the best pieces go on gala night, except Johnson reminds that for every piece that sells, another piece is put in its place.

With most shows, a telltale red dot near a piece means "sold," and the buyer picks up the piece when the exhibit ends. For Holiday Treasures, buyers can take home art on the day of purchase.

Additional pieces are placed on the walls to fill spots of sold pieces. Therefore, to say the "best" goes first would be a subjective statement.

Holiday Treasures helps inaugurate the holiday gift season for the fine-arts makers and buyers. It is a show that provides a fund-raiser to the center and an economic boost to artists.

In conjunction with that goal:

• New artists are introduced to the community. Nearly all the exhibitors are currently or formerly from the region. The long list is available at www.mcac.org. (A few late arrivals are missing from the list.) Familiar names from venues like the Sugar Creek Arts Festival comprise much of the list. But Johnson and staff also sought new talent.

• Holiday Treasures provides the community with one of the more notable introductions into the region's fine arts, with the 97 artists showing work.

• Few large pieces are on display. A national name like Gerald Erley will exhibit small pieces to keep prices lower.

• A typical piece at Holiday Treasures will be 2 feet by 3 feet. Price ranges from about $300 to $1,000 for a painting, with pricing based on factors such as quality, popularity of the artist and size of a piece. Also featured, for less, is assorted fine-arts jewelry.

Holiday Treasures couples with another group exhibit, Dorothy's Red Shoes, which opened in the arts center's side gallery on Oct. 28. Dorothy features 90 artists who created work no larger than 14 inches wide or deep to fit the "Wizard of Oz" theme.

Dorothy's Red Shoes and Holiday Treasures both remain on exhibit until Dec. 24.

For Johnson and staff, the difficulty of Holiday Treasures -- in addition to figuring out how to fit all the art into the Brandt Gallery -- is narrowing the field. Up to 50 percent of applicants were turned down, Johnson estimated.

Nonetheless, he describes the show as a "well-rounded" array of artists in a space that cannot possibly accommodate all of them for solo shows.

It's A Wrap, Family Art Workshop, printed wrapping paper,

materials fee $5 members/$8 non-members