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Visual artists call for support
Many locals believe DAC could do more
Arts & Entertainment Editor
Photo by YODIT GIDEY/Herald
Artists and advocates march from Buckley Park up Main Avenue over the Main Avenue Bridge on Tuesday. Heading to the Durango Public Library are Keagan Felker, 12, and Oakley Felker, 9, with their mother, Amy Vaclav Felker, left behind
Keagan, Miki Harder and Cindy Coleman, right.
Many of the improvements will cost money, which is in short supply.
Seven of the eight board members of the DAC were on hand to hear the artists' comments, which ran the gamut from modest suggestion to outright criticism. Moderator Stew Mosberg, a freelance writer and Herald columnist, asked the crowd to refrain from airing grievances in favor of finding a common ground between the existing board and the artists.
"Pretend the Durango Arts Center is just beginning," Mosberg said, opening the floor to the artists' wish list.
Most in attendance believe the center's board has neglected the visual arts, demonstrating instead a focus on performing arts. Suggestions were made to improve the Barbara Conrad Gallery, make better use of the DAC gift shop to sell the work of local artists, and make better use of in-house facilities such as artists' studios, a kiln and pottery wheels. A redesign of the DAC's entrance, creation of an artists' guide, adult art-education classes and improved signage guiding tourists to the DAC and its exhibits were also suggested.
Many of the improvements will cost money, which is in short supply. The DAC is currently without an executive director after Carson Jones resigned in March, and its staff numbers only three, none of whom work in the visual arts.
The board also has vacancies after several resignations earlier this year.
Board member Dennis Pierce said he has a stack of résumés for a new director, but it may also be decided to hire separate management and finance directors.
A 2008 audit found numerous financial discrepancies in DAC bookkeeping and accounting, and the nonprofit organization remains about $200,000 in the red after the failed 2007 experiment to purchase and operate the Diamond Circle Melodrama.
For the artists gathered Tuesday, most agreed to put the past behind them, but only if the atmosphere changes at the DAC in favor of the visual arts. Karyn Gabaldon, who owns her own gallery on Main Avenue, summed up the general feeling and closed the comments at the meeting with an ultimatum of sorts.
"It's time to move forward, and we're ready (or) we'll be gone," Gabaldon said. "We need a visual arts center, and we don't want to wait any longer."
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