Media should devote space to visual art.

Byline: LAUREL FISHER For The Register-Guard

LAST WEEK, STUDIO 1 at the Hult Center was lined with a vibrant display of visual art - 540 pieces from Lane County residents. Three judges slowly made their way through works ranging from a bronze teapot and a death head rendered in glass mosaic to an oil still life of violins. From all of it, they selected the 50 or so pieces that make up the 2002 Mayor's Art Show.

Behind this visual display is the work of dozens of volunteers who lift and carry, gather entry forms, create signs and mount the pieces in the limited space. Gallery director Barbara Harris deftly and diplomatically oversees it all. It is, all told, a splendid operation.

When the show opens during the Eugene Celebration, crowds will, well, crowd in to see it all. They will say "How wonderful." "How stupid." "My grandchild does better." They will have a lot to say. A big conversation about style and even technique will follow. The conversation will rise above the mundane, though it will not have time to go very far.

What has the promise of becoming an engaging conversation - directed away from TV, sports and the Miss America competition - is shortened by the press of time, by others pressing around and by an inattentive press. The community's reach toward art that promises to develop in these conversations will not occur again until the Mayor's Art Show in 2003.

I am dissatisfied with that. The community should be dissatisfied with the transitory spotlight on an interest of thousands who live here. The local media have offered no consequential, continuous coverage of Eugene's visual arts world. Occasional stories and features have been nice, but irresponsibly suggest that there isn't much going on. Neither our daily nor our weekly paper run a column on the visual arts or assign a reporter to that beat with any regularity.

The Register-Guard has folded its coverage of the arts into the Oregon Life section, which includes everything from travel in Tanzania and the Hult Center's sound system to pages of newlyweds and TV listings. This week there was not a word about the new gallery in town, the Mayor's Art Show or functional art, such as the new benches on Broadway.

Meanwhile, week after week, day after day, we are told the Duck story in detail. There's nothing wrong with that - unless those countless pages use up the newspaper's production and editorial budget, thereby offering an excuse to offer less in-depth coverage of just about everything else, particularly an arts section on Sunday.

There are a lot of stories out there.

Take a commercial gallery on Willamette Street that displays and sells from collections curated by the owners, one a former stockbroker and naval officer and the other a lawyer and art historian from China. Visit a gallery opening where the savvy gather to enjoy one another's comments and company while sipping cider and wine. Eugene galleries' tenuous hold on even a break-even future needs discussion and explanation. It is a human interest story, a big one!

It is thrilling that the University of Oregon Museum of Art has turned its first spade full of dirt. We should be grateful to the dedication of the donors, the staff and to the museum board and foundation. But I am embarrassed at the time it took to raise that money. Why did it take so long?

There are innumerable stories to be told about the inimitable Maude Kerns and its cliff-hanging, sometimes glorious history. And what about Eugene's art guilds and the new school to train glass artists? When was the gallery at the Eugene Airport last featured - a gem to be seen by more than travelers, and now faced with security issues?

Let's have some coverage about businesses, restaurants and banks that exhibit art. Why do they do it? Let's have in-depth stories about art preservation. Let's read about why the Ducks' color is that dark drab shade of green.

There could be column after column about the visual environment in our schools and the curriculum. How will students be expected to meet state-mandated art requirements in schools that have only a smattering of art teachers? What about the creative spark we speak of as being essential in developing the whole child?

An inventory of art spaces in Eugene establishes that things aren't all that bad - but things should be good, prosperous and promising, not just for the artists but for this community. Becoming a beautiful place does not happen one morning, it arises from the work of professionals, amateurs and a responsive population, encouraged by leaders and the media working steadily and optimistically toward a goal. The Mayor's Art Show is an opportune time to ask not when does it close, but how we can build on the momentum it has created.

A number of people are serious about the question of what is next for the visual arts. They look admiringly at the Hult Center and say "Bravo for the performing arts." And then they see we need for balance, a need to begin serious planning for a Eugene Museum or a Visual Arts Center or a Eugene Art Institute. Inevitably the idea will evolve and be more than one person's vision, but it will be a place that establishes the importance of the visual arts, providing for them with as much pride as we do the performing arts.

What a bunch of stories this will spin. What a bunch of letters and opinions will pour out. What a lot of thought the press can offer to help sort through the flowing ideas. That means to many of us that the media must begin right away with consistent coverage in generous volume so that we create an image that suits this community's living room.

Laurel Fisher of Eugene is a long-time advocate for the arts and an occasional KLCC commentator.