SIMI EXHIBIT TO SHOWCASE LOCAL ARTISTS.

Byline: Jean Russell Vogel Community Columnist

The Simi Valley Art Association invites the public to join its 35th anniversary celebration, which includes an exhibit of members' work at the Art Stop and a reception honoring past presidents.

The exhibit may be viewed between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday until May 25, said association President Candi Ferguson, whose shop at 995 E. Los Angeles Ave. (in back of Kountry Folks) is hosting the show. The public is also welcome at the 7 p.m. reception Friday.

SVAA's 36th year will begin with a change in venue when the May 21 meeting convenes at the Simi Valley Cultural Center, which will also be the site of the organization's annual juried show in June.

``We seem to have come full circle,'' remarked Anna Heglin, the only remaining charter member, as she reminisced across 35 years. ``For a time Adult Education art classes met in the basement of the Methodist Church, now the Cultural Center, the very spot where future SVAA meetings and annual competitions will take place,'' she said.

Among the several thousand residents in then unincorporated Simi and Santa Susana, Heglin recalls a small group of artists, most of whom painted in oils.

Their eagerness to improve their skills resulted first in classes and then in SVAA's founding in May 1961 ``to promote the cultural interests and abilities of its members and the community.''

Their work subsequently impressed a local attorney who handled the organization's filing for nonprofit status. ``He accepted our paintings in payment,'' Heglin recalled.

Like the career of the versatile Heglin, the association came to showcase art in a variety of media. The annual competitive exhibit added categories for photography in the late '70s, and three-dimensional art forms have been included since 1985. Since 1990, the formerly open annual shows have been selected by a three-judge panel.

Watercolorist Dee Hodson, a past president of SVAA, applauded the civic support, which gives the show a permanent site at the Cultural Center. Before and since the Simi Valley Library hosted the annual event between 1980 and 1990, organizers went ``from pillar to post,'' seeking suitable locations, she explained.

The Chumash mural at the Library, Hodson recalls, incorporates work by association members, including herself, who worked from photographs of local cave art.

The library's opening in February 1980 featured a collection of artists' works depicting other historical and contemporary local subjects. Assembled in cooperation with the Simi Valley Historical Society, the collection has also been shown at Strathearn Historical Park. A number of the artists subsequently donated their paintings to the Library and the Park.

Pictorial preservation of the local scene was encouraged in 1982 when a purchase prize for Moorpark and Simi Valley subjects was added to annual show awards by the Enterprise, the forerunner of the Simi Valley Star. Since 1993 the Kiwanis Club of Simi Valley has funded this award.

In addition to monthly demonstrations of technique by visiting artists, SVAA's approximately 100 members now have a new educational resource, a lending library. Deanna Russell is in charge of the circulation of art books, videos and magazines. Fees will be added to the scholarship fund.

Jan Wagner coordinated the anniversary members' exhibit. For more information about the SVAA or the current festivities, call 578-9343.