Still time to visit PushPin show

A reception took place when the show opened, and VAC director Chasse Davidson said it attracted a full house. She said she is pleased with this year’s PushPin exhibit, which features 131 entries. Submissions came from artists as young as 1 year old, up through their 80s.

In keeping with her goal of encouraging young people to participate in exhibitions, Davidson brought fliers announcing the show to local schools, and said the show attracted participants from Sam Case Elementary School in Newport, as well as Newport High School. She noted a local high school art show is planned for the Runyan Gallery in spring 2024, and hopefully will become an annual event at the VAC.

“I’d like to see local youth have the opportunity to showcase their work,” Davidson said.

The diversity of media submitted is expansive. PushPin entries ranged from painting – gouache, watercolor, and pastel, to pencil drawing, ink, crayon, and screen print, and from jewelry to gyotaku, copper etching, clay, papyrus, paper collage, plaster, photography, knitted fiber, wax, wire and beads, mini crochet, felting, written music, poetry, and Euro mount bone.

The submitting artists were invited to put their art up for sale and to set a price for their work. Prices range from $7.50 to $200.

The late local artist Jimmy Frankfort is credited with conceiving of the idea for the show. According to his daughter Michelle Frankfort, in an interview with the News-Times earlier this year, her father was part of a group of artists attempting to get more people involved and interested in what was going on at the VAC. They were particularly eager to bring in experimental artists, as well as those who did not have the money to frame their work.

But Michelle emphasized that her father, who signed his work “jaf” and created many of the shows’ posters, would not want to take credit for the pushpin idea.

“It was a group effort,” she said. “He always stressed community.”

And that was the basis for the PushPin show at the VAC, which materialized in the early 1990s. Frankfort thought that if the art submitted didn’t have to be finished or framed but instead could be pinned to the wall, more people could be included in a showing of their work at the VAC. And that was the goal.

“For seasoned artists, it could be an opportunity to try something different and be more experimental because the work didn’t have to be polished or finished because it wasn’t going to be judged,” Michelle noted.”

“The cool thing is that it carries on and the community continues to be inspired to create and express,“ she said.

This year’s show spans two months, one month longer than earlier renditions. Community voting for the People’s Choice award will continue through the length of the exhibit. “There’s plenty of time to come see the show,” Davidson said.

The PushPin show runs Wednesdays through Saturdays from noon to 4 p.m. at the VAC at the Nye Beach turnaround, 777 NW Beach Drive, now through Jan. 28.

OCCA Members Show

In lieu of the mayors show, which in recent years has followed the PushPin show, the VAC will host an exhibit of work by OCCA members. “It’s a way to promote OCCA membership and offer an additional benefit for being a member,” Davidson said.

The new show will run in the Runyan Gallery from Feb. 4 through March 26, with a reception set for Feb. 4. OCCA members can submit two pieces in their choice of medium, and depending on the number of artists entering the show, at least one and perhaps two pieces from each artist will be put on display. Davidson will be hanging the show.