Council meeting a chance to become a part of arts community

Staff Reports

The Carson Valley Arts Council invites members and the public to the annual membership meeting and grand opening of the Copeland Cultural Arts Center at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Copeland Cultural Arts Center, 1572 Highway 395, Minden. Refreshments will be served and Artistic Viewpoints Gallery and Studio will be open. Information, 782-8207.

The past year's events and goals for the future will be outlined in the meeting. New officers for the arts council's board of directors will be elected and new board members will be introduced.

CVAC is dedicated to presenting and promoting cultural events and providing opportunities for the community to experience visual, literary, musical and performing arts. It is the art council's mission to create an environmentally healthy, multifunctional, visual and performing arts center.

Since August 2004, the Carson Valley Arts Council has grown from a grass roots group with a dream to an organization capable of presenting quality arts programming during an annual winter concert series.

The 2008-09 concert series opens with Scottish storyteller Tony McManus on Dec. 12 and continues with Great Basin Brass on Jan. 16, flamenco guitarist Kaweh on Feb. 6, blues guitarist Chris Cain on March 13 and Mumbo Gumbo on May 8.

A down payment for the Copeland lumber building in January was made possible through a donation from Big George Ventures. Additional donations from the Smallwood and Malkmus foundations, GE Energy, the Thunderbird Ranch and others enabled the transformation of the lumber building storefront into the cultural arts center.

The arts center has expanded to include meeting and gallery space, a community arts incubator, children's programming with outreach to the schools and performance events. The next phase involves raising money to pay off the building to be eligible for grants to seismically retrofit and continue the transformation of the warehouse into a multifunctional theater venue.

Volunteer opportunities at CVAC are available. People are needed for building, events, fundraising and technical committees. All committees meet at the Copeland Cultural Arts Center, 1572 Highway 395, Minden.

Regular monthly meetings are 5:30 p.m. the second Thursday of the month. Information, cvartscouncil.com, 265-0331 or 782-2132.