Arts Council of Midland Executive Director Danny Holeva and Operations Coordinator Alayne Paulson both know that there’s a lot of creativity in the Permian Basin. Their newest show has helped showcase some of the talented artists in the Odessa-Midland area. “The Open Show” is currently on display until June 28 at the Arts Council of Midland which is located at 1506 W. Illinois Ave.
Earlier this year, Holeva and Paulson put out a call to local artists to submit their work. “Danny saw that there was a need in the community for arts for an open call show,” Paulson said. “We hadn’t had one in Midland in at least 10 years. So we put the call out on social media and started talking to our friends in the community and other artists and we were pleased with the turnout. We have artists from all over the area and quite a few students which is good to see there’s a lot out there.”
Just under 80 submissions were received, which impressed Holeva and Paulson. “Artists are like everybody else,” Holeva said. “It seems like we do everything at the last second at times. It really picked up and it was nice to see a variety of work and different subject matter. We had 2D and 3D and collage pieces.”
The artists ranged from ages 16-93. “There were quite a few from Odessa and UTPB students,” Paulson said. “There was a young lady out of Fort Stockton.”
The show contains most visual art mediums from painting to photography, prints, fiber art, college and drawing. “It was very open (as far as themes),” Holeva said. “You had to be 16 years of age so this wasn’t for children. However, we’ve thought about doing a children’s event in the future. There’s a wide variety of subject matter and different media that’s going on.”
Awards were given out to the top eight. A Best in Show and First Place Award were given out as well. Best in Show went to high schooler Sara Kate Owens for her picture of “Mary Beth.” First Place went to Richard Acosta for his photo “Timelaspse Under West Texas Skies.” “(Owens) is an online high schooler so she’s a very self directed young lady,” Paulson said. “These guys have the option of having a show together next year.”
The Arts Council of Midland is currently celebrating its 40th anniversary. “We started as an organization that came out of a city wide study of Midland in the 1980s,” Holeva said. “It was recognized that an arts council would be a good thing for Midland. We built from there. We’re a presenting and re-granting organization. What that means is we do programs like this. We have our sculpture garden and festival celebration but we also re-grant dollars for the city of Midland through hotel/motel taxes and we’ve been doing that for about 35 years.”
Later this summer, the Arts Council of Midland will be doing its “Celebration of the Arts” which will take place from July 15-17 at the Chaparral Center. For more information about the Arts Council of Midland, go to acmidland.org/theopenshow.
If you go
- What: The Open Show.
- When: Now-June 28.
- Where: Arts Council of Midland, 1506 W. Illinois Ave., Midland.
