Area Artists To Hold Exhibit, Music Festival At JCC This Weekend
By NICHOLAS L. DEAN

8/21/2006 - Rather than go it alone, Jamestown artists have found it’s easier to get by with a little help from their friends.Formed in the fall of 2004, the Active Artist Alliance started with 20 area residents and college students who were honing their craft locally. Since going online in 2005, the group has grown to 200 members with artists in five different countries and across the United States.‘‘I would say that about half of our membership is within New York state,’’ said Bill Thomas, AAAlliance founder, from his home in Saranac Lake. ‘‘The correct term to describe the AAAlliance’s function is ‘international artists’ collective and online community.’ Membership is free through the Web site, www.activeartist.org.’’

Started by like-minded artists looking to express themselves and put on art-centric events, Thomas said the first members all originally hailed from or had lived in Jamestown. As such, most of the AAAlliance’s events have so far stayed within Chautauqua County.Still winding down from an ambitious weekend-long festival they organized in Forestville earlier this month, the group will hold its Summer Showcase at Jamestown Community College Saturday afternoon. Unlike the Fleshpot Festival, which featured camping, music, artwork, films and more for a fee — the Summer Showcase will be free and open to the public.‘‘After our first group show that spring 2005 in St. Petersburg, Fla., it became obvious that we needed to actually organize ourselves a little better before we started having shows and requesting work from people,’’ Thomas said. ‘‘This past April we had our first Western New York event at the Ellicottville Brew Co. in Fredonia, which was a huge success.’’

Having recently acquired a large white tent, the AAAlliance debuted its mobile gallery at the Fleshpot Festival in Forestville. Providing a venue for area artists to display their work, the AAAlliance will set up the mobile gallery at upcoming events such as the Local Music Showcase on Sept. 9 in Jamestown and other events in the fall.According to Thomas, the collective is working on organizing events for Halloween and Thanksgiving.‘‘Starting in spring 2007 we will be looking to organize some events beyond Western New York,’’ Thomas said. ‘‘However, we’re still staying focused on New York state and the northeastern U.S. for now because that is where the majority of our membership is located.’’Involved since the beginning, Jamestown resident Nathan Long jokes that he definitely did not join the AAAlliance for money or fame — of which there are none to speak of so far. After moving back to the area, Long helped form the organization because he was interested in creating an art coalition and because he one day hopes to own a gallery.‘‘I’m just here to help people spread their beautiful art,’’ Long said about why he has remained in the collective. ‘‘It’s important because without art, there is no diversity in life. We create to inspire.’’Though it has been hard with the group’s leadership spread across New York state, Long said this year has been quite good because of the events and how many people have become interested in the AAAlliance.‘‘The lack of leadership really did almost make me leave the AAAlliance. It was just to the point where things were not getting accomplished,’’ Long said. ‘‘So that made me get more heavily involved. I started the MySpace account and started spreading the word. I knew we could hit more people over MySpace. This in turn sparked interest from many people who probably would never have heard of our organization.’’Bringing together the visual, aural and edible, the Active Artists Alliance will hold its Summer Showcase Saturday at Jamestown Community College.

A free event, the daylong festival will have the works of Jamestown artists on display and feature performances by Knife Crazy, Origin Muse, Global Village Idiots and The Audience. Scheduled to run from 2 to 9 p.m., the event will also have hotdogs, hamburgers and beverages for sale.

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