BORREGO SPRINGS – Nita Wipper had a vision: a gallery and workshop for Borrego Springs artists such as herself.
She and other volunteers brought the dream to fruition in March when the Borrego Art Institute gallery opened with a display of work by 35 artists in a shopping center on Palm Canyon Drive.
"This is actually our first season," said Wipper, who explained that most of the past year was devoted to "just getting the gallery together."
Wipper is president of the institute's board of directors and an artist specializing in watercolors.
The gallery is open from October through May. From June through September, hours are by appointment only.
"Most of our artists are here part of the year," said Wipper, who describes herself as a "snowbird" who resides in Oregon during the summer. "For a lot of them, it's their winter home."
Since October, a number of artists have had exhibits at the gallery and also taught classes for adults and children. The sessions have been popular.
Classes scheduled through March include sculpture and watercolor, taught by painter and sculptor Hal Hawkins and watercolorists Pat Tuton and Betty Carr.
Reaching out to the community is an integral part of the institute's mission. The institute provides after-school workshops at the gallery in conjunction with the Borrego Springs Unified School District.
This is a special area of interest for Dennis Nourse, a board member who serves as the institute's treasurer. Nourse, 58, is a retired manufacturer from Wisconsin who has been a full-time resident of Borrego Springs for eight years.
He is not an artist, yet he inherited a tremendous appreciation of art from his parents, and has "seen how art affects kids," he said. This led him to work with the school district to set up the workshops.
Students from grades one through eight attend the sessions two days a week for up to five weeks. Nourse said this means "four to five hours of art a week" for each student in a district that has no art programs of its own.
The Borrego Art Institute is in a two-room, 2,400-square-foot building that once housed a restaurant and has been divided into a gallery and work area. The conversion, said Nourse, was a "big, big, job" that consumed much of the initial funds raised and required a lot of volunteer labor.
"We rely totally on donations and some income from workshops and artists' sales," said Nourse. "What we've created is a community event. In a place like Borrego Springs, it's hard to find a venue of this size."
While there are other small, private galleries in the town, the institute is the only nonprofit one, he said.
The gallery can display the work of up to 50 artists and has an inventory of several hundred pieces, representing wide variation from representational to abstract styles.
Wipper said the board has yet to decide whether the gallery will be open year-round. It will depend on the volume of visitors and the supply of volunteers.
"Because we're so new, we're taking it one step at a time," she said.
It's an all-volunteer operation. Wipper hopes that the institute will progress to the point of having paid staff, but said, "it's working really well right now with volunteers."
The gallery is at 587 Palm Canyon Drive, Suite 105. Hours are 11 a.m. to 3 p.m Tuesdays through Saturdays October through May and by appointment June to September.
For more information, call Wipper at (760) 767-3897 or go to www.borregoartinstitute.net. For appointments during summer, call (760) 767-4040.
Vincent Nicholas Rossi is a freelance writer from Rancho Bernardo.
