The Overture Center for the Arts continues to dazzle downtown and gain support from local foundations. Last week the center received a $10,000 grant from the Artistic Access Fund, a component fund of Madison Community Foundation, to support three art galleries through December 2005.

According to Susan Crofton, Overture director of education and community outreach, the grant will be split evenly among 11 exhibitors’ artwork through next December. Each organization will showcase in the selected gallery for three to four months.

The grant will help the local artists with installation, reception and framing costs as well as the costs of sending out invitations.

“We’re thrilled to have this grant,” Crofton said.

The artists and organizations that exhibit in the Overture galleries are from Madison or the Dane County area, a feature that will be common to the arts hub throughout its existence, Crofton added.

“When Overture is completed, the function of the galleries is to support local artists,” Crofton said.

Crofton also said local artists generally need funding to support their exhibits. Operation costs of visual art gallery exhibits can run expensive, but invitations, framing and other requirements are “essential in terms of having an exhibit,” Crofton said.

The group of 11organizations, featured now through next December, was selected out of 33 proposals, according to Beth Racette, Overture Community and Education Programs assistant. A selection committee reviewed each proposal before making a final selection.

A similar process will take place this upcoming spring for exhibit spots in the 2006 year.

“We’ll continue to have exhibits and continue to have a variety of artists,” Racette said. “We hope to do more things with the community such as education programs and things like that. There are lots of opportunities for artists to initiate community involvement.”

Galleries, 1, 2 and 3 are free and open to the public. When Phase II of Overture is completed, the galleries will serve as walking corridors leading into the Capitol Theater.

Destruction on the former Madison Museum of Contemporary Art and the former Madison Civic Center is nearly complete. The new contemporary art museum, showcasing national artists, will be built in accordance to Phase II work.

“When completed we’ll have a nice balance of artists from the local, state and national areas,” Crofton said. “When we first set this up, we wanted … wide representation of artists.”

Racette said a number of the exhibits will feature students and also professors and teachers associated with UW.

Over Oceans features undergraduate and graduate UW students who vary in gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, economic background and experience, according to the organization’s description. Over Oceans follows contemporary art and theory with a practice encompassing video, installation, sculpture, painting, sound and performance.

UW sophomore Michael Johnson said the Overture Center assists local artists in finding support and provides a place to exhibit their work.

“The fact that [local artists] can be shown at venue like Overture in a larger city is a big find,” Johnson said.

He added average citizens find the environment appealing.

“I think average people see the Overture Center in a non confrontational way where they can view art,” Johnson said. “The way in which the artwork is presented allows people to be more involved. It helps for art to stand there and not been be see as pretentious or vain.”

The two current galleries featured at Overture are the Winnebago Studios, “Cross Pollinations,” and Turning Point “Artwork From Wisconsin Prisons, 2004.”

These galleries opened in September and will run until the end of December. Appearing from January to March is the Kennedy Heights Girl Neighborhood Power’s “Telling Our Stories: Hmong Mothers and Daughters.”