Tacoma’s Grand Impromptu Gallery continues its inaugural exhibition season tomorrow with the opening of its September show titled Circle of Friends, an invitational featuring works by artists invited by the gallery’s members.

Grand Impromptu is a downtown co-op gallery — an art space owned by a cadre of member artists. There are currently nine active members, reports member and spokesperson Dorothy McCuiston.

“Every month we change the show,” McCuiston explains, but it’s the same artists every month … and even though the works are new every month, we’re the same people.”

But not this month. For the September show, each gallery member was encouraged to select one or more artist-friends to contribute to the exhibition. “We just wanted to liven it up,” McCuiston explains, “and also to give an opportunity to other people we know to exhibit their work.” 

Further, she says, adopting an invitational format helped toward guaranteeing the quality of the work placed on display: “Everybody is inviting someone they know is a good artist.”

There are nearly a dozen non-member artists contributing to the Circle of Friends exhibition. Many are from the Tacoma area, although other art-producing communities are also represented, from as near as Seattle to as far away as Arizona. And, for McCuiston, one invitee is from very close to home; she invited her husband John to show his ceramics in the show.

Overall, the show seems somewhat weighted in favor of Tacoma-based artists. Why?  

“It’s very difficult for artists to find places to show their work,” McCuiston explains, “so we’re giving opportunities to other people we know who are here in town.” 

“Sometimes, it’s hardest to get recognition in your own town,” she adds. “You’ll often be recognized someplace else before you’re recognized at home.”

What other factors went into the members’ decisions about whom to invite to join the September “Circle”? McCuiston’s second invitee is local jewelry maker Joan Joachims.

“She does good work, and she’s a friend of mine,” McCuiston explains, “but it was also an opportunity to show something that was completely different.”

Member Becky Frehse also helped make the September show different. Frehse says that she consciously chose artists who would be unfamiliar to Tacoma art audiences. One, Seattle-based painter Elisabeth C. Otto, had shown once before locally, and recently established a studio in Seattle after moving north from Oregon. Frehse’s other invitee, ceramic sculptor Jane Kelsey-Mapel, is virtually unknown by Tacoma’s art-consuming public. This is the first local showing from Kelsey-Mapel, who lives and works in Phoenix — and whom Frehse knew when both lived in Arizona.

“She shows a lot in Arizona, but it’s always nice to break out of your region and into another region,” Frehse says.

Thus Frehse was able to add to the inherent diversity of the exhibition, both aesthetically and geographically. “I also, of course, love their work,” she adds.

The show’s diversity is further enhanced by its other contributors, including a selection of Tacoma-based artists: glass artist Austin Smith, printmaker Janet Marcavage, sumi artist Fumiko Kimura, art book crafter Deborah Greenwood, and photographer Mary Holste, plus Fircrest-based mixed-media artist Nola Tresslar.

One additional participant in the Circle of Friends mix wasn’t actually a friend of any gallery member at the start. Kirkland-based artist Rob Fiser approached the gallery some months ago with a proposal to show his latest work, a life-sized politically-themed game featuring life-sized cutout game pieces representing actual players in the American political world. The pieces are composed of a mixture of wood, painting and graphics. (The installation will include flyers with a set of instructions on how visitors can play the game.)

“We were all very intrigued,” McCuiston recalls of the members’ first meeting with Fiser. “Eventually, we just decided to add him to our circle of friends.”

Although the opening reception is scheduled for Friday, from 5-8 p.m., visitors can catch the Circle of Friends invitational show starting tonight from 4-9 p.m. 

[Grand Impromptu Gallery, 2-9 p.m. Saturday, 2-6 p.m. Sunday, Third Thursday Art Walk Sept. 18 5-8 p.m., 608 Fawcett, Tacoma, 253.572.9232, www.grandimpromptugallery.com]