Arts Guild of Sonoma bringing art to community for 40 years

In 1977, three local artists showed up at Sonoma Plaza for an art show, only to find it had been rained out. But they started talking about the need to give artists a place to show their work, and then decided to do something about it.

This month, the nonprofit cooperative they founded, the Arts Guild of Sonoma, is celebrating its 40th anniversary, an impressive lifespan for any volunteer organization. A monthlong exhibit of art by guild members, showcasing the group’s early work, runs through April 3 at the guild’s permanent gallery, just a block from Sonoma Plaza.

“We’re all professional artists and have our own careers,” said Jackie Lee, the guild’s publicist.

“Each of us has a particular job. Some of us might show our work at galleries in New York, but we all cooperate to keep this place running, We all work shifts at the gallery.”

The guild opens a new exhibit every month, and draws as many as 200 art lovers to its opening receptions the first Friday of each month.

Membership of the guild has been fluid, changing many times over the decades, running as high as 50 artists some years and currently stable at 27. While most members are 50 or older, they are diverse in other ways, covering a range of artistic disciplines including painting, sculpture, ceramics and jewelry.

Of the founding members - Sal Guardino, Ray Jacobsen and Richard Roth - only Roth is still living, and he moved to Minnesota years ago, but Lee said the current exhibit features work by quite a few artists who joined the guild in its early years, including Jacobsen’s widow, Barbara Jacobsen.

Others represented in the exhibit include Christine Ford, Donna Guardino, John Mercer, Marguerite Pendergast, Vince Taylor, Beverly Prevost and her late husband, Dave.

Ray Jacobsen, who died in 2007, may be the most famous of the guild’s hundreds of members. His paintings have been shown all over California and the West, including exhibitions at the Crocker Museum in Sacramento, the University of New Mexico, Boise State University in Idaho and the Scottsdale Center for the Arts in Arizona.

The guild also reaches beyond its own membership to feature work by others in the community. Its next exhibit will feature 50 pieces of art created by local high school students.

Lee said the commitment the artists make keeps the guild going after all these years.

“Our stated mission is to bring art to the community to improve people’s lives,” Lee said. “Together we can accomplish more than we can alone. As a collective, centered in one place, we can all donate our time and our indivdual expertise.”

You can reach staff writer Dan Taylor at 707-521-5243 or dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @danarts.