Verb Collective is an anti-gallery.
"Where the hell else can you have holistic healing art?" said Verb member Andrew Kiff. "Aha. See? There you go. We win. Ding! Verb scores again."
Kiff said most art galleries are dull.
"Someone says, 'Come to the art gallery.' And you say, 'Oh, that won't be fun,'" he said. "It might be starkly lit and white, and it's about stop, stare, move on. The only reason you might go there is to get a free glass of wine. After 10 or 15 minutes, you have to move on. Most galleries are humorless places run by dreadfully dull people."
Verb board member Carol Hodgins said the space is used for visual and performing arts.
"The place is always changing," she said. "It seems like every time we get an art show in there, the vibe changes. There's a lot of different feelings that come through, and I love that the space is so transient, that it can change gears. And it's a really cool community thing too, because someone can have an idea, and there'll be a group of people there who jump in and make it happen."
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Verb, at 3400 Constitution Ave. N.E., has weekly classes, including jewelry making Tuesdays, figure drawing Thursdays and a sewing circle Mondays. They also have open jam sessions called ReVerb on Wednesdays.
A 6-month membership costs $60, but people can go monthly for $10 a month.
"The Verb has never been profitable but has never forgotten that it's a community center," Kiff said. "It's not a bloody socialist
workers' paradise. It needs to be available to the community .. We're an important social scene as well as a gallery. We're more a space for creativity."
Co-founding member Blake Driver said Verb Collective began with eight friends from UNM.
"We looked at successful cooperatives around town like La Montanita Co-op and Los Poblanos Organics," Driver said. "We talked to them to figure out how their membership worked, because even though we were a group of artists who wanted to work together, we wanted to have a collective that was open to the community for other artists to join if they wanted. We are still in the process, so we've been around for a little over a year now."
Kiff said he has learned to draw since attending the figure study sessions.
"I wasn't an artist before," he said. "But actual figure drawing - learning how to draw - that's what the Verb has done to me. I'm considered their savant in that class. Savant's a good compliment, to say you've come from nothing. The discouragement which my formal education or my family gave me is being negated now by this wild and open Verb."
Hodgins said the future of Verb Collective depends on getting more members.
"We definitely need more board members to take initiative and responsibility and help us carry out our vision of being a community art space," she said.
Verb Collective
3400 Constitution Ave. N.E.
Call 268-2344 for more information
