Collective Visions premiers 2008-2009 Concerts in the

Gallery series at 7 p.m. Sept. 19.

BREMERTON — Virginia Klemens, an award-winning vocalist and 20-year veteran of the Chicago blues scene, kicks off the 11th year of Collective Visions’ Concerts in the Gallery series this week.

She’ll be kicking it out with The Virginia Klemens Blues Band, surrounded by work from CVG’s featured artist Irm Bruser, at 7 p.m. Thursday.

The series then continues for 10 months, featuring a different act every third Friday of the month in the intimate setting of the CVG showroom, amidst an exhibit of visual art from that month’s featured artist.

For quite some time, the CVG would see great turnouts for First Friday Art Walks and exhibition openings in the beginning of the month, but the last two or three weeks would be consistently slow.

So, they came up with this idea of a mid-month concert series in the gallery to hopefully draw more traffic into the gallery during the second half of the month, and, in effect, draw more attention to the art.

And it worked — art and music proved to be a fitting combo.

Ten years later, it’s only gotten better with an impressive array of classy musicians on this year’s docket.

Tickets range from $13-20 in advance, $16-24 at the door, per concert, depending on the performer. Space is limited, all shows start at 7 p.m. with doors at 6:30 p.m.

For a list of performers and more info about them, visit www.collectivevisions.com and click “concerts” on the main menu.