A monumental feat is brewing for Bremerton’s Collective Visions Gallery. It may very well be the biggest, most ambitious project the gallery has ever undertaken.

It’s to be a statewide juried art show that will clear the gallery walls — 2,400 square feet in all — and dedicate its entire space to the enormity of what’s being billed simply as “The CVG Show”

The show itself isn’t until February of 2008, however, members and officers from the artist-owned Pacific Avenue gallery have been putting the organizing pieces together for about six months.

Now, its time to bring in the artists.

Collective Visions has put out a call to artists residing in Washington state to submit their works for the first annual CVG Show. The deadline for entry is Nov. 17.

E-mail entries cost $35 while slide entries cost $50. The categories are 3D, 2D and photographic. For a complete prospectus or more information, visit www.collectivevisions.com or call (360) 377-8327.

Two of the big factors that play into enticing quality artists to come enter in any juried show, said CVG president Alan Newberg, are the measure of its prestige and the size of its purse.

Prestige is what the gallery is hoping to build annually and its also present in the show’s selected juror, but we’ll get to that later.

As for the money …

“We’ve gotten a tremendous response from the community,” Newberg said.

The city of Bremerton pitched in $1,500 as did the Kitsap Credit Union, the CVG’s landlord, Soriano Brothers Investment Co. and Windermere Realty.

So, there you’ve got a $6,000 awards purse which will be doled out to the “Best in Show,” “CVG People’s Choice,” and first, second and third prizes in 2D, 3D and photographic categories. Plus, the Kitsap Arts Board, though it cannot gift any money, has promised $2,000 in purchase prize money, meaning it will be buying $2,000 worth of work from the show.

Newberg said, award-wise, this show will be in the upper third percentile of juried shows in the nation.

“The mood is right in Bremerton to do this … And we view it as a role that we can play in helping the efforts to beautify Bremerton,” Newberg said.

Bringing it back to the role of prestige in the show, the artist who will be juror is Susan Parke, art consultant and recently retired curator of exhibitions and collections at the Museum of Northwest Art in La Conner.

For more information, visit www.collectivevisions.com or call (360) 377-8327.