PROVO — The recent fund-raiser to move Gallery 110 into nonprofit status was deemed successful, but Provo's only not-for-profit community art gallery still came up without enough money to pay for the switch.

While some $1,700 was raised at the Aug. 11 event — netting about $1,000 toward gaining 501c3 tax code status — the gallery must also meet normal expenses, said co-director Ashley Mae Christensen.

More than 25 artists exhibited artwork including sculpture, painting, lithography and mixed media. As many as 400 people from the Provo and Salt Lake City areas came.

But the future of the gallery is in doubt, although Art Access/VSA of Utah will keep Gallery 110's doors open, said executive director Ruth Lubber. (The Salt Lake gallery gave Gallery 110 $3,000 in seed money to open its doors in the spring of 2005, said co-founder Raquel Smith-Callis. In June Smith-Callis stepped down from directing the gallery to devote more time to her job as public arts program director for the Downtown Alliance.)

She and fellow artist Amber Draschil have both stepped down, naming Christensen and Leland Rowley as co-directors. Christensen is a fine arts student at Brigham Young University and Rowland a graphic arts student at Utah Valley State College.

The gallery keeps 40 percent of the proceeds of art sold there but rarely sells any art, said Smith-Callis.

"With the two new leaders there is a new recommitment (to gain nonprofit status)," said Lubber.

Once the gallery becomes a non-profit enterprise the directors can go after grants and tax-deductible donations.

The rent went up in August from $600 to $1,000, said Smith-Callis, so each month volunteers are scrambling. Even a store front to give the gallery a presence would provide a needed boost, Lubber said.

The gallery provides a venue for local artists and would like to pull in artists outside the state, said Rowley.

The all-volunteer gallery at 110 S. 300 West has lofty goals, including mentoring low-income students on art and about how to get into college. The directors want to hold community art workshops, poetry readings, film nights and artist lectures. They want to provide a venue for handicapped artists as does Art Access.

Gallery 110 is part of the art stroll by the Downtown Alliance sponsors the first Friday of every month. However, unlike the other galleries, Gallery 110 has to pay for its own marketing for that event because it's just outside the alliance boundaries, she said.

One proposal is to exhibit photographs taken by blind people in Africa "if it stays open," said Smith-Callis.

"I suppose the question really is will we be able to keep the space?" Christensen said. "We intend to continue what has been started, whether that means having art shows out of houses, or using old buildings for a month.

"Our goal is to provide a space for and cultivate artistic diversity in Utah County," Ashley Mae Christensen said.

The gallery is open from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

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E-mail: rodger@desnews.com