FALLBROOK, Calif., Dec. 9, 2008 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Over the past 12 years, the Fallbrook Art Center has gone through a number of changes. Its name has been recast several times, its menu of yearly shows has grown and the quality of the exhibits has increased.
Through it all has been Helene Ross, who was there at the beginning and is still there today with her guidance and generosity.
Along the way she helped transform an abandoned drug store into a unique centerpiece of the art community in Fallbrook, a rural community about 40 miles north of San Diego that recently was selected as one of the top 27 art towns in California by art critic and author John Villani.
"We are not an art gallery or a museum," Ross explains. "We are an art center."
Through the hard work and philanthropy of Ross and her late husband, Bill, the couple provided a good chunk of the seed money to get the center started and have sustained the vision over the years with new shows and better quality exhibits.
"I am extremely proud of what we have accomplished," said Ross, a former model who emigrated to Chicago from war-torn Germany with her family in the 1950s. "I would like to see the center continue to grow as it has."
In the early years, Ross relied on her peerless organizational and people skills to raise money and put on shows. Anything that brought in money was fair game -- musical events and even dog shows.
As executive director, she helped launch the first Gourd Fine Art Show in Fallbrook in 1997 when the art form was still in its infancy. Today gourd art pieces sell for thousands of dollars and the show is one of the center's most popular.
Ross also teamed up with local artists and businessman Merrill Everett to bring an annual glass show to the Fallbrook Art Center. Each year the Galaxy of Glass show celebrates the evolution and uniqueness of the American Studio Glass Movement.
Ross also put on shows that included aviation art, sculpture, outlaw artists and a ceramics exhibit that featured world famous potters Otto Heino and Paul Soldner.
Under her stewardship, the Fallbrook Art Center was the only venue that highlighted art from both the National Watercolor Society and American Watercolor Society in a single exhibit.
Not surprisingly, Ross has been active in community affairs since arriving in Fallbrook in 1987. She and her husband were among the original members of the Fallbrook Land Conservancy and Ross served on the community's Revitalization Advisory Group and the Fallbrook Community Planning Group.
"It would be safe to say that the contributions and hard work of Helene Ross have allowed the community and the Fallbrook Art Center to flourish beyond everyone's expectations," said Mary Perhacs, executive director of the Fallbrook Art Center.