09:10 AM CST on Sunday, November 9, 2003

By Lucinda Breeding / Arts & Entertainment Editor

Since its inception in 1975, Denton’s principal visual arts organization has been the North Texas Area Art League.

The group will soon officially be known as the Visual Arts Society of Texas, the president said.

"We first started talking about our logo and changing it, because we thought it was dated," said Jo Williams, a local painter who is the society’s president. "It just sort of happened that it led to us talking about changing the name. Some people had thought for a long time that it was too long," she said.

The group also struggled with the North Texas moniker. It made a lot of people think the group was affiliated with the University of North Texas, Williams said.

"We added the ‘Area’ to our name to differentiate from the university," she said.

The league board members asked for suggestions for a new name from the membership, but it didn’t yield any results. Board members started talking privately about new names in October.

"That sort of led to talking about acronyms," Williams said. "When we came up with the Visual Arts Society of Texas, someone said: ‘That’s VAST.’ Everyone liked it. Everybody voted for it."

Officials gave the membership another chance to voice their opinions. Williams drafted a long letter to the members about the change. A few people weren’t happy about the change, but most embraced it.

Williams said she believes the members understand the name change is a reflection of the group’s changing identity.

The league took a major step this year when it voted to hire an executive director. League member and painter Ingrid Scobie accepted the part-time position early this year and immediately put to use her administrative know-how, cultivated over years as a professor who eventually landed at Texas Woman’s University.

Williams said more changes are afoot for the organization. With "Texas" in the name, the group will stay local, but will recruit more membership and participation in juried exhibits.

The name will help the group open the 2004 exhibit year with different requirements. The spring juried exhibit will be open to Texas and Oklahoma artists, but they will have to submit slides with their applications.

Previously, artists were asked to bring up to three pieces for the juror to evaluate.

"Last show, we got pieces and that’s a lot of pieces to move around the in the arts center," Williams said. "There are a lot of people, friends of mine in Dallas who are artists who have been asking ‘when are you going to take slides?’ Before, they had to drive up here with their pieces, and then had to come get the pieces that didn’t get in the show, because everything doesn’t make the show. We’re one of the only groups who haven’t required slides."

The Visual Arts Society of Texas isn’t the only group that throws a net over the whole state.

"There’s [a visual art group] in Austin that has the name ‘Texas’ in it, and there is a Texas visual arts society in Dallas. We decided it didn’t mean we have to be statewide, but we’re open to anyone, regardless of address," Williams said.

The organization will print "formerly the North Texas Area Art League" on its printed materials for the next year, Williams said. The Web site address www.ntaal.org takes Internet users to the group’s new site, which has already been renamed.