By Chris Harding
Special to the Reporter

This weekend's Dorchester Open Studios shows how the volunteer organizers are addressing the problem of finding enough room for all the worthy exhibitors from the city's most diverse and widely spread arts community.

Members of the Dorchester Arts Collaborative who plan, site-manage and clean up after this sprawling event are constantly seeking new locations to accommodate more artists and to blaze new exhibit spaces in underserved neighborhoods.

Need for a group show venue in previous years led to the use of the hall of First Parish Church, which sponsors the on-going Sundays at Three classical music concert series. Every year Rev. Art Lavoie speaks about the role of art in our spiritual lives as part of one of his October Sunday services. Catch his sermon "Beyond the Flame" this Sunday at 11 a.m.

This year the first-ever juried show of Dorchester artists hangs in the Ahimsa Gallery, part of the yoga & art complex, formerly home of the Pearl Street Studios, the site of Dorchester's first Open Studios back in 1981. Ahimsa in Savin Hill is owned by artists Judith Brown and Larry Pryor. John Colan, who created and operates HallSpace gallery in Roxbury, curated the exhibit selecting about only about a third of the works submitted.

Since the Ahimsa show is already up, if anyone wants to get a jumpstart on the Open Studios, you can drop by Thursday or Friday or during regular gallery hours through the end of the year.

This year Open Studios features a couple of new sites. At The Boston Home, the specialized care facility for adults with neurological diseases at 2049 Dorchester Ave., residents will exhibit their watercolors alongside works by their teacher (Dorchester painter Susan Krause) and a few other professional artists.

Fox Hall Gallery in Uphams Corner also debuts during this weekend. Located at 558 Columbia Rd. on the top floor of a four-story building across from the Strand, the 3000 sq. foot space (unused since the 30's) currently houses a temporary gallery featuring 11 local artists; later the former dance hall will be developed into non-live studios.

The DAC joins forces with the Dorchester Historical Society (DHS) to present a panel discussion on the art of Corita Kent and the history of the Rainbow Gas Tank, on Saturday, Oct. 27 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Savin Hill Yacht Club, 400 Morrissey Blvd. 

Panelists will be Alexandra Carrera, Executive Director of the Corita Art Center in Los Angeles; Susan Dackerman, Carl A. Weyerhaeuser Curator of Prints at the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University; Mickey Myers, artist, former Dorchester resident, and life-long friend of Corita Kent; former Boston Gas Company Public Relations Executive Frank Arricale and former State Senator Paul White.  The panel will be moderated by Ricardo Baretto, Executive Director of Urban Arts at the Massachusetts College of Art & Design. 

For more information, call (617) 839-6734 or visit www.thedac.org.