Happy 30th birthday to Rochester Contemporary Art Center (formerly Pyramid) and Community Darkroom (part of the Genesee Center for Arts and Education). Happy 31st to BOA Press, international prize-winning poetry publishers, and The Book Bus that morphed into Writers & Books. These are all culturally driven not-for-profit organizations that survived the ebb and more ebb of government funding. They are exceptionally good at what they do, an asset that would be cherished by any mid-sized city anywhere and yet, they are in Rochester quietly going about their business, facing down ever-present financial and political demons.

Why here? And what was in the creative drinking water in 1970-something?

Those crazy anti-establishment kids of the 1960s succeeded in breaking down barriers between high and low cultures. They believed that anybody could make art and exhibit it anywhere - not just in established museums and elitist galleries. They opened alternative places, mostly in New York City, close enough to Rochester to provide ready-to-follow examples.

The National Endowment for the Arts was established in 1965 with an aim toward bringing art and culture to rural areas and inner cities, and the New York State version followed suit in 1972. Money is always a sexy ingredient for cultural growth.

Terrific institutions in Upstate New York attracted talented people who stayed and found ways to continue their passion. For example, Nathan and Joan Lyons, founders of Visual Studies Workshop, originally came to Rochester for jobs at the Eastman House. Al Poulin, father of BOA Press, was a professor at SUNY Brockport.

Rental property was plentiful and cheap on Rochester's off-Main Street avenues. Writers & Books moved from South Avenue into a century-old school building on University. (The building was purchased from the city for $1 in 2000.) When the Rochester Fire Department abandoned the old brick station on upper Monroe, the Genesee Street Corporation purchased it to house Community Darkroom. (The venture has been debt free since 1985, dispelling the myth that art organizations have no business sense.) Community Darkroom took over part of the second floor and Genesee Pottery moved into the first. The rest of the building was rented to a parade of tenants that included one of the first health food stores in downtown, and a dry goods store catering to "green buyers" long before anyone used the label. Tenants have come and gone, and gradually the arts programs expanded into open spaces. Today, in addition to the pottery and photography centers, a small printing press occupies part of the first floor with classes offered in traditional, manual print techniques.

The Genesee Center is throwing itself an extended birthday party, public welcomed. The Darkroom invited approximately 70 of its program graduates, teachers, and volunteers to submit one photograph each and installed a sprawling show titled "30 Years of Eye Work" that washes over nearly every speck of wall space on the second floor. Director Sharon Turner has been on the job for 29 years and is an encyclopedia of information and an exuberant force behind the continued growth and success of the Darkroom.

The Gallery at Genesee Pottery on the first floor has its second annual national juried ceramics exhibition, "History in the Making." The show presents work from 38 artists selected from 100 submissions. Val Cushing, retired Alfred University ceramic professor, served as the show's juror.

I wish I could gush admiration for this collection. It is a room full of plates and vessels and decorated teapots, and no matter how well done, they remain plates, vessels, and teapots. Georgia's David Collins breaks the monotony with two tongue-in-cheek kitchen "appliances," a zany 1940s green oil can/coffee pot and something that vaguely resembles a mechanized spaghetti ladle.

Thank you, Jon McMillan from Illinois, who wrote about his regional architecture as inspiration for his handsome carved "Granary Jar." Nearly every other entrant sent photographs of historic ceramic art as their inspiration, and the historic work wins, hands down.

So it's not the very best ceramic show ever. It is, however, a solid exhibition in a unique art space that - like the Energizer Bunny - just keeps going against huge odds.

"History in the Making"

Through October 27

"30 Years of Eye Work"

Through January 5

Genesee Center for Arts and Education

713 Monroe Avenue | 244-1730