Bermuda Society of Arts and Masterworks will co-host the opening of a major exhibition of Bermuda's "contemporary masterworkers'' at the City Hall Gallery this weekend.

All 18 of the artists who have been featured in Masterworks' "Artists Up Front'' series of solo shows over the past two summers will be represented in the show. A special reception will be held on Friday evening when the show will be opened by Community and Cultural Affairs Minister, the Hon. Yvette Swan.

Between them, the two organisations have had a profound influence on the current, unprecedented interest in the visual arts on this island.

The Bermuda Society of Arts, celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, was the pioneer society, formed for and dedicated to the promotion of Bermuda's own working artists.

Nine years ago, the Masterworks Foundation came into being and, in the process, brought Bermuda's artistic heritage sharply into focus by bringing home many of the works created by visiting artists. Among the treasures in their collection are works by Winslow Homer, Georgia O'Keeffe, Charles Demuth, Jack Bush, E. Ambrose Webster, William Chadwick and Prosper Senat -- to name but a few.

Society of Arts president Elmer Midgett, and one of Bermuda's leading artists, has set some precedents of his own, having been one of the co-founders of "Growing'' in the '80s, believed to be the first group to show together in Bermuda on a regular basis. "I think this helped people to take Bermuda's artists more seriously,'' he says.

The highlighting by Masterworks of known artists, which gave the public a fascinating glimpse of their personal views of Bermuda, also helped raise levels of appreciation and understanding of the historical perspectives of the local art scene.

According to Masterworks' founder, Tom Butterfield, this new, and potentially exciting collaboration between the two societies is "a natural''. "We believe our collection can be a valuable learning tool for Bermuda artists. We have never thought of Masterworks as being a collection of dead artists from abroad. We don't want our collection to stop in the '50s and we hope that our collaboration will provide a useful springboard for today's artists. I think the size and range of this show will demonstrate this.'' Mr. Midgett believes that the Society of Arts' spacious gallery is "probably being under-utilised with five major shows a year''. It is hoped that many Masterwork pieces will be displayed there and the possibility of staging thematic shows is already being actively pursued by the two groups.

Among the artists represented in this first major show are Will Collieson, Tom Cooke, Dan Dempster, Catherine Draycott, Mark Emmerson, Graham Foster, Bill Gringley, Chris Marson, Elizabeth Mulderig, Lisa Quinn, Jason Semos, Jennifer Smith M.P., Bruce Stuart, James Toogood, Chesley Trott, Otto Trott, Lady Waddington and Sharon Wilson.

FOSTERING TALENT -- "Habitable Janus Head'' by Graham Foster, is one of the works to be featured.