"Ponca City Collects," an exhibit of works selected from the private collections of persons living in the Ponca City area, opens with a Chocolate and Champagne Gala from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at the Ponca City Art Center. The exhibit runs through Dec. 31.

John McNeese organized the exhibit. Works included in "Ponca City Collects" are diverse, reflecting McNeese's broad view of art and artists working in all kinds of media, ignoring the artificial categories of arts or crafts. Nineteen works from ten collections were selected, including paintings by Oklahoma artists D.J. Lafon, Shane Hemberger, Nicholas Kyle, and Nathan Opp; a Ganado and a Two Grey Hills Navajo Rug; an Achema pot; a contemporary glass bowl; a Bobo and a Dan African mask; Zulu telephone wire baskets; a monoprint by Patrick Coffaro, a rocking chair; and sculptures made of clay and steel, thread and found objects.

McNeese has worked in the arts in Oklahoma for the past 25 years. He has been gallery owner; founded the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition, a service organization for Oklahoma artists; and organized numerous exhibits in other spaces. He received special recognition for his work in the arts at the Governor's Arts Awards in 1996. Most recently he ran Artsplace Ponca City which closed in 2007 and organized "Royal Nepal 1930: Photographs by Richard Gordon Matzene" which was accompanied by a book on the photographs and was on exhibit in September of this year at Ponca City Art Center.

Ponca City Art Center is open Wednesday to Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m. For further information, call Jerry Cathey at 765-9746.