The newly formed Newport Art­ists Collective is reviving the once-popular Newport Gallery Night with the first of the monthly events scheduled for June 6.

The free Gallery Night trolley ser­vice will stop at collective member galleries, including Spring Bull Gallery, Mariner Gallery, DeBlois Gallery, Alloy Gallery, Blink Gallery, and Jessica Hagen Fine Art + De­sign. Two trolley buses from Viking Tours will follow a mapped route starting at Perrotti Park at the northern end of the waterfront.

The collective, initiated by Curtis Speer of Cusp Gallery, has been hosting a weekly Artist Salon Series at the downtown Brenton Hotel, which is scheduled to run every week throughout the year. The col­lective obtained a $200,000 grant from Rhode Island Commerce to support its activities, which include a new website that publicizes exhi­bitions and events at member gal­leries and provides various kinds of support for artists, including advice about funding. The grant, part of $3.4 million in federal funding from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, is marked for the es­tablishment of Gallery Night and an annual Newport Art Show. Speer said the Artists Collective does not have details about the outdoor exhibition.

“Looking to Elephant Rock” by Jill Madden at Jessica Hagen Fine Art + Design

The grant was part of $2.7 million in support for 24 organizations, in­cluding the Rose Island Lighthouse Foundation, the Newport Histor­ical Society and Pride Newport. The money came from a second round of grants that brought the total to $3.4 million for events and attractions related to new and ex­isting organizations with ties to the tourism industry.

Gallery Night will run on the first Thursday of most months, from 5 to 7 p.m., through December, and will coincide with that week’s Salon Series. The Salon Series began last fall and has featured local and re­gional artists, gallery owners and others. Speer said the audience for the series has steadily increased.

“We had over 100 people come through at our most recent event,” he said. “People are finding out what we are doing.”

After retiring this year from 22 years of teaching journalism at the University of Rhode Island, John Pantalone, the founding editor of Newport This Week, is happy to be writing for the paper again.

When the collective began research and outreach last year, Speer said, they discovered 42 ac­tual gallery spaces in the region, though some are working studios for artists either in their home, a garage or an out-building. He said most of the artists have not pub­licized themselves, but many are eager to gain more attention.

Speer serves as chairman and president of the collective’s board. Tamar Brown, owner of Sitka Gallery, is vice president. The 20-member board includes well-known local artists, such as Sandy Nesbitt, Lisa May and Cory Silken. Gallery representatives on the board include Susan Matthews of Overlap, Jessica Hagen of Jes­sica Hagen Fine Art + Design, and Tamar Kern of Alloy Gallery.

NOTEWORTHY:

– DeBlois Gallery opened a show last weekend featuring five artists

including long-time locals Bettie Sarantos and Virginia Stone. They share the space at the gallery on Aquidneck Avenue near the beach with Michael Pekala, Manjula Pad­manabhan and Kathleen Morton. The group show continues through June 26. Check www.debloisgallery.com for more information.

– As it has for several years, Jes­sica Hagen Fine Art on Bridge Street welcomes summer with a show of paintings, sculpture and photography inspired by summer scenes. Artists include Penny Ash­ford, Diana Bardorf, Christopher Benson, Diana Bunting, Rob Dieb­boll, Jeff Fischer, Patricia Davis Ganek, Sam Green, Pamela Gran­bery, Whitney Hagen, Karen Igle­hart, Jill Madden, Lorraine Mainelli, Vince Natale, Patrick Pierce, Jolie Stahl and Tom Vieth. All the artists are represented by the gallery. The show continues through June 23. Find more at: www.jessicahagen.com.

– You have one more week to see the exhibition at Gallery Sitka on Spring Street entitled “Art with Sitka, “which has again brought together several artists from the National Association of Women Artists for this show, which runs through June 13. For more information, visit www.gallerysitka.com.

“Sante Fe” by Jeanne Borofsky at Gallery Sitka

– This is the final weekend for “Dreams of a Common Language” at Overlap on Van Zandt Avenue. The show features work by Eliz­abeth Duffy, Lu Heintz and Anna McNeary. It will be followed by two exhibitions at the gallery opening June 19. “Peripheral Decoys” fea­tures the sculpture of Cathy Della Lucia. “Same Rain, Same Stars” has three Providence artists sharing space: Athena Witscher, Judd Schiffman and Eamon Brown. Visit www.overlapnewport.com for details.