Next weekend, the visual artists in Santa Cruz County are going to clear their collective throats and make a statement to the rest of the community. More than two dozen accomplished artists, who few people know actually live here, will gather at a spacious downtown gallery, which few people have visited, for a project few people know much about.

Art for Art is an effort to show the work of many of Santa Cruz's finest artists -- 27 of them -- in a single space in an effort to raise awareness and, more importantly, money for the Tannery Arts Center project on the grounds of the old Salz Tannery in Santa Cruz.

Coordinated by participating artists Sara Friedlander and Dee Hooker, Art for Art, which takes place June 7 and 8 at the Mill Gallery, marks a rare occasion when the artists of Santa Cruz can actually come together for a common cause. Each artist gets about 10 feet of wall space in the vast, airy Mill on Front Street in downtown Santa Cruz to showcase their work. Twenty percent of the sale will go toward the Tannery, the ongoing project designed to provide artist housing and studio space, as well as a performance arts center and office space for arts organizations.

"The Tannery project is so exciting to all of us," said Friedlander, a photographer and painter. "We all need to get behind this."

Friedlander said that she and Hooker came up with the idea of Art for Art in the wake of the cancellation of this year's SPLAT tour, a springtime alternative to the Cultural Council's Open Studios tour in October. The two approached artists who, due to a general lack of gallery space in Santa Cruz, rarely show their works in their hometown. The roster included artists who've shown their work ­-- paintings, sculpture, ceramics, photography -- from coast to coast.

The artists will converge on the Mill Gallery from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, after opening the exhibit on Friday evening, during the First Friday Art Tour, from 5:30 to 9 p.m.

Among the artists are Rydell Fellowship winners Robert Larson, Will Marino and Daniella Woolf. Susana Arias is a painter and sculptor known for her public-art work on the Bay Avenue underpass on Highway 1. Conceptual artist Shelby Graham also serves as the curator at the Sesnon Gallery on the campus of UC Santa Cruz. Don Fritz, who teaches art at UCSC and at Monterey Peninsula College, is a pop artist who works in the realm of childhood popular culture.

Jane Gregorius, who chaired the art department at Cabrillo College, has been a pillar of the local art community for decades. Ann Wasserman works in glass and jewelry. Painter and printmaker Charles Prentiss is known for his work as a curator at the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History. Aptos painter Susan Dorf has shown her work widely in the Monterey Bay Area.

Other artists include Karen Bailey, Jody Alexander, Laura Rice, Kirby Scudder, Stephanie Heit, Fran Battendieri, Amey Mathews, Michael Tsouris, Pilar Cox, Robynn Smith, R.R. Jones, Linda Christensen, Madeline de Joly, Hildy Bernstein and Beth Shields.