Practitioners and lovers of art living in Cape Town will know the AVA Gallery on Church Street well. Art exhibitions were memorable in the late 1980s and 1990s, with opening events pouring out on to the street, creating an impression that this is where art happens.It has since lost its shine.But Portia Malatjie, the new gallery director, wants to bring back vibrancy to Cape Town's oldest non-profit gallery andre-establish it as an exciting centre of the visual arts."Artists and the community own this space," she says."It used to be the place where upcoming artists had their first solo exhibition and they would be noticed, or get discovered. It was a launchpad for artists."Now commercial galleries go out and discover artists, occupying the role of the discoverer of new talent," says the 29-year old curator and art historian.The gallery, which relies on Spier and other private funding, makes up some operational costs from selling art, but many of the works are not for sale."We're experimental. Not all the works are for sale," Malatjie says."The space is important because it's an experimental space."But it is perfectly suitable to being a traditional space, too. "It's a space for the community."One of the events she has introduced is The Open Stoep Residency, "an experimental, arbitrary and weather-dependent project". The gallery invites artists, curators, critics, scholars, students and patrons to "activate the front entrance to the gallery in quirky, epigrammatic, and sometimes sombre ways".A residency can be a month long, or last just a few minutes.Last week, Sethembile Msezane performed an interactive work, Love in the Time of Afrophobia, her response to recent xenophobic violence around the country.Choosing artists and works to exhibit is done in collaboration with a selection committee.Unlike conventional galleries, the AVA Gallery puts out calls for exhibitions, to which artists respond with an application."Exhibitions aren't limited to my favourites," says Malatjie about the benefit of a "call".The next few exhibitions were planned before Malatjie came on board."My first exhibition will be later this year," she said.Currently, Jill Trapler, a previous board member of the gallery, is exhibiting Unfolding Her, a solo "exploration of foreverness".Malatjie describes the works as "intuitive, abstract and personal"."She works with texture. Etching on silk. Cloth on canvas."Malatjie isn't a practising artist because "I'm a better theorist. Anyway, I don't think my art should be seen."Are you excited by your new role?"Who wouldn't be?"Unfolding Her by Jill Trappler is on until May 30 at the AVA Gallery. 35 Church Street. 021-424-7436.info@ava.co.za..