I'm a native West Texan, raised in a good Southern Baptist family; that means I spent a lot of time in the church basement. In fact, from junior high on, a couple of nights a year, my youth group was actually locked in down there. These "lock-ins" were common down South: We'd play wholesome morality games and stay up all night, flirting and watching churchy horror flicks about Armageddon. (Good times.)

As it happens, the artist-run Minneapolis gallery, Art of This, is hosting an arty version of these all-nighters as part of this weekend's "DUNK TANK" festivities. The two-day fundraiser will kick-off with an art-making lock-in all night Friday, where artist volunteers will transform the small gallery space into a county fair-style carnival for the public, complete with a ring toss, putt-putt, Skee-ball, a kissing booth and, of course, a dunk tank. There will also be an art raffle; lucky ticket-holders will win work donated by noted regional artists Jay Heikes, Janet Lobberecht, Melba Price, Bruce Tapola, Kirsten Peterson and Matthew Bakkom.

AOT Artistic Director David Petersen says, "We look for work with a high-level of aesthetic and conceptual rigor, and we're committed to providing opportunities for emerging artists to show their work on their own terms. But because we tend to do larger, more challenging installations, we don't actually sell much art."

He laughs, adding, "We just don't show the sorts of things people buy to hang over the couch, so we don’t draw many collectors. 99 percent of our audience is made up of working artists and younger people, and they're not a group of people who can write big checks to support an organization like ours. We needed to come up with something they could do. For 'DUNK TANK,' artists have a chance to tangibly help AOT by coming to the lock-in and working with us to make the carnival installation for the fundraiser."

Proceeds will subsidize a second summer's worth of the gallery's popular "One-Nighter" events. AOT needs to raise a fair amount of money — a few thousand dollars in matching funds — to qualify for a Metropolitan Regional Arts Council grant, which will help it pay for another season of 8-10 evening shows of live music, art and performance from June through September.

"DUNK TANK: a fundraising carnival of sorts" is this Saturday, March 28, 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. at the Art of This gallery, 3506 Nicollet Ave., in Minneapolis. The shindig is bound to be a hoot, and it's a friendly way to get to know the folks behind your neighborhood conceptual art gallery.