Much more clubhouse than gallery, Zeitgeist provides all counter-cultural necessities: vegetarian potluck dinners on Mondays, poetry readings on Mondays, figure drawing on Wednesdays, jazz on Thursdays and improvisational jazz on Fridays. The director says that he likes multimedia art and installations, preferably "non-traditional" and "politically involved." Currently showing are garish, clumsy paintings by David Grossack and Michael Hallaren. A billboard on the side of the Harvest Co-op in Central Square ("The Zeitgeist Artboard: Gallery of the People's Republic of Cambridge") offers additional exhibition space for local artists.

Dec. 11: Emil "Dr. T" Tobenfeld's SOUND/IMAGE Incorporated, 8:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m.

IN SOMERVILLE

BRICKBOTTOM GALLERY

1 Fitchburg St. (T: Lechmere)

4-8 p.m. daily

Off a stretch of overpass in the invisible industrial outlands, unmarked, the Brickbottom Gallery is in a most unlikely location. But, in a building where more than 150 artists live and work, the gallery is self-sufficient, needing no urban foot-traffic. The exhibition space shows artists both resident and alien, often in a salon format.

Through Dec. 23: December store

Jan. 6-30, 2000: "Drawn From Life" (group show)

Feb. 5-27, 2000: "Eye For Nature" (photographs by Kay Kanavino, sculptures and prints by Rose Shechet Miller, paintings by Diane Novetsky and Martha Stone)

Mar. 4-26, 2000: "The Forest Project" (an installation by Jane Arabas)