The Sunshine Coast Arts Council is pleased to announce the Summer Invitational: Friends from Home 1.
This year's exhibition committee proposed that they invite various painting groups and communities of visual artists to exhibit in the Doris Crowston Gallery at the Sunshine Coast Arts Council in Sechelt the next few summers. The Summer Invitational will be on the walls in the gallery during the Hackett Park Summer Arts and Crafts Fair.
Friends from Home 1 opens Wednesday, Aug. 12, with a reception from 7 to 9 p.m., and runs until Sunday, Aug. 30.
This year's show brings together artists who meet at the Harbour Gallery in Madeira Park and the St. John's United Artists who gather at the eponymous hall at the United Church in Davis Bay.
"The Harbour Artists and their co-operative Harbour Gallery arm began gathering in houses and available halls in the early '80s," said spokesperson Wendy Simmonds. "When the current Pender Harbour Cultural Centre was vacated by the forestry department, the artists moved in with other local organizations and refurbished what used to be a garage, starting their first summer season in 1986. Members meet once or twice a week to paint together and critique each other's work, and to stage a workshop at least once a year."
The gallery members are mostly Harbour Artists who show their work and sit the gallery. Commissions pay the insurance and maintenance costs and what improvements can be afforded.
"We support community effort through donations or raffles and currently we support the Food Bank and give out the Ada Priest Memorial Fine Art Bursary to a Pender Harbour graduate who is pursuing an art-related career," added Simmonds. "While our membership changes, obviously, many of us have been with the group since its beginning. Our oldest member right now is turning 90 this year and painting strong."
Isobel Gibson is the leader of the St. John's United Artists.
"The St. John's United Artists is an informal group of artists who have been getting together every Thursday afternoon for about 10 years to sketch, paint, support and learn from each other," said Gibson. "The group meets at St. John's United Church, which encourages the group in its attempts to portray the beauty and spirituality of the world, letting us use the hall at no cost. There are various levels of expertise in the group, and everyone is supportive of everyone else. There is a wonderful amount of interest and sharing."
- Submitted
