Next weekend, studios and galleries from Mellon Glass near Langdale to Rare Earth Pottery at Lund beyond Powell River will open their doors to hundreds of visitors in the second annual Art Crawl, Oct. 21 to 23.
Touring is free and fun, but you can't possibly visit all 108 on a single weekend. Select your route wisely using the available map. Many artists are offering special events or demonstrations of their work during the weekend.
At Sandrin Leung Design Build in Sechelt, the artists in residence are showing their collaboration between art and architecture. The site is the home/office that they designed and built, focusing on green and site-based design that integrates a massive rock bluff into the house.
They will have two artists displaying their work there, Dana Caple Smith and Calamity Design Studio, who will talk about their work at a Friday reception.
On Sunday they will showcase a young music talent, Kristie Yung, who will play live music for the Art Crawlers, her own songs as well as covers.
Art includes writing. Woods Showcase, representing nearly 100 Coast artists, in Sunnycrest Mall in Gibsons, is hosting author Kim Clark on Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m. with her recently released first book, Attemptations. And for a real writers' experience, check out the 17 writers participating in a Writers' Hub at the Gumboot Café in Roberts Creek. Three of them will be doing soft launches of new books: Heather Conn with her children's book, Gracie's Got a Secret; Jane Covernton with her new book, Healing Herbs to Know and Grow; and Michael Maser with Learn Your Way, a book to help young people design their own lives. The writers will be doing "guerilla readings" -short readings at opportune times (when the espresso machine is quiet).
Artist Jan Poynter will hold her Verandah Show in Grantham's Landing with painting demos on Oct. 21 and 22 at 2 p.m.
If you missed Marina Crawford's eye-popping still life photos of Vancouver during her recent show, you can view her work at her Gibsons studio where she will also display Coast landscape photography along with cards and bookmarks.
Gordon Halloran's studio in Roberts Creek exhibits a colourful display of floating paintings in his garden pond along with retrospectives from his Olympic ice art installations.
Also in Roberts Creek, Andrew Dunkerton of Day Road Studio will be working on one of his carvings. You can find his northwest coast masks and bentwood boxes on display in the post and beam workshop.
In Earl's Cove, stop in at Geopia's hilltop gallery to see pottery from its wood-fired kiln.
This year's Art Crawl teams up with the annual Sechelt Festival of the Arts (www.secheltfestivalofthearts.com) to offer mostly free workshops and performances.
At the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre on Saturday, Oct. 22, a fun workshop at 2 p.m. echoes the theme of the current gallery show, Human Nature by artists Cody Chancellor and Jennifer Norquist. It is sandwiched between two classical music performances, and on Sunday the Arts Centre is the scene for another workshop in which kids use craft materials to populate the art installation with their own creatures, followed by other theatre fun.
One of the Crawl's most vigorous organizers, Linda Williams, explains that the Coast Cultural Alliance is partnering with Sunshine Coast Tourism for marketing. The Art Crawl is Tourism's feature event during their "Fall for the Arts" campaign, and they are marketing off-Coast to such publications as Georgia Straight, Vancouver Province, Victoria Times Colonist and more.
A FAM (familiarization) tour is being offered to social media folk who will cover the Crawl from Friday to Sunday travelling the entire Coast.
Another partnership with the Sunshine Coast Bed & Breakfast and Cottage Owners' Association offers special Art Crawl packages for that weekend. They are also supplying the grand prize of a weekend get-away to - where else -the Sunshine Coast.
The Art Crawl is free, but you will need your wallet as many creations will be for sale. Pick up a map at the information hubs listed below, and at the same time grab a passport. Collect a sticker for your passport at every visit and at the end you will be entered in a draw for gift certificates.
Information hubs for maps and passports are in Gibsons by Molly's Reach, in Roberts Creek at the library, in Sechelt at Sunstones, 5699 Cowrie St., in Madeira Park at the Copper Sky Gallery & Café, and in Powell River at Artique, 4722 Marine Ave. You can also find a map on your smart phone by checking out icrawl.garylittle.ca in your browser, or see www.sunshinecoastartcrawl.com.
