Last year, the Friends of the Vancouver Community Library group pulled off a cool artistic coup, enlisting a whopping 150 local artists to decorate 8-inch-square panels and donate them to a fundraiser. Nearly every one of those 150 artworks, priced to move at $30 each, sailed out the door within an hour or two during the December 2016 First Friday Art Walk.
This year, the fundraiser is back and twice as big. Three hundred local artists shouldered the pleasingly open-ended assignment of transforming those blank 8-inch panels in whatever way they chose; all 300 artworks are now on display on the walls of the Columbia Room at the Vancouver Community Library.
Some are by serious local professionals. Others are by total beginners. Many more are by the vast artistic middle, from hardworking students to inspired kitchen-table amateurs.
“Literally from every nook and cranny of the Vancouver art community,” organizer Charles Forshew said. All pieces are supposed to be unsigned (except on the back) in a display of communal equality, but it’s possible that some signatures slipped through.
If You Go
What: Art4Art is a display and sale of 300 small works by local artists. The event is sponsored by Friends of the Vancouver Community Library. The pieces will be $30 each.
When:5 p.m. today through 6 p.m. Sunday during regular library hours.
Where: Vancouver Community Library, 901 C St.
Information: http://bit.ly/2BorWET
All the pieces will be for sale, at $30 apiece, starting at 5 p.m. today, to benefit the Friends of the Vancouver Community Library and efforts to keep the downtown library busy with art programs and local art on the walls.
The panels, by the way, were cut by Friends of the Carpenter, the local homeless day center and woodworking shop.
Remembering what a successful and quick sale this was last year, organizers are advising eager shoppers to show up early for the best selection. (Last year, several artists, young artists’ parents and library staffers had their eyes on particular prizes and swooped in as soon as it was legal.)
Many of the artists will be on hand during today’s First Friday Art Walk reception.
Live music will be provided by guitarist/keyboardist/singer Robby Mayer.
