More than 50 artists gathered in West Sechelt last weekend to trigger the countdown to the annual Art Crawl. The Coast-wide open house event has been running annually for 15 years and is the flagship project of the non-profit Coast Cultural Alliance.
One hundred and eighty nine unique venues — studios, galleries, and homes — will freely open their doors to visitors from Oct. 18 to 20. Thousands of admirers and collectors are expected to participate in the self-directed tour.
“Because we’re often isolated working in our spaces, to actually have an event to get together and see each other and talk art was great,” said Marlene Lowden, chair of Coast Cultural Alliance. Lowden also served as the master of ceremonies for the outdoor gathering of exhibitors held at the Bricker Cider Company on Sept. 15.
Over the past three years, the three-day Art Crawl has averaged $500,000 annually in gross sales for participating artists.
“Even though we have to record those numbers, the key to the Crawl is the community connection,” explained Lowden. “For artists who are new to this game, which can be a fickle industry, to have your community supporting you and cheerleading you on, is a really great stepping-stone to get the courage to put yourself out there.”
In her remarks to first-time Crawl exhibitors, Lowden (herself a veteran painter and muralist) stressed that sales are not the true measure of an artist’s self-worth.
For Linda Williams, the alliance’s executive director, the influence of the coordinating body is what imbues the event with a spirit of cooperation — and its power to tap into existing social networks. “New people come in [to participate],” she said, “and all of a sudden we collectively have a reach of another 300 or more people.”
The Crawl’s kickoff program was organized by Allan O’Meara and Patricia Bowers, both board members with the Coast Cultural Alliance. Copies of the brightly-coloured Art Crawl venue maps released during the weekend gathering are immediately available at tourist outlets and studios across the Coast.
A delegation of artists from Gambier Island traveled to Sechelt for the Art Crawl advent. Gambier-based venues have returned to the Art Crawl for the first time since before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“When we decided to revive it, we reached out to the original people,” recalled painter and muralist Rachel Rathbun. Many had moved away, but Rathbun and members of the Gambier Art Hive recruited new participants. “We’ve got sculptors, painters, photographers, multimedia [artists], and even a stained-glass creator,” she said. Fellow island artists Ali De Caussin (a beadworker and painter) and photographer MaryBeth Lafferty joined Rathbun, taxiing across Shoal Channel to promote Gambier’s return to the Crawl.
Their involvement follows a recent community-led art project at the Gambier Community Centre, in which a volunteer assembly of multigenerational artists contributed images that were combined into an island-themed mural.
With the addition of Gambier-based artists to the Crawl’s south-to-north listings, Liz de Beer’s Langdale-based Klaywerks Studio now appears as the tour’s second featured destination. Dozens of attractions are clustered in Gibsons, Roberts Creek, Sechelt, Garden Bay and Pender Harbour. The working darkroom of photographer troch in Earls Cove marks the northwestern extent of the Crawl.
Many locations will feature collaborative exhibitions by multiple artists. The Roberts Creek Library plans to display works by Dièdra Goodwin and Elaine Seepish. Three visual artists (Heather Himmell, Margot Hallman and Roy Peters) in the Sechelt area are sharing space as the Trail Island View Artists. A nine-year-old Gibsons artist, inspired by wizardry and alchemy, will display steampunk-inspired jewellery as the Wackadoodle Wizard Workshop.
“It makes it better for all of us if we’re supporting each other,” said Lowden. “Maybe I’m not the right fit for [a buyer], but someone down the street might be. Knowing the other artists in the community is important, and support flows from organizations like the Alliance.”
Downloadable Art Crawl maps and venue listings are available online from the Coast Cultural Alliance website: coastculture.com.
