What: Transition Art Show
When: Thursday, Aug. 28, 7 p.m., until Aug. 31.
Where: Former dollar store (behind Marketplace)
Admission: Free
While many artistic souls in Whistler wield paintbrushes, pencils and other implements to create masterpieces, not all of this work ends up in galleries around town. In fact, it seems that much locally produced artwork needs a place to call home, or at least a place to be shown.
At the Whistler Arts Council’s artists’ meeting held back in May, the resounding consensus of local artists seemed to be that there is a lack of studio and exhibition space available in town. Now, one local artist is organizing a four-day exhibition, entitled Transition Art Show, which features the work of Whistler area artists.
The woman behind the new show is Andrea Mueller, an acrylic painter and silkscreen printmaker who studied at the Ontario College of Art before moving to Whistler four years ago. She noticed that underground artists trying to establish themselves seem to have trouble finding events where they can exhibit their work.
“The arts council, I’ve found, does a really good job, but a lot of the times I was just finding that people who are more up-and-coming have trouble showing in the middle of town,” Mueller explained.
While she’s been toying with the idea of an art show for a while, it wasn’t until about three weeks ago that it became a reality.
“We’ve been talking about it amongst ourselves for quite a while,” Mueller explained. “We want to have more shows, we want to have more free shows where we don’t have to pay to be in them, and we just kind of want more exposure for local artists.”
Mueller took a shot in the dark and called realtor Allan Jenner about an empty retail space she spied behind Marketplace — the old Dollar Store, which closed a few months ago.
“I had looked at another place that was for lease and thought that it might be a good space to showcase some art, just because the space is already up for lease; no one is in it,” Mueller said. “Instead of it sitting empty, why not use it to host a local art show for local artists?”
Jenner contacted the owner of the space, Don Wensley, who generously agreed to donate the space for the show.
“They were actually really excited about it… which is great,” Mueller said. “They just think it will draw some attention to that space, as it is for lease… and they’re just happy to have something in there, and were really excited to have it actually be an art show and support local arts.”
The idea of using empty retail space as a place to exhibit artwork isn’t new.
“We’ve contacted a couple of the real estate agents a few times — because we’ll see empty space and it’ll just sit there for months at a time — and we’ve contacted them just to see if we could exhibit a gallery,” said Alison Richmond, marketing coordinator for WAC. “We have art walls that we would love to put up in the window and have art work displayed there, so people don’t even have to go inside the space.”
None of the realtors WAC has contacted have been able to help, but Richmond said it’s fantastic to hear that Mueller has managed to secure a space, and points out that the central location is sure to draw foot traffic, exposing tourists and those who don’t know about the local arts scene to our homegrown talent.
“That’s what we want,” Richmond explained. “We want to advocate for the arts, so if it gets these people going a little bit, then they’re able to take … control of their own events, and take things into their own hands.”
She also pointed out that these artist-organized shows help WAC to discover new talent, and see how local artists would like events to be organized.
Between the efforts of the guys at Blind Mute Productions, Dave “Pepe” Petko and Randy “Randoid” Smith, the show Corinna Haight organized for LUNA at the beginning of the summer, and now, Mueller’s show, it seems like artists are stepping up their marketing game, and finding new ways to get exposure.
Richmond agreed that more grassroots exhibitions and artistic events seem to be springing up within the community.
“The arts scene in Whistler has just been growing that much more, so individual artists will get together and create their own events,” Richmond said, adding that it takes a bit of the onus off of WAC and allows them to focus on their other events, like ArtWalk and Art Workshops on the Lake.
Mueller has only had three weeks to organize the show, but she’s hoping the response from both artists and the community will be positive and enthusiastic. She’s even hoping for the opportunity to organize more shows in the future, if she can find more property owners who are willing to donate their space for a short period of time.
“It’s more based on the spaces available really, so if there are more spaces that are up for lease and more of the owners are willing to donate space, then yes, definitely we’d be interested,” Mueller said.
The upcoming show will feature the artwork of Petko, The Incredible Amoeba, Angela Teng, Vanessa Stark, and, of course, Mueller. She’s still working on gathering more artists, so any others interested in submitting paintings or sculptures should contact Mueller at ayamueller@hotmail.com .
The non-profit event will see all proceeds going back towards the exhibiting artists. There will be no admission charge at the door.
