BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. – Canal Street Art Gallery presents the Community Art Studio Program, providing a free to use space within the gallery, including artist grade supplies, for the public to make art while overlooking the Bellows Falls Canal. The Community Art Studio Program is now open through Feb. 24. All ages are welcome to use the studio on a walk-in basis during gallery hours, Tuesday-Saturday, from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Artwork made may be donated and hung on the walls of the program. Donated artwork is then mounted and given in clear sleeves by mail as rewards to supporters of the program. Artists also have the option to mount and take their work home with them in a clear sleeve, allowing visitors to create finished pieces ready to transport and frame.
A campaign launched by the gallery using the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform, if successful, will fund the building of a permanent space to keep the free Community Art Studio Program. The all-or-nothing goal of $1,500 must be met by Feb. 3, at 8 p.m. Of this amount, $1,032 will build and paint movable walls, and provide more lighting. To donate, please go to: www.kickstarter.com/projects/canalstreetart/help-us-keep-our-free-community-art-studio.
The Community Art Studio Program is inspired by the success of incorporating an art-making table within the Charles W. Norris-Brown Distant Thunder Studio exhibit. During this unique exhibition, visitors of all ages were inspired to make art in the gallery by using Norris-Brown’s supplies, and being surrounded by his work. Currently, the Community Art Studio Program is open in the Working Artist Program space, and is provided by Canal Street Art Gallery and the Charles W. Norris-Brown Estate.
The fundraiser, if successful, will pay to build a permanent space to keep the Community Art Studio Program at Canal Street Art Gallery. The creation of this program directly addresses a need and desire for additional and financially accessible creative outlets, communicated to the gallery by its friends and neighbors. The all-or-nothing fundraiser will pay for movable walls, lighting, archival foam board, dry mounting paper, clear archival sleeves, wall primer, and wall paint. An H-Frame artist studio easel is already added to the program, along with a large flat file, both given by generous donation from the gallery’s artists. Donations of a drafting table and a studio cart are still needed.
The Community Art Studio is temporarily open in the gallery’s Working Artist Program space. This space is scheduled to have its next working artist arrive on March 1. The space is well equipped, and art supplies include graphite and charcoal pencils, ink pens, sumi ink, oil pastels, and watercolor paints. A professional variety of watercolor and ink wash brushes, along with palettes and drawing tools, are provided. Visitors may choose to work on Bristol board, drawing, watercolor, or rice papers. The program plans to add acrylic, acrylic gouache, and pastel paints, cold wax and matte mediums, collage supplies, primed boards, and primed canvas. Inspiration may be taken from the landscape, other artworks, a variety of unique objects, a collection of art and design books, and experimentation with the art materials themselves.
If the campaign to keep the Community Art Studio Program achieves its fundraising goal, and a permanent space is created for the studio, the gallery will then be responsible for the costs to maintain the program as free and open for the community to use. The gallery already has a third fundraising campaign planned to make the Community Art Studio Program a long-term success. This will use the Patreon crowdfunding platform to create a committed group of patrons who will pledge an initial total goal of $250 per month. The gallery will also accept donations of new or unused (only) artist-grade art supplies, and preowned professional artist studio furniture, during regular hours, Tuesday-Saturday, from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
The current campaign to keep the free Community Art Studio is the second Kickstarter fundraising campaign for Canal Street Art Gallery. The first, “Help Us Bring the Arts to our Rural Community,” successfully raised $7,000 to make the gallery’s expansion in 2022 possible. Since this time, the gallery continues to work toward fulfilling its promises of more outreach, accessibility, programming, and events, all made possible by public support.