Open Studios Starts Next Weekend!

Have you ever wondered what goes on in an artist’s studio? Have you questioned how they create the pieces you see hanging in a gallery? Here’s your chance to find out. 

The Fourteenth Annual North Coast Open Studios (NCOS) will take place over two weekends, Saturday and Sunday, June 2-3 and 9-10, 2012 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.  This is your chance to meet the artists firsthand... explore types of work that are both familiar and new to you... and purchase work directly from the artists!

NCOS give you a unique opportunity to visit the places where art is made as Humboldt County artists open their studios and their creative process to you. Here’s your chance to see art in action, ask questions of your favorite artist, and see what techniques, tools and inspiration go into making art.

Visitors to North Coast Open Studios will be treated to displays of art in both traditional and non-traditional spaces throughout Humboldt County. During this free showcase for the arts, mid-career and emerging artists working across a broad spectrum of fine art styles and craft media – including painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, glass, fiber, jewelry, furniture and ceramics – will display and sell their work to the public.

There will be more than 100 artists, businesses and galleries participating, including favorite artists from past years and artists that are new to Open Studios. In fact, more than 20 of the artists on the tour are brand new this year! The guidebook has complete information about each participating artist, including an image of their work, their contact information and address (with a handy map), their open weekend, and much more. You can find the 2012 North Coast Open Studios Guidebook in the May 30^th issue of the North Coast Journal, at the Ink People Center for the Arts, and in many arts friendly venues throughout Humboldt County. Or, you can view the guide online at www.northcoastopenstudios.com.

For more information, contact Taffy Stockton, NCOS Coordinator by email at contact@northcoastopenstudios.com, or by calling (707) 834-6460.

Art in Our Community

There are lots of reasons why North Coast Open Studios (NCOS) is a great event. You get to visit artists’ studios and inner sanctums. You can chat up your favorite artist and get to know them as person. Many artists are offering one of a kind deals on artwork. Artists make money from art sales. Artists get to interact with their admiring fans and receive unvarnished commentary about their artwork. It’s a great event to share with visiting friends and relatives and to show off the area’s creative, as well as environmental, beauty.

The list goes on to add up to a rousing hurrah for creativity, economy and quality of life. This is the kernel of what makes Humboldt such an amazing place to live.

Over the years, many people and institutions have worked hard to bring arts and creativity to the fore. We have worked with businesses, governments, and unending economic development agencies. We have attended meetings ad infinitum to remind people that the arts are an important part of the economy here. Creative workers are embedded in every industry designing, crafting, tooling, and innovating.

Few artists can support themselves through sales of their artwork, so they represent a significant part of our creative economy working in other jobs. Some of us have grown to love and cherish those opportunities to make a living and impact our community in creative ways. Others struggle with reconciling the ways they have to earn money with their passion to make art.

No matter where your favorite artists fall on that continuum, supporting them by visiting their studios is a way of giving back to artists for the sacrifices they make in the love of art, because artists don’t make art because they like to, but because they have to.

Libby Maynard, 

Executive Director, Ink People Center for the Arts,

NCOS Steering Committee Member and Participating Artist