The Local Weekly The heart and soul of our communities with news and information about the Sunshine Coast
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- Group photo: An art-crawler takes a picture of a stone statue in the Sculpture Walk at the Rock’N Art studio in Elphinstone.
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- Umbrella Art: An art-crawler examines a piece based on rainy days, by Kez Sherwood in Gibsons.
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- Musical art: An art-crawler examines guitars made in the Chaster Rd. studio of Dragonfly Guitars
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- Studio visit: art crawlers arrive at Blackbird Studio, in the Pratt Rd. garden of painter Pat Ridgeway.
The whole is sometimes greater than the sum of its parts. And that is definitely the case with last weekend’s Sunshine Coast Art Crawl.
Artists of all descriptions opened their studio spaces and displayed their work in 141 separate venues, located — alliteratively — from Langdale to Lund.
From paintings to photography to sculpture and carvings to pottery and glasswork to jewelry, textiles, clothing and furniture – there was something for everyone.
The art crawl introduces you to artists and work that you would not otherwise encounter, and there are lots of them. The most recent statistics suggest that the Sunshine Coast has more artists per capita than any comparable region in Canada, at 2 per cent of the work force.
For the artists to have their work viewed is rewarding, sometimes literally. Many visitors spend money on the crawl; some use this October weekend to begin shopping for Christmas. (Last year, 20,000 participants spent $135,000 on art.)
The art crawl is a coast-wide social event. You will see friends and neighbors and sometimes you will see the same stranger in one location after another, a stranger who shares your tastes. And often the stranger is from off-coast; the art crawl has become a tourist destination that brings money to the coast.
This year was the fifth for the art crawl, and each year has been bigger than the one before. There is a measurable financial impact on the Sunshine Coast, and the details from this year’s event will be available in due course.
Sometimes smaller is sweeter, fewer more friendly. But when it comes to the Sunshine Coast Art Crawl, bigger IS better. John Gibbs
