Last Saturday, August 6, Arbor Gallery was the setting for an emotional vernissage. After working by Zoom since the beginning of the pandemic, it was the first time that the artists saw the results of their project in person, and displayed together.

7 Works Collective started with an Artists’ Residency that could not happen, due to the pandemic. Adapting to the situation, the seven artists decided to meet regularly to see what they were all working on. It was during one of these meetings the plan was hatched to challenge each other to biweekly art prompts. Each artist would show a work of art in their medium and the remaining 6 artists would create a piece in their own medium based on the visual prompt.

The result speaks for itself. The seven challenges are featured in the Main Hall of the gallery, and their first collaboration, appropriately titled Collaboration One, graces the small hall. A very innovative group of artists, all members of the West Carleton Art Society, they created a blog which can be viewed by visitors by using their smart phone to capture a QR code for each challenge.

The blog has been used to put together a beautiful and interesting book available as a downloadable pdf or in print. It displays each artwork and describes every challenge as well as the project itself and can be found at https://7workscollective.weebly.com/blog.

“7 Works Collective 7 Artists 7 Voices is rich and colourful, and an inspiration to any group of artists looking to find new ways of collaborating”, states Sylvie Bouchard, of the gallery. “This inspiring group of artists will come back to give a free talk titled “Residency Reworked” on Sunday, August 28, the last day of their show. We are inviting our own artists to attend, and get inspired.”

Concert cancellation

Due to a series of unfortunate events, the August 13 concert at the gallery has been cancelled. The Arbor Gallery is sorry for any inconvenience.

Arbor Gallery Cultural Centre is located at 36 Home Avenue, at the heart of Vankleek Hill. Summer hours on Saturdays: 10am to 4pm. Open Wednesday to Sunday, noon to 4pm. More information about programming and events on Arbor Gallery’s Facebook page, website or Twitter, by subscribing to the gallery’s newsletter at www.arborgallery.org or by email at [email protected]