The Old Town Ink Lab gives us a sneak peek for the upcoming annual event. This will be North Coast Open Studios 24th year holding this event, making it stand out to the artist community in Eureka, CA.
The Old Town Ink Lab is just one of many art studios that will be opened to people for an intimate look at the creation process.
Lead Coordinator Monica Topping says; “…this year, we have 167 participate artist listings in our guidebook.” At this event, you can meet the artists, tour art studios, and discover original art from artists within your own community free of charge.
Topping emphasized how important this event is for the community; ” Open Studios is about seeing the artists in their creative spaces, seeing works in progress, getting to talk to the artists about why they do what they do, getting like a sneak peek of how they organize their materials. I think part of the history of North Coast Open Studios was, kind of bringing the personality of the artists to the art loving public.”Â
This event has been orchestrated to fuel everyone’s inner creativity and make art more accessible. Topping hopes to draw in people who may be hesitant to embrace their artistic nature. Art has a long history of being “snobbish” with exclusive galleries, the spirit of this event seems to be to break down some of these preconceived stigmas the art community holds.
Topping states, “…it is as much about inspiring the community and inspiring people who want to create and remind them that if they want to create, they can create.”
Many of the artists featured in this years showing are actually returning attendees. Inspired by other artists candor and creativity, this year has become the biggest yet. During this event, the Old Town Ink Lab will offer a hands-on experience as well. Laura Keenados is the art space coordinator at Old Town Ink Lab and is hosting an interactive display. “I’m going to have my space here at Old Town Ink Lab, which is one of the community art spaces for the Ink People Center for the Arts and Culture.” Keenados states, “What I’ll have here is a live screen printing station where people can bring in their own shirts, hoodies, tote bag. And I have all of my screens and, and, several different ink colors here.”
You can choose a variety of designs, although a lot of them are of cats, and print the items yourself. Keenados brings all of their screens themselves, so people can pick and choose between the different options.
Friday, May 31st, is a “soft opening” of this event. It is called Art Night, where some of the artists have invited you to come and preview some of their work. This event takes place from 6PM-9PM. You may find more information about this event in t he link below.
https://www.northcoastopenstudios.com
