{"id":20288,"date":"2016-08-19T00:54:04","date_gmt":"2016-08-19T07:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=20288"},"modified":"2016-08-18T15:28:18","modified_gmt":"2016-08-18T22:28:18","slug":"community-art-for-the-zack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2016\/08\/19\/community-art-for-the-zack\/","title":{"rendered":"Community art for the Zack"},"content":{"rendered":"

(photo from jccgv.com<\/a>)<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The upcoming show at the Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery, which features 45 community artists who have donated their work, is a fundraiser for the gallery.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea for the show belongs to Shirley Barnett,\u201d said gallery director Linda Lando in an interview with the Independent<\/em>. \u201cWe wanted to showcase the works of the people who do art for the joy of it, not professional artists. Shirley also made a donation towards the show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lando explained the process leading to the exhibit, which opens Aug. 31.<\/p>\n

\u201cI purchased 45 11-by-14-inch wood panels and sent a group email to the gallery email list. The artists got the panels for free and, if their art sells, they will get a tax receipt. The price for every piece is the same, $125, and the proceeds of all sales will go to the gallery. The theme of this art show is \u2018Renewal.\u2019 It\u2019s a very broad theme that allows for many interpretations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jewish
Linda Lando, director of the Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery. (photo by Olga Livshin)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lando doesn\u2019t think that the universal size and shape of the panels limits artists\u2019 creativity. \u201cJust the opposite: it\u2019s a challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

The response to the email was overwhelming. Lando had to turn away people who wanted to participate. The demographics of the show\u2019s contributors are broad.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of word of mouth helped spread the news about the show,\u201d she said. \u201cAmong our participants are people who are involved with the gallery, some who exhibited with us before, while others haven\u2019t. There are several poets from the Pandora Collective, members and non-members of the JCC and some mother-daughter duos. Most of them are not professional artists, but the works that have already started to arrive are amazing and very diverse. I hope we sell most of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Independent <\/em>spoke with a few of the exhibit\u2019s artists.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have always been interested in arts: painting, poetry, etc.,\u201d said Carl Rothschild, a child psychiatrist with more than 40 years of experience, who is about to retire. \u201cI published two books of my poetry and visual arts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rothschild considers himself an amateur artist but he has already participated in several shows at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver and sold a few paintings. When Lando asked him to participate in the fundraiser, he was thrilled. His piece is already at the gallery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI decided to participate in this show because I am always painting and because Linda asked me,\u201d he said. \u201cMy small piece is called \u2018The Backyard Garden in a Box.\u2019 I am endlessly fascinated by the little landscapes around me. My small garden, with crocosmia flowers, attracts a hummingbird each summer. Sometimes, the bird comes with his mate and, on this occasion, as I stood motionless and watched, he came over and hovered for a few seconds about a foot from my head before passing me as safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another participant, Liz Koerner, retired a few years ago from working in a law office. \u201cI am a professional artist in the sense that I get paid for some of my work, but I started down this path as a hobby,\u201d she said. \u201cOver the past 15 years, I have done dozens of commissions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like the other contributors, Koerner learned about the show from Lando\u2019s email. \u201cI met Linda years ago, when I would take my mother into her gallery, and they always had lively discussions about the paintings and the artists. My mother has since passed on and, at her request, we gave Linda a number of art books from her collection.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Koerner decided to participate in Renewal, she chose the theme of spring. \u201cSpring is a wonderful time of renewal and rebirth in nature,\u201d she explained. \u201cMy painting is almost done. I needed to leave it while I complete a rush commission, then I will get back to it and finish it soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sandi Bojm\u2019s piece is also a work in progress. She works part-time as a speech language pathologist and as a therapist, which allows her the time to explore her other interests, including art and writing. \u201cI don\u2019t consider myself an amateur artist; nor am I a professional,\u201d she said. \u201cPerhaps chronically \u2018emerging.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the years, Bojm has taken art classes at Langara College and with private mentors. She met Lando through the Zack Gallery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI support the gallery and participated in last year\u2019s community show\/fundraiser,\u201d she said. \u201cLinda and I have shared ideas this past year for the next upcoming show, regarding community engagement and participation, and, at the same time, offering a fundraising opportunity for the gallery. It is exciting that it is now coming to fruition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her own piece will be an amalgam of abstract and landscape. \u201cI have just completed an intensive painting workshop on abstraction of the landscape and decided to expand on that,\u201d said Bojm. \u201cI have been intrigued in the past, in my walks through the woods, with the presence of logs and stumps that have nurtured new growth; nursing logs, I believe they are called. This is the image I am exploring in its relationship to renewal.\u201d<\/p>\n

A show as a gallery fundraiser is not a new concept. The Federation of Canadian Artists, for example, holds their fundraiser, Paintings by Numbers, annually, but their event is much more expensive for art lovers, and they feature well-known and established artists in their galas.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiving the local community artists the opportunity to shine, and making all the paintings affordable to everyone might be unique in Canada,\u201d said Lando. \u201cThe idea was not only to engage the community artists but to bring in their families and friends to the gallery, to show them that it is their gallery, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Renewal will run to Sept. 11. There is a free reception at the Zack, with the artists in attendance, on Sept. 8, starting at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n

Olga Livshin<\/strong> is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at olgagodim@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(photo from jccgv.com) The upcoming show at the Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery, which features 45 community artists who have donated their work, is a fundraiser for the gallery. \u201cThe idea for the show belongs to Shirley Barnett,\u201d said gallery director Linda Lando in an interview with the Independent. \u201cWe wanted to showcase the works […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[989],"tags":[3128,6167,40],"class_list":["post-20288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-visual-arts","tag-fundraising","tag-lando","tag-zack-gallery"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}