Local artists will be showcasing their creative work once again when the Montgomery Arts Council’s annual Return to Art visual arts exhibition returns this weekend.
Artists are not only displaying their work. They will also be selling their different mediums over the course of three days beginning with ticketed reception on Oct. 27 from 6-9 p.m., and open to the public with free admission on Oct. 28 and Oct. 29 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Return to Art, a juried show in its third year, is set to be held at 1060 Route 206 on State Road in Princeton at the GfK building, which is just south of the Princeton Airport entrance.
“Montgomery is home to a lot of very talented artists,” said Karen Tuveson, chair of Montgomery Arts Council. “When I moved here, I discovered that artists live here because it is a cheaper place to live than a place like Princeton, but there is no venue here for artists to show their work.”
She found that with Montgomery being a fairly affluent community the people who were buying art had been going to other places to buy art from artists in the community who showed their work elsewhere.
“So, the initial goal of the Arts Council was to make that connection and offer the local artists a community and a way to connect with people in their literal [own] town,” Tuveson added. “Return to Art is a specific program [to provide] a way to draw artists from New Jersey, so we only take artists from in the state.”
Twenty-eight artists will have their work on display and will consist of artists from different levels. This year, 14 of the artists are new artists.
“There will be a lot of 2-D paintings, both oil and acrylic,” Tuveson said.
“We have two very good collage artists that deal with a variety of mixed medium, so anywhere from paper to fabric to leather. We have an upcycle metalworker, three different jewelers whose work is different from one another, sculptor, woodworker, photographers, and folk artists.”
The Arts Council is limited in the number of artists that can participate in the Return to Art exhibition with the space they are using. Hilton Realty, a Princeton real estate and development company, lets the Arts Council use the space inside Gfk building for the annual event.
The space used is 13,000 square feet of office building space. Tuveson said the space is “fantastic.”
“All the artists have a little office and then the center of the floor is a big open space and that is where we have sculpture and jewelry,” she added. “So, when you walk in you are kind of surrounded by all of their work.”
Tuveson said the purpose for the events like Return to Art is to provide people with a greater understanding and appreciation of the arts and provide for artists that live and work in the community.
“I feel like there is this strong disconnect very frequently that people don’t understand how much work it is to be an artist. An event like this you are in a space talking with artists and hearing about their process and seeing what it takes to get there.”
