Vancouver United Church of Christ, off 68th Street, hosted the Society of Washington Artists for their second annual weekend-long Fall Creatives Art Market on Oct. 9.
The hall was filled with displays of various arts, from crafts like pottery and jewelry, to visual arts like photography and painting.
“This is a gigantic support group, and it’s the largest art organization in Vancouver,” said SWA president Rick Jones. “I don’t know what it would be like without having an arts organization.”
Three years ago, SWA merged with another group named Mosaic Art Alliance.
After the merger, SWA inherited a subsidiary called Gallery 360 which contains several gallery locations in Vancouver.
“The Hilton is one, Elements Restaurant is another, La Bottega, the church has a gallery upstairs,” Jones said. “We have a couple more online, but they’re basically high traffic areas. We do sell a great deal of art out of those venues.”
This is the second year where the society has decided to try out the fall market as a way to promote its members’ work.
“This is strictly recognition and sales, and it worked very well for the first year and if it works well this year, we’ll continue it,” Jones said.
Setup for the fall market contrasts with the society’s other show that happens in the spring.
“This is an opportunity for our members to sell, sell, sell,” said board of directors member Michael Kay. “Our spring show is limited to three pieces per person. What we do here is rent space and you’re allowed to bring in as much work as you can fill your space.”
Another thing that helped to make the fall market different from the spring show is how they handled the financial side of things.
“The spring show, we take a 35 percent commission to help defray the costs of putting the show on,” Kay said. “Here we take 10 percent so that allows artists to lower their prices and hopefully stimulate sales.”
Kay recorded around 28 members being active in the Fall Creatives Art Market for this year’s weekend run of the event.
“When you create an art alliance or an association, it’s a way for like-minded people to gather and learn from each other, encourage each other and support each other,” Kay said.
Finding an arts group, for Jones, is one of the highest priorities an artist can have when they move to a new place.
“Most of our members are from areas where there was an art group,” Jones said. “Many are from California and Oregon and Seattle, but they all came in thinking that they had to join an art group.”
In a time when man-made art appears to be threatened by the rise of artificial intelligence, coming together at an art seems to be reminding artists of a commonality they all share.
“I think it’s more important than ever to get out and look at human art because there’s a difference,” said board member Jan Tracy. “It makes you feel something and that’s important.”
Artists in the SWA share a desire to create and share the things they put their time and energy into.
Kay sees potential for his photography everywhere he goes, citing that his mind constantly runs prompts and questions about subject framing and composition.
For Jones, artists are everywhere in the community, and they have a life of their own that needs support.
“We have almost 300 artists in Clark County and it really is a strong art community,” Jones said. “Just go to the galleries and check them out, see if you like it, and if you like something enough, buy it.”
