AVONDALE – A show celebrating Avondale’s creative community premieres this weekend.
The opening celebration for “Avondalia: A Collection of Our Work Together” will be held Friday from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Art Colony, 2630 W. Fletcher St. “Avondalia” runs through Sunday; the gallery is open Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
The exhibition features over 20 artists active in the neighborhood, including business owners, neighborhood group leaders, community activists, organizers, and more. The exhibition includes paintings, sculptures, photographs, stained glass, 3D art, and more.
The exhibition is organized by the Avondale Neighborhood Association’s Cultural Committee, which was formed last year. It is the first major project by the committee, which has worked with neighborhood partners including Mark Thomas, owner of The Art Colony, and Courtney Boatwright, an active artist and creative director who has a studio in the art space.
Artists whose work will be featured include Boatwright; Yosef Lifchitz, founder of Avondale’s free bookstore Books4Cause and a ceramicist; Winter Colloton, CEO of Honey Butter Fried Chicken; Nina Salem, owner of The Insect Asylum; photographer Adam Frint, co-owner of Magnifico Coffee; and Yolitzin Dominguez of the Avondale Gardening Alliance.
“Some of these business owners and leaders are also artists, so we thought about ways we could showcase other aspects of their work and their contributions to our community,” said Arts Committee Chair Nikki Frisinger.
“It’s such a wide range of talent backgrounds and very much the history of Avondale. Art has become the fabric of our community.”
The show is also a symbol of the intergenerational and artistic diversity of the district, said the club members.
“Every conversation we (on the neighborhood group side) have had outside of the arts and culture committee has been about getting to know the unified voice of the neighborhood,” said Ben van Loon, the group’s secretary. “It’s all about the arts and expression of the people in the neighborhood, so the show is a great way to spark the articulation of that voice.”
Some of the participating artists will also have booths with their works for sale when the weather is nice, Frisinger said.
In addition, open studios will be available for viewing and members of the Avondale Neighborhood Association will man a table to provide more information about the artists and the group and to show neighbors how they can get involved in increasing the emphasis on arts and culture in the neighborhood.
“A lot of these businesses are very creative businesses and require a lot of creativity and attract a lot of creativity. So the show is about showcasing both the artistic and business side of Avondale,” Frisinger said.
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