The C4 mobile art gallery uses a 24-drawer cabinet to present work from local and professional artists.
The City of Ottawa’s C4 mobile art gallery may be coming to Centretown and other Ottawa neighbourhoods after its pilot project ends in June.
The C4 gallery project, sponsored by the City of Ottawa’s Public Art Program, is part of community art outreach, says co-project manager Kristina Lamb.
She says the feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive.
The art gallery is housed in a purpose-built cabinet. Twenty-four separate exhibits are showcased in small drawers and the wooden cabinet moves from one neighborhood to the next showcasing the work of professional and amateur artists.
When new exhibits are showcased in the drawers, the artists receive a different piece of art rather than payment in exchange for the piece they provided.
“The notion of the swap seems a timely and interesting way to get people to have a dialogue about their current circumstances and community,” says Lamb.
The community development Lamb imagined for the project has come to fruition in one budding young artist and Carleton University graduate.
Susan Gardiner Bourlier created an exhibit for the C4 Gallery after bumping into a friend at an art supply store, who told her about the city’s project.
The whole creation and exhibition experience inspired Bourlier to create an entire exhibit of art based on the piece she submitted to the project.
“Construction Anxiety,”her series of paintings inspired by the piece (electric, eclectic, ethanol) will be displayed in a solo exhibition at the Shenkman Arts Centre until April 27.
“Without the original stimulus provided by the C4 gallery, this series would never have emerged, and I hope that the project helps to open up the Ottawa art community, and inspire people to find new ways to express their ideas and opinions, as it has for me,” says Bourlier, a professional artist.
The Goulbourn Recreation Complex will host the gallery until June 7.
The exhibit’s final stop in the pilot phase will be Greenboro, opening in early June.