Local photographer Craig Greiner wasn’t sure what to expect last fall when he and his wife Amanda, an oil painter, first opened their Bynum art studios to the public for the Chatham County Artists Guild Open Studio Tour.
“I was pleasantly surprised,” said Craig. “Photography can be a difficult medium and I was impressed by the turnout. And the number of buyers we had come through was really nice, too.”
This year, the pair — along with 43 other Chatham County artists, representing a wide variety of media — will again enthusiastically open their studios for the 27th annual installment of the popular showcase of local arts and artists, which gets under way Saturday morning.
“I’m looking forward to it,” said Craig.
Six new artists join this year’s tour, which will be held over the next two weekends: December 7th and 8th and December 14th and 15th, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays.
Hosted by the Chatham Arts Guild, the popular annual event — the self-guided tour was dubbed one of the best “Uniquely Chatham Events” in 2019 by Chatham Magazine — is a great way for area art lovers to meet the people behind the work, Craig said.
Studio spaces range from small, intimate cottages to expansive workshops. All offer a unique opportunity, Craig said.
“It’s a more intimate environment than some other shows,” he said. “People can talk to the artists, talk about the arts, about the creative process. It’s a much more intimate experience.”
The event is “one of the oldest tours of its kind in North Carolina,” said Lesley L. Landis, former president and now a board member of the Chatham Arts Council.
Not only long-lived, the tour is consistently popular with patrons.
“I’ve heard from several people who first came to Chatham to take the tour,” said Landis. “Many return year after year. Others, when they realize that Chatham respects and values creativity and innovation, move here to further build on what attracted them in the first place.”
Participating artists, all members of the Chatham Artists Guild, employ a wide variety of art media, including acrylics, watercolor, pottery, photography, woodworking, sculpture, metal art, jewelry, mixed media and more.
Craig noted that patrons, whether seasoned art collectors or beginning students, will find the Chatham tour to be a unique opportunity to connect with artists and learn about their work. Each artist, he noted, has work for sale in their space.
And while the tour — it’s the Chatham Artists Guild’s “signature event, by far,” Craig said — is important to the roster of participating artists, Landis notes it has broader ancillary benefits, too.
“In addition to highlighting and supporting the world-class, creative talent of our neighbors here in Chatham — who all run small businesses, by the way — the tour attracts visitors to Chatham County who buy lunches, drinks, and dinners in Chatham’s restaurants, and snacks and gas in Chatham’s convenience stores. This creates an economic ‘multiplier effect’ that benefits all of Chatham,” she said.
According to the North Carolina Arts Council’s website, “The growth of the creative sector — both nonprofit and private sector creative businesses — has contributed to the strength and resilience of North Carolina’s economy. Communities with a strong arts presence draw people who want to live, work or visit there. Nonprofit arts and culture alone are a $2.12 billion industry. The state’s nonprofit arts and culture sector transforms lives, builds stronger communities and strengthens North Carolina’s economy, supporting nearly 72,000 full-time-equivalent jobs and returning $201.5 million to local and state government.”
The North Carolina Arts Council notes, too, that the state’s creative industries account for 405,567 direct and indirect jobs, which is nearly seven percent of the state’s workforce. And between 2006 and 2016, jobs in creative occupations increased 27 percent.
“When you consider,” Landis said, “the Chatham Artists Guild’s Open Studio Tour, the tremendous work of the N.C. Arts Incubator in Siler City, the vitality of the Shakori Festival of Music & Dance, and the ongoing work of the Chatham Arts Council, which presents ClydeFEST, awards grants, and administers the Arts in Schools Intitiaves, you can understand why the NC Arts Council has called Chatham ‘an arts goldmine.’”
The tour is self-guided so participants set their own pace with a map highlight artists’ studios provided in the tour brochure, available online at http://www.chathamartistsguild.org, at The Joyful Jewel, 44A Hillsboro St., Pittsboro, or at many local businesses throughout the area.
A juried preview show to kick off this year’s tour was held at the Carrboro ArtsCenter, from October 30 to November 29.
In conjunction with the tour, a K-12 student art show — sponsored by the Chatham Artists Guild and Chatham County Schools — will be on display at the Peppercorn, 138 N. Chatham Ave., Siler City, North Carolina. Following a kick-off party Friday, the show will remain in place through January 4.
All tour events are free and open to the public.