In June of this particularly nasty year, the Penticton Arts Council had an idea.
They knew local artists, art galleries, and art-related businesses were suffering under the weight of the pandemic, and they figured a no-cost, one-stop online directory where folks could check out the entire scene virtually would be a heck of a plan.
And the #LoveLocalArt program was born.
It's gained a lot of traction since, and today the #LoveLocalArt directory features a couple dozen regional artists, 15 or so regional galleries, and a handful of associated businesses, sensibly organized and arranged alphabetically for easy browsing.
Click on a listing and you get a brief synopsis and a couple of photos. Click again and you're whisked away to the artist or business website or Facebook page.
It's a slick setup, and now with the Christmas season approaching the Arts Council wants to remind the community it’s out there and ready to serve.
"The LoveLocalArt online directory is just the Arts Council's way of supporting our local art businesses during the COVID pandemic," said Council administrator Bethany Handfield. "And beyond too because we're hoping to see an end to this someday soon.
"So if you've a visitor or if you're local, you can come to the website, look under the different headings, and see galleries, schools, musicians, and individual artists and find out when they're open and what they're currently offering."
Handfield also wants to let art purveyors know that listings are free too.
"We're doing this as a service to our community," she said. "There's an online form to fill out, and you can put that together with one or two photos and submit it to our programs coordinator Stacy Franck. She'll connect with you and she'll usually get that listing up within a day."
Beyond the #LoveLocalArt program, Handfield dropped hints about a potential spring replacement for this year's Art Walk (a one-night, open-door tour of local galleries and studios that typically unfolds now but was COVIDly canceled).
"We're really encouraged by what they're doing in Vancouver with its Culture Crawl (an arts festival that went partially virtual this fall)," she said.
"It'll probably be a hybrid. They'll be an element of in-person because it's good for our mental health to see each other. But we'll still have to be pretty safe about everything, so it'll be a combination of online and in-person."
In the meantime, head to the Penticton Arts Council website and click on the button at the top of the page to browse or place listings at the #LoveLocalArt online directory.
