Art has come to Westshore Town Centre in Langford.
The West Shore Arts Council in collaboration with Coast Collective Gallery and Art Centre recently opened a pop-up store called Art + Fashion Collective at the Langford mall.
The store features a number of hand-made pieces by local artists including pottery, children’s toys, jewelry, bow ties, clothing and paintings that can be purchased. A number of items are also on loan from various stores throughout the mall.
“The most exciting thing is that they would buy local and these would be supporting our own artists in their creation and that’s exactly what we want to happen,” said Laura Davis, president of the West Shore Arts Council.
“For Langford, we really don’t have anything here where people can go and look at art made by our West Shore artists. So, this brought it to Langford.”
A few years ago, the arts council partnered with the mall to allow artists to create installations from recycled materials, which were then displayed at the mall. Residents were able to vote for their favourite installations and the winner received $1,000.
After the success of that initiative, the organizations began brainstorming more ideas to bring arts to the public.
RELATED: West Shore art installation celebrates Canada
That’s when Carlene McDonald with Westshore Town Centre suggested a pop-up store – an idea that was already being done on the East Coast.
Since it opened on July 25, the store has received a lot of positive feedback and has seen a steady stream of people each day.
When available, local artists will also be doing demonstrations. In addition, free art classes will be held in the space for adults and children later this month.
Kathryn Fudge, treasurer on the board of directors with Coast Collective, said the store provides more exposure to the arts.
“There’s still a lot of people who don’t know about us [Coast Collective] and don’t understand that there is an arts centre that is available to the public,” she said.
“We want to get out to the community and let people know that this is an opportunity for them. We’re there all the time.”
The pop-up store is open from Wednesday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. until Oct. 15.
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
kendra.wong@gold
