Sales begin on December 6th
Now in its eleventh year, the annual “Cash & Carry” show at Bloomsburg’s Exchange Gallery opened on Monday, November 25th. Again this year, The Exchange gave away hundreds panels for artists to make work on – eight-inch squares, seven-by-nine-inch rectangles, and a few odd sizes too. After we gave them all away, artists could make their own panels out of any durable material (no bread or cheese, please). The show opened with almost 400 pieces, and work will continue to come in throughout the show: Why set a hard deadline when we don’t have to?
Artists may work in any medium and may alter the panels too if they wish. The show includes acrylic, oil, and watercolor paintings; pastel and pencil drawings; collages; photographs; sculptures; fiber art; and various mixed media including bamboo, clay, and metal, among many more materials. Most panels hang on the wall; some sit or stand.
Most pieces sells for $30, with the artist receiving $24. “These pieces make wonderful holiday gifts,” says Exchange executive director Oren B. Helbok, “and the very reasonable prices makes them accessible to everyone.”
As with all of the Gallery’s open-call shows, “Cash & Carry” welcomes participation by ALL artists, and this year’s show again has work by artists with decades of experience, by preschool children, and by everyone in between. Almost 200 artists have contributed work so far. They come from nine counties in central Pennsylvania and include groups of students at Bloomsburg High School, Central Columbia Middle School, Hazleton’s Valley Middle School and Cyber Academy, and the North Branch homeschool group. Thanks to all of those schools’ art teachers for getting their students involved!
It took the Gallery staff and three volunteers about four hours to hang the show, and “Cash & Carry XI” FILLS the Gallery with beautiful, interesting, and joyful artwork. “It feels like Christmas in the Gallery every day this time of year,” Helbok says, “as more and more pieces arrive. Unless you have seen a ‘Cash & Carry’ show before, you have never seen anything like it.”
“Every year, more and more new artists get involved,” Helbok continues. “Close to a thousand artists have exhibited work in more than 80 Gallery shows since we opened here in 2014, but we plainly have come nowhere close to exhausting this region’s talent – and we plainly fill a real need for people who have never shown work publicly but very much want an opportunity to. Every year, I write checks to many first-time exhibitors, including school kids. Telling them ‘Your work has sold in a gallery’ has a very positive effect on the way that they think about their art. You really cannot measure the value of art by money, of course – but selling some doesn’t hurt.”
“Cash & Carry XI” sales start at the show’s reception, which takes place on Friday, December 6th, during Downtown Bloomsburg’s “Coming Home for Christmas” event. Beginning at 10 o’clock that morning, Gallery visitors may take numbers, and at 6 p.m. the person with number 1 may choose ONE piece to buy; if that person wants another piece, s/he must take another number and go to the back of the line. Then the person with number 2 gets to choose a piece, etc. “This process makes it fair,” says Helbok. “No one person gets to take ‘all of the good stuff’ – and it also makes for a lot of fun as buyers talk to each other about which pieces they want most and which they will aim for if their first choices sell.” After the first hour or so, buyers do not need to take numbers, and they can take as many pieces at a time as they want. The Gallery will stay open that evening as long as it has interested customers. Sales will then continue throughout the run of the show, ending on December 27th.
The show’s name comes from its informal nature: Buyers take their pieces home with them as soon as they have paid for them. (In most Gallery exhibitions, work stays on the wall until the end of the show.) Contrary to the name, the Gallery accepts checks and charge cards too; we just like the way “Cash & Carry” sounds.
The Exchange Gallery, at 24 East Main Street in Bloomsburg, has regular hours from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, with occasional variations. For more information about The Exchange, and its weekly hours, visit ExchangeArts.org or Facebook.com/ExchangeArtsDotOrg or call 570-317-2596.