For one night only, the Ready to Hang art show at the Community Arts Workshop will showcase 450 art pieces created by community members of all ages and backgrounds.
The free art show — scheduled from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday at the Community Arts Workshop at 631 Garden St. in Santa Barbara — includes art of all media by about 325 local artists.
While the show is capped at 450 pieces and limited to two pieces per artist, all kinds of art was accepted from anyone in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, with the only limitation being that the piece needed to be sized at 12 inches by 12 inches and a maximum depth of 5 inches.
Casey Caldwell, executive director of the Santa Barbara Arts Collective and the Community Arts Workshop, said the youngest artist this year is 8 years old, while some of the oldest are at least in their 80s.
Each piece in the show will be available for purchase and ready to take home immediately. Prices are set by the artists, so there’s a wide range of price points.
Caldwell said the lowest prices are about $50, and the most expensive piece is priced at $4,059 — the price to cover two months of rent for that artist — but most pieces are a few hundred dollars.
“It’s really a fun opportunity for the artists to be in a show all together, but it’s also a really great opportunity for people who are interested in buying art because there’s so many different kinds of things and the prices are really a great range, so chances are, you’ll see something you like that you might actually be able to afford,” Caldwell said. “And just a really fun chance to get a sense of how many different kinds of art there are, how many different ways there are to make art, and what artists in our community are doing — what our scene is like.”
Caldwell said that 70% of sales go to the artist and 30% go toward supporting the nonprofit Community Arts Workshop.
Art pieces this year range from paintings, watercolor, collages, and assemblage to photography, mixed media, pottery and several other types of art.
“The Community Arts Workshop has created a place for artists to show and share their ideas in the most wonderful way,” said local artist Tony Askew, whose art is in the show for a third time this year. “It’s the best thing that has happened to Santa Barbara in a long time.”
Askew added that the show is a great way to interconnect artists in the community, “especially right now when it’s important to get a message of creativity to people.”
This year is the fourth year of the Ready to Hang art show, with this show being the first to be completely full. Caldwell said the show gets bigger each year.
Askew said it’s a good challenge to limit the size of pieces to 12 inches by 12 inches, and Caldwell said that, because that isn’t a very standard size, many artists create new pieces specifically for the Ready to Hang show.
“It’s kind of a representation of the art community right now,” Caldwell said. “It’s such a delight to see what people bring in.”
The Ready to Hang art show is free and open to the public. More information on the show and on the Community Arts Workshop is available here.
