Call To Artists - The Steamwhistle Art Show

Wednesday evening was the opening night of my show entitled "Wasteland : A photographic journey into the heart of urban decay” It was the first night of a month long stint for my pieces at the Steam Whistle Brewery here in Toronto. This is a big show for me personally, as the other shows I have done in the past were weekend long exhibits. You go in one day before, set up your entire booth. You are there for the weekend all day each of the 3 days of the show. You are interacting with potential clients and trying to sell your work to them.

This particular show is quite different in the way there was an opening night gala last night where I invited friends and family to come down and show support, do some networking with other people who happened to come down to the event that evening. The event was free of charge to attend so anyone who happened to be in the area could walk into the venue and grab a beer, have a bite to eat and check out my work. It was a great night, quite a few people came through the venue, the art looked great. The food was good and all in all it was a successful evening.

Steam Whistle Brewery is a beautiful venue to display art with the brick wall interior, the large windows allowing ample light into the room. The theme of the photographs fit perfectly in the venue with the atmosphere and the look of the room. It was as if the images were created to be displayed there. You would have thought it was intentional.

Call to Artists is how Steam Whistle goes about getting local talent into their space to do these shows. You apply through their website http://steamwhistle.ca/2014artshows/ when they run the promotion once a year. If your work is chosen to exhibit by the jury, they pair or group you with other artists who have a similar style of work. I was paired with http://www.gkaiserphotography.com/, a great photographer based out of Windsor shooting similar subject matter.

They promote, support and help local artists by doing this. It’s a brilliant marketing plan, the people are incredibly friendly and helpful.