ALABAMA ART COLONY RETURNS

Alabama Art Colony returns to the lake

STORY BY BETSY ILER

AAlabama Art Colony’s Sunday evening Art Walk returns this year to its original home at Children’s Harbor on Lake Martin after local COVID-19 restrictions forced a move to Opelika’s Art Haus in 2020 and 2021. Dress is casual. Colony board member Barbara Grimes said instructors and artists are looking forward to the refreshing retreat atmosphere at the lake Sept. 30 through Oct. 4, though the gracious hospitality of the Opelika community during the pandemic was very much appreciated. “The Art Walk on Sunday night is something we all look forward to. We’ve had sometimes as many as a hundred people there,” Grimes said. The Art Walk, which is free and open to the public, honors Alabama Art Colony patrons with an open air exhibit of each year’s artists’ work. From 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., art is on display on the

Harbor House grounds, weather permitting, and art lovers are invited to stroll, peruse and discuss the works. In the case of inclement weather, the works are displayed under cover at Harbor House Lodge. Some of the displayed artworks are available for sale at the event. “All of the artists look forward to sharing their art at this event,” Grimes said. For the last two years, the Alabama Art Colony board of directors successfully kept the Colony thriving with quarterly one-day workshops and an annual four-day art instruction event at the Opelika art gallery. The one-day events at the Art Haus gallery offered instruction with one accomplished artist four times a year. A different artist was invited to teach at each of the UNO workshops. The four-day gallery events hosted just 12 to 15 artists and one instructor instead of the usual 30 attendees with three or four instruction opportunities. “For example, this fall we brought in Perry

Austin, and he taught landscapes,” Grimes said.

“The one-day UNO workshops have helped us to keep the scholarship program going. We raised between $1,500 and $2,000, which is enough to help two upcoming, inspiring artists who are dedicated to doing something with their art.”

Each UNO workshop focused on a different medium, opening the opportunities to a wider spectrum of artists.

“Art Haus was so wonderful about hosting us,” Grimes said. “Children’s Harbor was closed to outside use during the pandemic, and Art Haus let us go over there without any penalty if we didn’t have the full class.

“The whole Opelika community just supported us. It was wonderful how the citizens of Opelika stepped up to help us out. They sponsored meals, too. We flew the instructor in and found housing in Opelika for the artist instructor. They really helped us to bounce back after COVID. They helped to make sure we would be thriving when the pandemic was over.”

Seemingly then, Alabama Art Colony will pick up at Children’s Harbor very near where they left off. When artists gather on the grounds at the Lake Martin campus for seriously ill children on Sept. 4, the schedule will pick up as if they’d never had to leave two years ago.

The first-night gathering will be hosted by board members, who will provide heavy hors d’oeuvres. Dinners will be donated by Stonehenge Gallery in Montgomery and Red Hill Gallery in Tallassee. On the final night of the four-day event, artists will exchange original, business-card-sized works of art.

Artists pay $750 to $850 for the all-inclusive Alabama Art Colony experience. The fee includes instruction, supplies and room and board. Alabama Art Colony is a nonprofit organization, and donations or funds raised through UNO workshops and other activities are applied to scholarships for artists. The Sunday evening Art Walk is designed to celebrate the participation of donors and patrons who make the programs possible.