Competition is fierce in the art world so the Town of Okotoks has created the chance for a global audience for members of the Okotoks Art Gallery.
Millarville artist Bethany Harris knows the struggle to be recognized, having become a serious painter and photographer in the foothills over the last five years.
“As an artist a lot of it is about getting awareness,” she said. “It is quite difficult. A lot of it is word of mouth.”
The Okotoks Art Gallery’s member artist website launched on Sept. 29 and Harris hopes it helps her become more of a household name in the area. The website lists member artists and links viewers to their individual websites.
“Having profiles of artists on the website will really help with access for people that are interested in finding out a bit more about the artists,” she said.
“I think people will look at it and really enjoy learning a bit more about each artist. People will be able to remember the artists’ names a little bit better.”
Harris, who grew up in DeWinton, studied art at the University of Waterloo. When she moved back to the foothills she joined the Okotoks Art Gallery membership to get her name out in the community through gallery showcases and events.
For Harris, the member’s webpage could be the boost she needs.
“I thought it would generate a bit of traffic to my website and Facebook page and hopefully people will keep an eye for exhibitions that come up,” she said.
The idea of the members website came from Okotoks culture and heritage manager Allan Boss, who had been considering promoting members online since he began working with the Town.
“It’s a great opportunity for artists to get the word out about who they are and have a face with a name,” she said. “It’s a huge benefit to our arts community.”
When the Town of Okotoks revamped its website earlier this year, Boss said he and gallery specialist Katrina Lougheed began making plans to put the idea into action.
“In addition to having the ability to submit their work to the gallery, sell their goods in our gift shop and take part in our Art on the Lawn and Spirit of Christmas events to sell their work, this also gives them another outlet in which to promote themselves,” Boss said. “These are the bread and butter artists of our community. These are the people who make up our town and our region. They are the ones that infuse our community with a great sense of culture and artistry and their work is fabulous.”
Boss said while the Okotoks Art Gallery showcases artists from across Canada, receiving more than 70 submissions from artists around the world each year, but it also puts an emphasis on promoting local artists.
“Because it’s so competitive we can’t feature everybody,” he said. “Arts and crafts… are so important to building communities and it just helps create a great place to live. It’s helping promote the creativity economy.”
Lougheed said it’s important to work with local artists and get their names out in the region and the members website is a great tool to achieve that.
“I just put it out there to them and said, ‘If you are interested this is what we’re doing and we will try and work with you,’” she said. “There were some who were very excited right away and there were others who came on board part way through. Maybe they’d heard about it from their artist friends.”
Lougheed said 16 of the more than 80 members have already signed up and she hopes more will join in.
“It’s a really good idea just to help the community get to know their local artists,” she said. “We tried to do that with the Art on the Lawn in the summer and introduce the local artists we have in the community and it’s one more way to visit the website and get to know the work they do and what we have in the gallery for them to see as well. We really want to get these artists out there in the community and get more people involved as well.”
To view the Okotoks Art Gallery members page go to www.okotoks.ca/culture-heritage/art-gallery/artist-members
