Artists tend to become hermetically sealed in their work spaces, bleary-eyed and obsessively focused on the creative task at hand. They need to get out and mingle from time to time, shakes some hands, laugh, work together, and meet potential buyers for their work.
The community-building/connection-making side of art is what drives Bang Out, a semi-regular Wednesday night gathering of artists at DSTRCT Lounge in downtown Guelph.
Banging out work is what creative types are known to do when possessed by inspirational urges, hence the name.
A number of Bang Out events so far have been successful at sealing friendships and getting original art in local homes, says mural artist Blake Lipnicki, who started Bang Out through his Creative Persistence, a start-up arts company dedicated to better engage the local arts community.
He sees it as a way to get artists working together, while working on their social networking skills.
“Bang Out has basically served as a platform for local artists to come out and engage with their peers in an open environment, and at the same time pushing themselves outside of their comfort zone,” Lipnicki said.
The most recent event, held last week, involved the drawing and painting of live models. Raffle tickets are sold to lounge patrons at midnight and there is a draw for the work produced during the evening. All proceeds are divvyed up evenly between the participating artists.
The space is transformed into a kind of active shared studio space, only with an audience watching the activity. The more interested the audience is, the more raffle tickets are sold. The potential pay-off from the raffle keeps everyone engaged, Lipnicki said.
“With every event we try to have a unique theme for the night,” he added. “Artists are there to work on pieces of original art throughout the night, during which we’re playing music, having games all around the space, and artists selling works they’ve made in the past.”
Bang Out will be one component among about 25 acts and happenings during the upcoming Gain Music Arts Festival, running from March 1-6. The festival is held in 10 venues on the fringes of the downtown.
“Since we’ve started doing it there is definitely more of a tight-knit community that comes out every week,” he added. New people are turning up all the time. As many as 15 artists have participated in a single event.
One event revolved around a blanket fort theme. The upstairs DSTRCT space was transformed into a large-scale blanket fort for grownups. There was a live tattooing event, approved by public health, an evening of drawing and painting based on comic book themes, and a surrealism night.
“Our next is in two weeks, and part of the Gain Music Arts Festival, spearheaded by Nik Wever, the founder of Gain Music,” Lipnicki said. “In the past, the festival has been primarily music, but over the last couple of years he has really made an effort to accommodate the creative community outside of the music scene.”
Gain Music is an event booking, promotion and management company based in Guelph.
Bang Out’s contribution to the festival will be another blanket fort, more vendors, and some participation by art collectives from out of town.
“The main benefit for artists is the sense of feeling engaged with an active community,” Lipnicki said, speaking of Bang Out. “Guelph is full of so many up and coming artists, but sometimes the biggest struggle is connecting with one another.”
Bang Out has become the unofficial night for those artists to come together, put what they are working on in the public eye, and connect with each other.
