Over the last year, Main Line Art Center has been toiling away on its excellent project C3: Create. Connect. Collect. Through a series of art salons, they brought together a group of artists and a group of collectors with the idea of fostering the commissioning of new work. As we like to say at artblog — good for artists, good for collectors, good for the economy — and good going MLAC, which took a percentage of the $63,000 gross.
Nine new commissioned art works later, the Center organized an exhibition highlighting the new works created through C3, a perfect ending for the project. Here’s who was commissioned: Joan Becker, Fritz Dietel, Judy Gelles, Linda Lou Horn, Jonathan Mandell, Michael Manthey, Marianne Mitchell, Val Rossman, and Leo Sewell.
Jonathan Mandell, who did a portrait in black and white, had previously worked mostly in color. “The artists learned to think of their audience in a different way,” Judy Herman, Director of the MLAC, said. “Fritz [Dietel] never had an interaction with a buyer. It opened his mind to a different way of making decisions.”
We participated in two of the salons, and saw the interactions between artists and culture lovers and are, speaking of connections, very encouraged by the interstate communication that let to this inventive approach. It was inspired by the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago, which had a similar project a number of years ago. And anything that fosters new economic and personal relationships between artists and collectors is a good thing. Herman, who is in her final year steering the Center, said she hoped they could do another round of C3, with a different group of artists. The need is huge and we hope they can do another round too! This post features images of the new commissioned works created through C3. Congratulations all!
