Area art lovers will get the chance to see some of the best area artists in the 16th Annual Kaleidoscope Juried Holiday Show, which opens Friday, Nov. 30 at Summit Artspace on East Market, 140 E. Market St. This is the final art competition of the year at Summit Artspace.
The show will open with a free Meet the Artists Reception & Awards on Friday, Nov. 30, from 5 to 8 p.m., in the main gallery at Summit Artspace on East Market. The exhibit, which runs until Dec. 29, is free and open to the public.
This year’s juried exhibition, organized each year by the Alliance for the Visual Arts (AVA), will include only a fraction of the hundreds of entries submitted online.
Kaleidoscope was founded in 2003 by AVA, which is the umbrella group of the four area arts organizations: Akron Society of Artists, Artists of Rubber City, Cuyahoga Valley Art Center and the Women’s Art League of Akron. More than 600 active members are eligible to compete in Kaleidoscope.
Cash prizes for the top juried winners will be announced at 7 p.m. at the opening event by Juror David Rankin of Cleveland, who is an internationally known and award-winning transparent watercolorist and instructor.
Gallery visitors will be able to vote for their favorite artist to win the Kaleidoscope Award, a working kaleidoscope designed and hand-blown by glass artist Bob Pozarski. The winner will be announced at the end of the show on the Summit Artspace website: www.summitartspace.org. John Sokol was the 2017 People’s Choice winner whose work, “One Foot in the Grave,” is used in this year’s publicity.
Giving back to the community, AVA and Summit Artspace studio artists will host free demonstrations and a children’s workshop at Summit Artspace. Demos held during Artwalk, Sat., Dec. 1 from 5 to 9 p.m. will include bird-carving with Tom Baldwin, creating a mini-shadow box with Kim Porter and art beading with Gail Marshall Taber.
Workshops for children and adults will take place during 3rd Thursday, Dec. 20, 5 to 7 p.m., creating “Rudolph the Reindeer” novelty holders with April Cameron and AVA volunteers. Registration for all of the events is online at: https://bit.ly/2PufVcu. You can also call (330) 376-8480 during office hours, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The Kaleidoscope artists will gather for a free panel discussion led by Juror David Rankin on Thursday, Dec. 13 from 7 to 8 p.m. in the main gallery surrounded by the artwork. The event is free. Reserve your seat here: https://bit.ly/2ROnGa1.
Summit Artspace’s main gallery is open Thursdays and Fridays, noon to 7 p.m., and Saturdays, noon t0 5 p.m. Additional hours include 5 to 9 p.m. during the Dec. 1 Artwalk and Dec. 20 for 3rd THURSDAY events, 4 to 9 p.m.
