You should have heard the panic when we recently closed our doors for a week. People kept popping in asking “Oh no! You’re not going out of business are you?”
Not to worry, Chemainus! We were only giving ourselves a new face lift. Back in July 2016, when we first opened, there was little time or money to ‘do it right’. But thanks to your support of our wonderful local artists and our volunteer staff, we showed a slight profit in our first year of business, which allowed us to re-paint and install a new hanging system in the gallery. As you might know, Rainforest Arts operates under the Chemainus Valley Cultural Arts Society, which is a non-profit organization. The Arts Council granted us some operating funds to improve our gallery. All other profits go back into the hands of the society and our artists.
Last week we re-opened our doors and so far customers are raving about the brightness and fresh new work. We have moved the furniture around a little bit to make the gallery more wheel chair and stroller friendly and have added number of new artists for you to discover. Our long standing artists have all brought in new work never before seen in our gallery – so the transformation is complete.
This month’s featured artist is Carlyle Art. Not only are this husband and wife team gifted photographers and digital artists, but Art is debuting his oil paintings for the first time. Art and Daphne are dedicated volunteers in our gallery and provide us with all our publicity photos. We couldn’t do it without them! We are pleased to feature their art work in our gallery this season.
Rainforest Arts continues to support local artists and foster excellence in all mediums of artistic works. We are pleased to carry a large selection of our local First Nations work and expecting more in the near future. We also feature a very large selection of art cards and jewellery. Our gallery welcomes new artists as availability permits. You will find items of all price points for gift giving, home decor or treating yourself to a beautiful piece of hand made art. See you soon!