Sketchbook Swap Helps Build Community

The Sketchbook Swap project is all about utilizing art to create a stronger sense of community at our  studios and also with the greater Chicago community.  Our primary purpose at The Arts of Life is supporting each other as professional artists in creating a thriving arts community based on cooperative decision-making and mutual respect.  We feel the Sketchbook Swap has done just that!  To begin , our Chicago Studio artists voted to participate in this cross studio collaborative project at our monthly studio meeting; we all agreed we’d like to create a stronger relationship with our North Shore community members.  After picking sketchbook “pen pals” at random, artists paired from both studios swapped a shared sketchbook back and forth over a course of several weeks.  Each week our artists created dialogue through their artwork sharing multi media sketches, notes, and poetry.
The culmination of this community building project is two group exhibitions at our respective studios.  The North Shore Sketchbook Swap Exhibition takes place on Friday, September 27th from 6pm – 8pm and then the show travels to our Chicago Studio as part of Chicago Artists Month on Friday, October 4th from 6- 8pm.  Our Chicago Studio opening reception will also be an Open Studio event; we’d like to invite you to come tour our space and meet the artists behind the project.  The idea is that we not only share our experience with each other, but also with our fans, arts community, and neighbors.  We would like our community to expand beyond our studio walls.  
The Sketchbook Swap is a great celebration of community building through art marking and we hope you come to celebrate with us!