LOWELL, Mich. (WZZM) -- If you've ever dreamed of having art you created hanging in a gallery, now is your chance. LowellArts King Gallery is hosting an exhibition where the public gets to do more than just admire the art pieces.
The exhibition, appropriately called Works In Progress, is putting a whole new twist on the art experience. Instead of just going to look at the art work guests of the gallery actually get to put some creative touches on them.
"All artists have art work that they've started and haven't completed and they probably won't go into them again," said Lorain Smalligan, the executive director for LowellArts.
Smalligan says local artists donated about 20 or so paintings they hadn't finished to the exhibition. Then the Hudson Street gallery was transformed its gallery into a working studio, complete with paint, brushes and other art supplies.
"Starting a piece is often hard. You know you have a white piece of paper in front of you, or some clay in front of you, and you are trying to figure out exactly what you are going to do as a starting point," says Smalligan. "These pieces, because they are started, will inspire the participants who come in. They will look at those and get ideas and use that to run on as far as what they add to the pieces."
A group of students from Unity High School were among the first to do so.
"They are having fun. They have been telling me plans of what they want to do, what it means to them and how they can kind of change the painting. And I think they want to keep coming back to see how the painting evolves," said their teacher Nicole Bosco. "To them it was kind of intimidating painting on someone else's art work at first. They weren't very confident I guess, but they came in here and they have been painting away."
"It will kind of just inspire new ideas for them," said Smalligan. "And some people who don't do art will get a feeling that, 'hey, I am an artist and I can do this.' Our philosophy here is everyone is an artist. Everybody has creative ideas that they hesitate to put down on paper, or clay, and we people to try them to try out."
The exhibition opened Tuesday, January 11th and will run through February 5th. Smalligan says the last week of the show they will have the pieces up for auction in a silent auction during a reception. The reception is set for February 5 between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. The original artists will be there for the final auction.
"Our real hope is that people come, put their touches on some of the pieces and then come back in a few days and see how it has changed from when someone else has come and added to those pieces," said Smalligan. "So really the whole month that we have the show up the idea is that all of the pieces will sort of evolve over time. I think that will be kind of neat for the participants to see, what other people thought when they put their ideas down."
The gallery, located at 149 South Hudson in Lowell, is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.