Preservation is a work of art.

And for the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill, celebrating the work of contemporary visual artists is a larger part of their mission.

The society, at the Horace Williams House on East Rosemary Street, uses its location as an increasingly popular gallery for artists across the Southeast.

“With fewer and fewer galleries around, many artists have begun to showcase their work here,” said Ernest Dollar, executive director of the Chapel Hill Preservation Society.

Owned by the University, the Horrace Williams House serves as a living artifact museum. It began hosting exhibits from local artists almost 25 years ago.

“We want to attract people who wouldn’t usually come to the house,” Dollar said. “Instead of being a ‘musty old house,’ the society wants to make it a living and breathing house full of life.”

The society hosts ten or more art exhibits per year, showcasing work ranging from pottery pieces to photography.

To display at the gallery, prospective artists enter a contest each May and a panel of judges choose the collections to be displayed in the upcoming year.

The exhibits are displayed in the Octagon Room, named for its distinctive honeycomb shape.

“It’s a nice place to look at art,” said artist Nicholas Graetz, who is presenting his photography collection, “Investigations,” this month at the house.

Former house owner professor Benjamin Hedrick added the room in 1854.

“It has a calm quality which makes it easier to contemplate what’s on the wall,” Graetz said. “There is an intimate feel to the exhibit.”

And his exhibit is all about contemplation.

Each of the 21 photographs in the exhibit are of people. For Graetz, human subjects offer an infinite variety of expression and emotion, he said.

“There’s a richness in that,” Graetz said.

Portraits of Gratez’s family share the wall with candid pictures from “American Idol” auditions. Nearly half of the collection is composed of stills from two locally produced independent films.

The photographs feature varied environments, but a unified theme of humanity remains.

“Humans keep drawing me back,” Graetz said.

Though he has been a photographer for more than 30 years, with exhibits in Michigan, California and North Carolina, this is his first since 1987.

Graetz is largely self-taught, but has trained with a variety of professional photographers, he said.

His exhibit opened on Aug. 22 and continues until Sept. 19.

“If you like watching people, you’ll probably like these pictures,” Graetz said.

Contact the Arts Desk at artsdesk@unc.edu.