Art party invites creatives of the Triangle to bring their work to show and tell

The Mothership has a vision: the coworking space in Durham is a co-op style shop for makers and artists, where people can visit and sell what they make and work alongside other creatives.

The mission statement of Mothership encourages radical acceptance and describes an environment in which all creators can be supported and celebrated, said Kate Van Dis, the event co-organizer of Art Party.

Art Party is a show-and-tell event happening this Saturday at 7 p.m. The quarterly gathering invites local artists of all different mediums — including visual artists, writers and musicians — to show up for their community and share their own work.

Event co-organizer, Kate Van Dis, writes in the coworking space at Mothership, and values artistic collaboration and a network of support.

“The idea was for it to be a space for people to share what they were working on without the pressure for it to feel like it had to be finished or perfect, and a place for people to be able to talk about their process and connect with other artists in a place that’s sort of free of pretentiousness and all the usual strappings that can come with galley shows and all that,” Van Dis said. 

Van Dis said there is a need for artists to have an audience and for people to show up for artists.

Art Party encourages creators to present their own work to the crowd, typically for a five-to seven-minute presentation, but equally encourages people to just show up and listen to them.

Megan Bowser, a co-founder of the Mothership in Durham, and Julia Green, are also organizing the event. 

Green said it was something she’d wanted to do, and approached Bowser in June of 2018 with the idea.

“I’m a writer and a member of the Mothership and I’ve always dreamed of people coming together," Green said. "I teach writing workshops and I teach classes on storytelling and narrative, but I just wanted a really fun environment where we just came together and showed our art and it wasn’t for praise or criticism, but just making little more energy as a collective than we have individually."

Green is a writer and said she’ll be reading a short story of hers at this Saturday’s Art Party.

“The way I make art is sitting alone in rooms for long periods of time — I love doing that, and I find it really restorative, but it’s also cool to hang out with other people and talk about their process," Green said. "At the first Art Party there was a photographer who talked about taking photographs and then printing them and making collages out of them and her process was just so inspiring to me."

This weekend’s Art Party will be the fifth in slightly over a year.

“I love the idea of artists making art and supporting each other as our art continues to grow,” Bowser said.

Green and Bowser didn’t expect the first event of the year to have such a high turnout, but said they were immediately approached by attendees asking them to make it a frequent event, and they understand it to be fulfilling a need in the community.

“We’re all doing this, and we all value this, and we’re making a space in which other people who value it can come together as a vibrant scene of local artists," Green said. "Art is what makes life worth living for us, and it’s more important now than ever that we make art and keep showing up for each other."

arts@dailytarheel.com