Holiday Art Show Hits The Three-Decade Mark

By Shannon Hicks

To welcome the holiday season, the Society of Creative Arts of Newtown (SCAN) presented its 30th Annual Holiday Show and Sale last weekend. The event opened with a public reception on Friday, November 18, and continued through late Sunday afternoon, November 20. The artists’ group set up the show in its regular meeting location, the lower level of Newtown Meeting House.

The holiday show is a non-juried show where members are allowed to hang up to four pieces of their original artwork. A total of 59 artists took part in this year’s show, presenting a collection of oil paintings, pastels, watercolors, and paper collage works.

A small percentage of participants also opted to set up small portfolio stands with their works around the outer rim of the room, giving show visitors the additional chance to look at another 140 or so pieces of unframed work.

Chairman of the holiday show was Laura Clough, who has been a member of SCAN for about five years. She decided to take on chairman duties for a smaller show as her first chairman outing, rather than try to organize one of the organization’s longer-running events, she said last week. SCAN’s calendar includes a few weekend shows, such as last weekend’s Holiday Show and Sale, along with longer-running events like the Annual Spring Juried Show, which runs for ten days.

“This show is a lot of fun,” Mrs Clough said during Friday night’s reception. “It’s three days long, so it isn’t as hard to staff as our other shows [SCAN members sign up to take turns sitting during each show’s run], and it’s a nice way to see everyone’s work.”