Happy times, happy hours as arts scene grows

The winds of change are shifting along the silk road for artists that began winding its way through Old Town two summers ago.Ada Ghuman, president of the Laurel Arts District Committee, announced on July 25 that the nonprofit has disbanded. Ghuman and fellow Laurel residents Clayton Cooper and Trina Kvale, however, already had reformed the committee as DC|LA Arts, LLC two months earlier.In 2014, the nonprofit Laurel Arts District Committee began showing the work of local artists in new restaurants and arranging Meet The Artist Happy Hours in Old Town.On Aug. 18, the Meet the Artist Happy Hour at Olive on Main, 504 Main St., will be held under DC|LA Arts' signature; Cooper and Ghuman installed a solo exhibit by mixed media artist Karla Lawrence, of Hyattsville, there last Friday.Ghuman said the new business model won't change the social and cultural experience the event paints for the town, but it will allow the partners to expand their art activities beyond Laurel toward broader horizons.Restaurant owner Nadol Hishmeh, of West Laurel, credits Ghuman and Cooper with helping to draw in a customer base that has &quot;become family.&quot; He said he plans to support the partnership.Hishmeh's existing and potential customers, including some of the artists whose work has been displayed, often ask when new work is coming in. He has agreed to pay a monthly fee for what &quot;used to be free,&quot; he said, because cross-marketing is an effective business strategy. The art displayed at Olive on Main will continue to change every few months, keeping its walls &quot;fresh and interesting&quot; and creating a dynamic ambience customers like.Meet the Artist Happy Hours — particularly those featuring the work of Trina Kvale, Diego Sifuentes and, most recently, Steven Williams, — have been well attended at Olive on Main, Hishmeh said.In the midst of installing the Lawrence exhibit at Olive on Main, Ghuman said, &quot;Nadol is one of the people who allowed all this to start happening at this level.&quot;&quot;I'm onboard,&quot; he said, &quot;for as long as it continues to go smoothly.&quot;The Laurel Arts District Committee evolved from the Laurel Arts District Exploratory Committee that formed after the City of Laurel designated the area between Route 1, Fetty Alley, Fourth St. and the Patuxent River as Laurel's Arts and Entertainment District in 2011.The nonprofit committee launched its first exhibit at Olive on Main just a few months after the restaurant opened.Ghuman juried original work by local artists and marketed the Meet the Artist Happy Hour.&quot;Everyone should have accesses to quality arts and art events,&quot; Ghuman said. &quot;Without art, all walls and halls would be empty, and empty walls and halls equate to empty hearts.&quot;She estimates that 50 to 60 pieces, ranging in price from $90 to 200, have sold at the 26 exhibits and happy hours held so far at Olive on Main (and four that took place at More Than Java Café, 358 Main St.). Twenty five percent of the artist sales, she said, went to the committee.&quot;The percentage system no longer works for us because often there are many months without any art sales, but the work continues,&quot; Ghuman said.Early in the arts movement that began in Laurel on C Street, committee members participated in the 2012 C Street Gallery festivals in conjunction with Karen Isailovic of Laurel Factory, and in subsequent annual festivals held at C Street, the MARC Train parking lot and at the Laurel Armory.The committee organized Music in the Street concerts around Old Town last fall, put exhibits at The Empower 2 Move U yoga studio near City Hall, and installed pop-up galleries at the Grand Opening of the C Street Flats.It created the History Tour Art House exhibit and &quot;Eros Fest,&quot; a &quot;pay to play&quot; visual and performance arts event held last February at the Center for Arts and Media on LaFayette Avenue.In June, the silk road reached beyond Laurel to Bowie, where Ghuman spearheaded the &quot;Red, Hot & Wild&quot; exhibit featuring the work of 15 artists, including her own, at the Huntington Community Center.Partners in artThe DC|LA Arts partnership evolved from friendships formed between neighbors and art lovers at summer barbecues at the home of Old Town residents Cooper and Sifuentes on 6th Street.Committee contributor Kvale, a mother of four who moved to Laurel four years ago, said she met Ghuman in Cooper's backyard. Ghuman invited her new friend, who said she hadn't painted for some time, to create and show fresh work at the Armory Festival in Oct. 2015.&quot;I said yes before she [Ghuman] finished the sentence,&quot; Kvale said.Working in oils and pastels as she explored the history of the town with her brush, Kvale sold a dozen pieces from a solo exhibit at Olive on Main the following July. Passionate about arts education for children, she organized an exhibit of student art at Olive on Main last year.&quot;My hope is that art will be as normal and rich and valued as STEM to the children in our community,&quot; she said.Cooper, treasurer of DC|LA Arts, is an arts lover who said he likes being an extra pair of hands and executing events that bring people together.He helped Kvale and Sifuentes set up a booth at the Armory Festival and has been a steady presence behind committee events since. The volunteer work he's stepped up for is similar, he said, to his job as a chief of protocol, which he enjoys.Ghuman said her Laurel Arts District Committee activities have required putting in up to unpaid 50 hours a month.Her behind-the-scenes work has included mining for artists and performers, scheduling and marketing events, and setting up and dismantling exhibits, as well as attending meetings and events.&quot;Art is my savior, my joy, my freedom,&quot; she said. Cooper said that DC|LA Arts plans to build on the Laurel Art District Committee's following, which has grown to 250 individuals and a few organizations, according to Ghuman.Mixed media on displayLawrence, whose work is on display at Olive on Main, is a mixed media artist and owner of Karla's Mixed Media Studio. She and Ghuman have been friends, she said, since they met at the C Street Gallery in the fall of 2012.&quot;That's when I first started creating art,&quot; Lawrence said.Her paintings on display focus on women's faces superimposed over layered backgrounds, and range from $65–300 in price.The exhibit is Lawrence's first solo show; she said she is excited and looking forward to the Aug. 18 happy hour.As DC|LA Arts gears up for its next series of events, Ghuman said she and her partners all have the title of design director and will rotate routine tasks while keeping their hands in the &quot;creative part.&quot;&quot;Without their [Kvale and Cooper's] support, the arts in Laurel would have stopped long ago,&quot; Ghuman said. &quot;New sources of revenue will allow us to create whatever we dream up.&quot;

Happy times, happy hours as arts scene grows

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