MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – On Saturday, May 26, from 6 to 8 p.m., the public is invited to Middletown Art Center to join local artists, and Resilience Project participants for the Resilience ~ Art in Dialogue With Nature exhibition opening reception.

The opening will include spoken word readings and the release of the Resilience chapbook – a collection of writings and artwork created during the Resilience project workshops, which concluded this past weekend after a year of weekly classes. Readers include poets Casey Carney, Georgina Marie, and Idlore-Heather Kipnis among others.

The Resilience exhibit is a hybrid of the intent of EcoArts Sculpture Walk of creating and presenting ‘art in dialogue with nature’, and new works that speak of resilience, recovery and vitality.

MAC has continued the seasonal tradition of EcoArts at the art center in downtown Middletown since devastation of the Trailside Park by the Valley Fire in 2015, and plans to reopen the sculpture walk in the summer of 2019.

“In addition to the healing and enriching aspects of art-making, a key goal of our project is to weave art into daily life in Lake County,” said artist and Project Director Lisa Kaplan. “To this end, we are opening Resilience project exhibits in multiple locations throughout the County, and publishing our chapbook “Resilience, a community reframes disaster through art. The book includes powerful writings and images that were created during the Resilience project and is a beautiful work born of community creativity honoring our collective recovery.”

On June 1, from 5:30 to 7 p.m., a Resilience project exhibit featuring work created in Resilience workshops opens as part of the First Friday Fling at Lakeport’s Main Street Gallery, and on June 9, another exhibit of Resilience works will open at Fore Family Vineyards Tasting Room in Kelseyville from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Additional exhibits of work created during the project will be on view at the Adventist Health Hospital Mountain View Café in Clearlake, at Clearlake City Hall and the County Courthouse in Lakeport.

The MAC last week opened its first Resilience exhibit at Lakeport’s City Hall. MAC will install new work there every three months to further its goal of embedding art in public spaces and connecting distant corners of Lake County through the arts.

Inspired by Nature’s resilience as a mirror for our county’s recovery after devastating wildfires, the MAC’s Resilience project has provided opportunities for adults and teens, to reframe the fire experience, which impacted us all directly or indirectly, into creative expression and aesthetics.

More than 250 individuals ranging in age from 12 to 85 have attended affordable classes in photography, creative writing, painting and printmaking once or many times since June 2017.

“I cannot imagine how I would be recovering without these classes,” said Cobb resident Patti Jahsman, a frequent participant in Resilience printmaking and painting classes.

MAC is grateful to the California Arts Council, Adventist Health and other local partners, agencies and businesses for their support of Resilience and their ongoing commitment to assisting MAC in providing local, affordable, quality access to the arts and art-making.

The Middletown Art Center is located at 21456 Highway 175, Middletown.

Join the folks at MAC this weekend for this festive opening of Resilience, Art in Dialogue with Nature and throughout the year for a variety of cultural events including classes, musical performances, film screenings, dances and more.

Registration for MAC’s Adventures in Art and Storytelling summer camp, an extravaganza of visual and performing arts for children Kindergarten through grade 9 has also begun.

Visit www.MiddletownArtCenter.org to learn more about MAC and be part of a burgeoning arts and culture scene in Lake County.