Celebrating Five Years

Welcome to the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts' (HGA) new blog. The HGA comprises 23 established local artists who own and operate the gallery ourselves, so when you buy art or fine crafts from our gallery, you are buying local and direct from us, the artists who live and create our work in your community. Many of us have work in galleries across the country and have won recognition through awards and one-person shows.

About our history: In 2006, a small group of Triangle area artists got together to create a gallery with a range of fine art and fine crafts and to make the work as affordable as possible. Despite the recession and closing of many galleries, the HGA has thrived, bringing in more revenue each year and more loyal customers. And we have grown as a gallery, expanding into storefront space in the historic Hillsborough Mercantile building and, through a juried process, adding new members with exceptional work.

This September marked our fifth anniversary, and we'll be celebrating with a party in late November. We're proud to be marking five years of success in a challenging economic climate. Our history is wrapped up with community and how Hillsborough and other area communities have embraced and supported us.

With the arts being cut from school curricula, it's even more important to have galleries like the HGA thrive. One of our artists is always on duty and ready to talk about his or her work, as well as the work of the other artists.

We also have created a game for children that has them looking at the art in the gallery to identify and check off items found in the paintings, sculpture, stained glass and jewelry. The kids love it, and it teaches them to look carefully and observe what's in the art and what it's about.

We welcome browsers who come in each month just to see what new art has been installed - and we have monthly featured artists, or group shows on a special theme, one of which, last spring, was "Walkable Hillsborough," with legs and feet as well as Hillsborough scenes being depicted in unique ways, such as a copper sneaker sculpture with the sneaker in full stride. (That item sold during the first week of the show.)

The HGA is many things to many people - a place to buy art, a place to learn about art, a gathering place, a place to lift your spirits, and a showcase for many talented local artists.

We'll be using this blog to tell you more about the artists and the gallery, what new directions some of us may be taking in our creative work, upcoming shows and other gallery events.