Pictured, the Marquette Artist Collective members who are showing their work in the “Good Things” group exhibit. From left, Cameron Wilcox, Rachel Storck, Joy Bender Hadley, Claire Moore, Christine Saari and Stacy Giroux. (Courtesy photo)

MARQUETTE — The Marquette Artist Collective will hold a reception for their Good Things collaborative art exhibit at the Marquette Arts and Culture Center’s SmallWorks Gallery in the Peter White Public Library from 6-9 tonight, with the show running through April 9.

The exhibit features works by six members of the Marquette Artist Collective: linocuts and prints by Claire Moore, mixed-media cigar box pieces by Christine Saari, photographs by Rachel Storck, black and white watercolor paintings by Stacy Giroux, photography by Cameron Wilcox and paintings by Joy Bender Hadley, founder of the Marquette Artist Collective.

Artists will be in attendance and refreshments will be provided at the reception, Bender Hadley said.

The idea for the collective came to Bender Hadley in August, who said the inspiration for the collective stemmed from a desire to bring visual artists together to collaborate, offer critiques, discuss art and engage with the community through group exhibits and other creative pursuits.

“I feel like I do better processing creative ideas when I can maybe bounce things off of other creative minds. So I just felt like there was this need for some type of group of artists,” Bender Hadley said.

Bender Hadley shared her idea on social media with other artists to gauge the interest and response about her idea in the community.

She said the response to the idea for the collective was immediate, which allowed her to begin the collective in August with the first two members, Claire Moore and Melissa Sprouse, and start considering how the collective would be structured.

“We got together for the first two gatherings and sort of just talked and brainstormed about what we wanted; all three of us felt very energized by that,” Bender Hadley said.

The group structured the Marquette Artist Collective to provide a “creative, supportive, exhibiting group that meets bi-monthly to discuss art locally and worldwide, hold critiques and to create plans that contribute to their mission of creatively engaging the community in furthering the visual arts,” according to the Marquette Artist Collective’s mission statement.

The collective has grown since the initial gatherings — it now has over 20 members.

“It was obvious to me that there was a need and other artists and creatives were looking for the same thing I was,” Bender Hadley said about the response to the collective.

The collective’s members work in a wide variety of visual art mediums — Bender Hadley said that the group includes a metal artist, bookmakers, painters, photographers, a leather artist, as well as many artists working in mixed mediums.

The group holds gatherings twice a month, every other Tuesday — with a standing invitation for any visual artist, local or visiting, to attend the gatherings.

“All of our gatherings are open to any creative who wants to come,” Bender Hadley said, noting that while she loves performance art and artists, the collective’s focus is on visual art.

The gatherings can provide a forum for artists to do a wide variety of creative and community-building activities with each other.

“At each gathering, members and visiting artists discuss art (their own, local exhibits or elsewhere), hold critiques, create individual and collaborative work, plan exhibits, determine how to get involved with their community creatively, and support fellow members and guest artists,” according to the Marquette Artist Collective’s mission statement.

Another group of artists from the Marquette Artist Collective — Amber Edmonson, Raja Howe, Vicki Londerville, Holly Kreage, Sabrina Langdon and special gust Max Kapla — are showing their work at Cafe Bodega in Marquette, in an exhibit titled “Meditations,” which will be on display until mid-May, Bender Hadley said.

Bender Hadley noted that the Marquette Artist Collective will also be participating in Art Week, which will take place from June 23-30 in Marquette.

For more information on the collective, upcoming gatherings and events, visit the group’s Facebook page at: facebook.com/mqtartistcollective or email mqtartistcollective@ gmail.com.

In addition to the Good Things art exhibit tonight, a closing reception will also be held for the SEEN / UNSEEN, a collaborative exhibition by photography students from Northern Michigan University’s School of Art and Design in the Lake Superior Art Association gallery in the Peter White Public Library’s lower level from 6-8 tonight. SEEN / UNSEEN explores a variety of social and personal themes, such as mental illness, urban lanscapes and personal identity. The exhibit will run through Saturday.

Cecilia Brown can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 248.