The artists at ARC live, breathe, and sleep art. Now they are opening their doors and inviting the public into their homes. The largest live/work building in Vancouver is home to the Uncommon Perspectives group show and open house this Friday to Sunday (May 28 to 30).

The ARC (Artist Resource Centre), located at 1701 Powell St, houses artists and provides them with the necessities to satisfy their artistic appetites. The building is equipped with a kiln room, darkroom, and soundproof spaces for late-night gig rehearsals.

Erin Sage Sharp is one of over 30 ARC artists participating in the group show. He enjoys the freedom that comes with organizing your own event.

“It’s certainly convenient,” Sharp said of the downstairs gallery. “It’s a lot of fun because we get to do a lot of our own promotion and create our own event rather than [having it] at another establishment. Which means there’s no rules, which is kind of fun.”

Sharp, a screenprinter, just completed a “gig poster” for local roots-rock band The Matinee which he will show on Friday (May 28). His display is made from five prints, each one featuring another layer of colour than the print before, until the piece is shown in its entirety with all five layers.

Other artists include costumer Brodie Davidson, sculptor Dieter Schlatter, painter Ban Wei, special effects artist Darcy Davis, sculptor Mike Kammerer, mixed-media artist Sol Diaz Jirash, and sculptor Gideon Hay.

Uncommon Perspectives is the fifth installment in the Uncommon series, albeit a few years after the last one. Shows started in 2003 but stopped a few years back after the event became a bigger endeavor than the organizers could commit to. That is, until Karen Moe and Trish Kostian volunteered to get it back on track.

The show serves as a midpoint marker between the annual Eastside Culture Crawl in November, a cornerstone event for local artists.

“It sets a real deadline for yourself to get projects done and new projects going,” said Kostian. “I always found with the [Eastside] Culture Crawl it’s like ”˜Okay, I need to have some new stuff for it!’ The feedback that you get from the public and the invited guests—it’s just invaluable. You learn to go in directions you haven’t thought of.”

A handful of artists, including Kostian and former Uncommon organizer and photographer Wendy D, are inviting the public into their personal and professional space.

“It is interesting getting people into your personal studio space—because you do live here as well—so we had to prep a little bit for that,” said Kostian. “But people are always so interested in what you do so we’re encouraging artists to sit and work.”

Wendy D opens her studio with hopes to gather more subjects for her revisited series Scream. The collection of black-and-white portraits feature people exercising their pipes for the camera.

“It was previous work but it’s one that I decided every couple years I’m going to keep photographing. At the end of my career, I’ll have a perspective” she laughs, inferring that it’s still far off.

Kostian feels Uncommon Perspectives reflects not only the ARC but the state of the entire arts community. “We’re alive and well, and we’re working hard every way we possibly can,” she said. “We’re still out there working hard to create artistic things that will never die.”