Image by Cullen Beckhorn

Join us on First Friday Art Walk in March for a sneak preview of the Bellingham Comic Arts Festival (BellCAF). Make.Shift Gallery will host a selection of original artwork from BellCAF exhibitors as well an interactive xerox art installation. BellCAF is a festival, organized by Bellingham-based comics publisher, Neoglyphic Media, along with support from the Pickford Film Center and Make.Shift Gallery. BellCAF will feature over 40 independent creators and small publishers in a one-day exhibition show, free to the public, where their work will be available for purchase to attendees.

The BellCAF Group Art Show will be on display at Make.Shift Gallery through the month of March. On March 31st from Noon - 7:00pm, The Alternative Library at 519 N E Maple Street, will be host to the BellCAF. BellCAF is unlike other comic conventions, in that there will be no dealers and comic shops with rows of boxes of old comics. Instead tables have been reserved entirely for creators of small-press and handmade books and other comic art.

The artists selected represent many diverse styles and approaches to their art, with many publications made by hand in very small print runs that may only be available at this event. Attendance to BellCAF and most satellite events will be entirely free, but with so many artists coming from all over the west coast and beyond, The Alternative Library is sure to be packed.

Immediately following the exhibition show, the Alternative Library will host an after-party show, starting at 8:00pm, featuring performances from many BellCAF exhibitors. This show will include animations, performed readings, puppets, and live music.