The Next One
The Columbus Artists’ Guild opens its annual Members Exhibition—and its community—to artists and art lovers across the Chattahoochee Valley.
By Monica Jones
Ask Columbus Artists’ Guild President Julian Ripple to name his favorite piece of art, and his answer is simple: “The next one.”
It is not a clever way of dodging the question. For Ripple, an oil painter who has experimented with other media but always finds his way back to oils, each new work carries something from the one before it.
“Art is a learning process,” he says. “Each piece of work is a development of what you previously did.”
That belief—the idea that an artist is never entirely finished learning—is part of what makes the Columbus Artists’ Guild’s annual Members Exhibition such an interesting show. The work may share a room, but it does not share a single style, medium or level of experience. More than 100 pieces typically fill the upstairs reading room of the Columbus Public Library, with oils, acrylics, watercolors, drawings, photography, ceramics, sculpture, landscapes, portraits, abstract work and fabric art displayed side by side.
“There will be the full gamut,” Ripple says. “There is a lot of good stuff going on out there.”
This year’s members-only opening reception will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday, October 3. The exhibition will then open to the public during regular library hours from October 4 through October 30, giving visitors plenty of time to see the work and spend time inside one of Columbus’s most distinctive public spaces.
The exhibition is also a chance to get acquainted with an organization that has been connecting artists in the Chattahoochee Valley for more than 75 years.
The Guild’s history began in 1950 with Columbus resident Betty Fielder Mitchell, who imagined an organization where local artists could share their ideas, work and energy. With help from the Christian Fellowship Association, the group was established as the Columbus Art League. It later became the Artists’ Guild of Columbus, incorporating under that name in 1983 and receiving nonprofit status in 1985.
Since then, the organization has grown through generations, surviving changing leadership, changing media and, more recently, the interruption of the COVID years. Today, Ripple estimates that the Guild has approximately 140 members.
What has not changed is the basic need for artists to find one another.
An artist often works alone, Ripple says, but that does not mean the work develops in isolation. Being around other artists provides fresh ideas, encouragement and the occasional push to try something new. The Guild creates room for those exchanges while helping members place their work before a wider audience.
Still, the word guild can sound a little imposing to some.
Ripple understands that. Before joining, he carried a misconception he now suspects has kept other people at a distance as well. “I thought the Guild was an elite society,” he says. “I know that was my initial impression.”
What he found was something much more relaxed: artists willing to welcome new people, share what they know and make room for work at every stage of development. Its members include experienced and nationally recognized artists, but also beginners, students, hobbyists and people who simply enjoy being around art.
For someone who has never exhibited a piece publicly, that first step can feel enormous. Creating something is personal. Hanging it on a wall means letting strangers stop, look and form an opinion.
“You’re putting your work there for other people to judge,” Ripple says.
The Members Exhibition makes that leap a little less lonely. A first-time exhibitor may find their work hanging near that of someone who has painted, photographed or sculpted for decades. The setting does not erase those differences in experience, but it allows artists to learn from them—and reminds viewers that no artist begins as a finished product.
Ripple speaks about that progression with the ease of someone who understands that dissatisfaction is not always the enemy of good work. A painter can finish a canvas, study it later and immediately see what could have been handled differently. Writers know the feeling, too: the piece isn’t complete until you read it again and discover the line you suddenly wish you had removed.
“You see something and say, ‘If I do it again, I could do better,’” he says. “It always gets better with practice.”
That range of experience is mirrored in the range of work visitors will encounter in October. Alongside traditional painting and drawing will be photography, pottery, sculpture and textile work. Ripple is particularly enthusiastic about the expanding possibilities of fabric art.
Many works in the exhibition will also be available for purchase. Sales are not conducted directly through the library, but identifying information displayed with each piece will allow interested buyers to contact the artist.
The exhibition takes a group effort to assemble. Members receive and organize the work, while experienced volunteers help determine how more than 100 individual pieces can share one room without competing for space.
Once everything is hung, adjusted and ready, the members-only opening reception becomes more than a first look at finished work. It blooms into a thrum of conversations between artists, longtime members and newcomers.
The Guild wants to create more of those opportunities throughout the year. Members currently gather for regular programs featuring area artists, and Ripple hopes to build stronger connections with Columbus State University and find new places for members to exhibit. Local businesses, in particular, could trade a few beige walls for original work while introducing local artists to people who may never walk into a traditional gallery.
The larger goal is to make the depth of this region’s creative community easier to see.
“We want people to know, from Pine Mountain, LaGrange and wherever else, that we are the center of art,” Ripple says. “Columbus is the center. Come and enjoy it. We have a lot of stuff to talk about.”
2026 Columbus Artists’ Guild Members Exhibition
Artwork drop-off for registered participating artists will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, September 26. A members-only opening reception is scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday, October 3.
The exhibition will be open to the public October 4–30 during regular library hours in the upstairs reading room of the Columbus Public Library, 3000 Macon Road. Artwork offered for sale will include information for contacting the individual artist.
To learn more about the Guild, membership and exhibition requirements, visit columbusartistsguild.com.
