In the five years that I have served as co-chair of the HeART of the Community Exhibition project, we have worked to bring together a group of works united by theme and format. This year, Mary Beth Ramsey joins me as co-chair, and for the fifth annual event, we decided to change the size format to give more variety and bring in some dimensional work. Our only request was that artists create their works so that the proportions would be divisible by five.

I am not a big proponent of change in general. Often I find myself both in support of change as well as the last holdout against it. As the work for the HeART auction came in, I was, as I often am, delighted and surprised. I was delighted in the multiple ways that artists interpreted this theme, the use of materials, the variety in shape and sizes—yet I was surprised to find myself missing the square format that we used to unite the exhibition.

Nonetheless, the theme, The Power of Love, brings the show together in ways that we could not anticipate. One of our new artists, the Virginia sculptor Joyce Zipperer, who created a non-wearable shoe sculpture, Hearts and Soul, put it so well: "As I was creating the shoe to share with you, an expression came to mind: "don’t judge him or her, until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes." In a community, people with good hearts and good souls become the pillars, the ones looked up to who set the examples that others may follow...Understanding, caring and sharing with others is  paramount. These are the building blocks in life, in our immediate community, and as far as we can spread individual vision, insight and acceptance for the good of all mankind in this world of many differences."

This year, we invited many new artists. Those who accepted our invitation, like Joyce Zipperer, Scott Brooks, and Siobhan Ridgway, have joined our project even though they may never have been to a CAMP Rehoboth event before. They have joined because they believe in the mission of what CAMP Rehoboth aims to do building community everyday. Tim Tate, whose cast glass piece sparked such active bidding at the Sundance auction last year, has strong ties to the GBLT community and to Rehoboth, and enthusiastically created his piece, Be Careful with my Heart, to support what he calls "a growing need for the positive power of healing in community."

Each year, our list of artists who wish to be invited to the project grows. We keep the number close to 20 to keep the live auction manageable. Some of our artists from previous years decided to take a year off, some choose to support CAMP Rehoboth in other auction or art projects—and sometimes we just get our wires crossed. Let me say that we miss each artist who is unable to join us this year for whatever reason and hope that we will see them in future projects. And finally, thanks to Murray, who though he is not our co-chair this year, keeps us steady and picks up our slack as leader, brother and friend.

And thanks to each of this year’s artists: JS Adams, Murray Archibald, Sondra N. Arkin, Julie Baxendell, Susan T. Bolivar, Scott G. Brooks, Ronald Butt, Rodney Cook, Ward Ellinger, Liza Fleming, Terry Isner, Michael Muller, Aina Nergaard-Nammack, Brian Petro, Mary Beth Ramsey, Siobhan Ridgway, Dale Sheldon, Christopher Speron, Tim Tate, Michael Weinert, Randy Wise, and Joyce Zipperer.

For a preview of Heart5: Power of Love, join us at CAMP Rehoboth for the artists’ reception on the Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend, May 27, from 4-6 p.m.

The work pictured on this and the previous pages is by: Murray Archibald; Brian Petro;  Aina Nergaard-Nammack;  Sondra Arkin; Julie Baxendell; Christopher Speron;  Scott Brooks.