Yes!Lets Collective presents sensory isolating show at Third Place Gallery

The Malibu by Colin Kopp

​Art is for everybody. That's the basic premise of the Yes!Lets Collective, a new group of artists, musicians, storytellers, and other creative types who are all about supporting each other while generating an atmosphere where audiences are invited to participate in the art-making process. Some of the collective members strive to be professional artists, while others have "regular" jobs and simply want art to be a part of their lives. "We wanted to get together and make big things happen," says group member Tim Harlan-Marks.

Yes!Lets also has a multimedia focus with an interactive component. "Sometimes I get tired of standing and being a passive observer," he says.

Photo by Colin Kopp

Solo set by cello improvisor Greg Beyers at Art Luck

Part of the desire to include more interactivity in their happenings stemmed from what members felt was a lack of participation at many art and music events. There was a "lack of a feeling, like you can't be part of this community too," Hanson says. So the group has been trying out ways to get folks involved, like playing music with fill-in-the-blank lyrics that makes the audience listen to a song differently. "A lot of our front men and women are phenomenal lyricists," Hanson says.
In some ways, the collective is in contrast to what Hanson calls an "age of individualism." In the arts, "it takes a village to make things work," she says. "It's a lonely field. It's nice to know you have at least 11 other people in the audience smiling."