Now in its 62nd year, the Sharon Arts Center Members’ Exhibition opens Friday, giving each member of the Sharon Arts Center the opportunity to display a personal work of art at the exhibition gallery on Grove Street.

Consistently the most well attended opening of the year for Sharon Arts, the Members Exhibition averages between 150 and 200 pieces of art, each by a different artist. Suspended walls and pedestals are brought in to fit everything in.

Exhibition staff and volunteers spent the week setting up the show. Among them each year is Keene’s Bob Seaman, who has showed a piece of work at the members’ exhibition for 12 years.

“I think it’s a terrific thing for people to have a chance, whether they are professionals or amateurs, to have their work seen,” Seaman says.

Seaman says he always wanted to be an artist, and had been painting and drawing all his life, but only came to it as a full-time profession in 1990 after many years as a businessman.

When he made the switch, he did anything he could get paid to do, then began exhibiting in galleries. It was then he got involved with the Sharon Arts Center.

Seaman volunteers, exhibits and teaches drawing and painting courses at the Sharon Arts Center Education Center.

“I strongly support the arts everywhere, and I just like being associated with the Sharon Arts Center,” Seaman says. “It’s rewarding. They’ve treated me very well, and I’d like to give back to them.”

To Seaman, it seems like more art comes in each year. Professional pieces hang next to pieces made for fun.

“It’s a mix of quality, but it all works together quite well,” Seaman says. “You can have some strong pieces of art that aren’t very professional in their execution but have a powerful visual impact.”

While Seaman may not attend the opening this year because of a conflicting opening in Keene, he says the Members’ Exhibition opening night crowd can reach 200 to 300 people over the course of the evening. Seaman enjoys the openings because he has gotten to know many of the people who exhibit over the years. For some of them, it is the only chance he has to see them all year.

Marc Winnat is new to the Members’ Exhibition this year. While Winnat has exhibited in the Nashua area along with other shows across the country, he is not established in the area.

“It’s an opportunity, and as an artist you have to take every opportunity you can get,” Winnat says of the Members’ Exhibition. “The more you show, the more you get out there, and that’s the only way to make it.”

Winnat says he is looking forward to the opening, which will be his first exposure to other artists and art enthusiasts in the area.

This year’s exhibition includes paintings, stained glass, sculpture pieces, mixed media, a musical instrument and furniture.