This month's ART Night in Bristol and Warren will debut an exciting community art project that demonstrates how a whole can be greater than a sum.

More than 40 members of the East Bay Community and beyond joined ART Night featured artist Tom Culora in his studio to create "Allegory of Friendship" - a sculpture comprised of buoy-like objects, each individually painted in an autobiographical fashion.

"The finished piece is a metaphor of the diversity of the community and strength that results when individuals work closely together to form a whole that is greater than the sum," says Tom Culora.

The original design for Allegory of Friendship, executed in 2006, envisioned a series of buoy-like objects to be executed by a single artist as individual biographical reflections of family, friends and colleagues, says Culora.

"With the opportunity that Art Night provided me to bring members of the community together to assist in executing the full-scale piece, the individual elements morphed from biographical to auto-biographical reflections of the participants," he says.

The unexpected results necessitated an adjustment to how the piece was originally conceived to be displayed -- shifting to a more unitary and closely spaced final piece.

"Whenever an artist collaborates, there is an understanding that they must give up a level of control," says Culora.

"The role of the artist is to work with the results to form the final work, and I am very pleased with what we've created."

Stop by the studio of artist Tom Culora on ART Night on September 27th (from 5 to 9 p.m.) to see the final piece along with other examples of the artist's most recent work.

Tom Culora's studio is located in Parker Mills, 2nd floor, Entrance "C" via Elm St., Warren, RI.

##
Media interview and photo inquiries: please call Jill Culora on 401-289-2545.

More about Tom Culora:
Tom Culora holds a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York. His most recent work explores the reconciliation between post-modernism and the historical line of art that existed in the late 19th to the mid-20th century. He accomplishes this work through examining psychology of posting personal video streams on the Internet with the reciprocal psychology of viewing these images. He then appropriates images through a highly selective process that results in large two-dimensional work painted on framed hardboard using traditional hand-made oils. The frames are often an integral element of the work. His most recent exhibition was a collaborative show at The Royal Institution in London, UK, titled AUTOCATALYSIS. (www.tomculora.com)

More about ART Night:
Waterfront towns of Bristol and Warren, RI, offer nine "ART Nights" from 5 to 9 p.m. on the last Thursday of every month from March through November. Think gallery stroll with a twist as "ART Night" provides access to the inner workings of artists' studios. A free trolley runs between galleries and studios. These East Bay towns have a long history of attracting creative people, and "ART Night" organizers have put together an exciting lineup for 2012. (www.artnightbristolwarren.org)