It’s going to take some creativity just to get the next art exhibit set up at The Playhouse Gallery, with close to two dozen artists exhibiting works in a wide range of media.

Opening Jan. 6 is a cooperative show by Oil & Water Art Supply and Return to Creativity, a nonprofit organization based on Bainbridge Island which supports artists and creative expression. The show will be up during the run of “Picasso at the Lapine Agile,” opening Jan. 20 at The Playhouse.

Curator for the show is Pam Christiansen, founder and co-director of Return to Creativity.

Christiansen said the show will feature works by the “associate artists” of Return to Creativity, and includes the winners of the center’s first grants, awarded in November, and other grant applicants.

A selection of art by clientele of Oil & Water Art Supply on Bainbridge Island will also show their work.

Christiansen said it will be a challenge to display all the art, ranging from bronze and clay sculptures to watercolor and oil paintings, in the Playhouse Gallery space, which is the lobby of the Bainbridge Performing Arts theater. She has enlisted the aid of a professional window dresser in setting up the display. Each artists will show two or three pieces.

Christiansen is also the founder of The Center for Creative Consciousness and an artist and art instructor. She holds degrees in Fine Arts from California State University at Northridge and the University of Hawaii. She has taught at private art schools and the University of Oregon, and currently teaches out of her studio on Bainbridge Island.

Ancient symbolism and the natural world are major themes in her work, done in gouache and collage.

In her collage work she uses layering and combining different colors, textures and moods to create the desired expression. Look closely at her work — what look like brush strokes are actually individual pieces of paper, layered in a way that creates texture, depth and nuance.

The cooperative show opens with an artists’ reception from 6-8 p.m. Jan. 6, during First Friday, and another reception will be held to coincide with the opening of the Bainbridge Performing Arts production of “Picasso at the Lapine Agile,” Jan. 20. The show runs through Jan. 30.

The Playhouse Gallery is located at 200 Madison Ave. N, Bainbridge Island. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday and one hour prior to each performance.

For more information about Return to Creativity, including workshops and classes, visit www.returntocreativity.org. For more information about Oil & Water Art Supply visit the shop Web site at www.oilandwaterarts.com. wu