SANDPOINT — Local artists are aiming to capture the creative spark that generates when similar minds meet.

Despite the high volume of extremely creative thinkers and artists in the community, there aren’t many social groups designed to connect them in a way that inspires conversation and collaboration. Artist and animator Mary Maio and Arts Alliance director Carol Kovalchuk hope to increase the level of cohesion with a regular forum for all artists to occur the second Thursday of every month. Known as the Arts Alliance Forum, the social group requires no membership commitments, dues or any other obligations. Its sole purpose is to inspire conversation and create community between the region’s artistic minds.

“The priority is simply to have fun,” Maio said. “If you’re not having fun, you’re not doing it right.”

The first official meeting, scheduled for Feb. 14, will be the first step in organizing a conversation about art in the community. Set to be held at Evan’s Brothers at 5:30 p.m., the first meeting will help define the format and flow of the group. As chance should have it, the first Thursday of February is Valentine’s Day, so participants are encouraged to bring a significant other and talk about what they love regarding their chosen art.

The group is inclusive by design. It doesn’t matter whether local individuals pursue painting, sketching, music, theater, filmmaking, sculpting or any other form of self-expression. The whole idea is to bring creative spirits together and see what inspiration and community such a meeting can inspire.

Eventually, the group hopes to branch out and create a persistent conversation that follows after the monthly meeting. Using a variety of communication tools, group members can share thoughts and inspirations whenever and wherever they may come about.

One inspiration for group members is the explosion of creativity that occurred when artists like Pablo Picasso and Gertrude Stein met at the beginning of the twentieth century. At one point, Picasso told Stein that after one of them died, that conversation could never occur again.

Those are the conversations that Arts Alliance organizers hope to generate. When individuals with their own unique ideas and a shared passion for creativity meet, no one can predict the results.

Information: Arts Alliance,  265-2787