The Art Drive, an open artist studio tour through Dartmouth and Westport, donated more than $5,000 to the Lloyd Center for the Environment as a result of the summer fundraiser.

For the past nine years, participating artists have opened their studios to the public for a weekend in August, showcasing their artwork in unusual and dramatic studio settings. The drive showcases some of the area’s painters, ceramic artists, photographers, jewelers, woodworkers, and metal artists, while visitors enjoy a scenic, 15-mile drive to 34 artists' studios.

Large, colorful, artist-created depictions of popular fish species draw in much of the revenue. In the weeks leading up to the Art Drive, the fish are displayed in public spaces around Dartmouth and Westport, and are posted for auction on eBay as the event approaches. Final bids close the day after the drive ends. A portion of the auction proceeds, as well as a portion of the artists’ sales made during the Art Drive weekend, are then donated to the Lloyd Center each year.

This year, artists brought back the ever popular blue fish, the species that was chosen by the artists the first year the drive created fish. In addition to the monetary donation, the Lloyd Center also received one of the famous blue fish. Artist Patricia Poineau donated “Before/After," a two-sided pastel and decoupage blue fish that will be on display in the Lloyd Center’s Visitor Center.

Throughout the past nine years, the drive’s artists have donated almost $45,000 to the Lloyd Center.