Sawyer Yards and Spring Street Studios present "Art Tells a Story," a group exhibition of select Spring Street artists.

All art tells a story. Literature is the most obvious example of art that tells a story whether through a book, a short story or a poem. Music also tells a story through its lyrics or the music itself - like the invocation of nature in Beethoven’s Pastoral.

In visual arts, works can suggest a story or there can be a story about the making of the image - or both. Sometimes viewers standing side by side will decide the work tells two completely different stories. Thinking about or interpreting a work of art is inevitably informed by a person’s own experience. Picasso once said that when he paints a bull it’s a bull and a rooster is a rooster; whatever else one sees is shaped by the baggage the viewer carries within them.

Linger with each work in the exhibition. Does it pull you in? Why? What is the story (or stories) you can imagine here? Is it something that will still intrigue you next year and the years after?

Following the opening reception, the exhibit will be on display until July 8.