In many ways, it’s the great local art exhibit of the year – both in terms of its Woodstock location as well as the regional community that the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild’s annual “5 by 7” attracts, each time that it puts together 200-plus works, all shown anonymously and all available for an affordable $100 per pop. “5 by 7” opens with a special reception from 5 to 7 p.m. on Friday, December 3 at the Kleinert/James Arts Center on Tinker Street, concurrent with the Woodstock Chamber of Commerce’s annual Open House holiday kickoff event. The exhibition will run through December 31.

All the town’s and region’s A-list artists will have pieces on hand, from Joan Snyder and Gregory Amenoff to Milton Glaser, Kathy Ruttenberg, Donald Elder and Mary Frank. The event and art sale are both a means for the Byrdcliffe community to reach out to the local community, and for that community to support the region’s preeminent legacy art colony and its continuing programs, which have faced some major financing and staffing challenges over the last year.

The format of the show – with everyone working within given restraints, without the weight of past works or personae upon their shoulders – lends everything a light, breezy, hypercreative aura touching on the improvisational. “It is a playful way to give an equal voice to all artists,” is how the Guild touts it. “Purchases are based on what people enjoy and appreciate... encouraging undiscovered talent. If an acquisition turns out to be the work of a well-known artist, all the better.”

“People start lining up outside the Byrdcliffe Shop an hour before the show opens to get a prime space on line,” adds the K/J’s shop manager, Nathalie Andrews. “For the past few years, we’ve been handing out numbers so that people can wait inside the shop to stay warm.”

As an added attraction at the December 3 opening, Tenzo Montaine of Revolution Cuisine will provide a spectacular food display that he’s calling an “edible mandala.”

The Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild’s 11th annual 5 by 7 Show launches from 5 to 7 p.m. next Friday, December 3 with a reception and preview party at the Kleinert/James Arts Center at 34 Tinker Street, just off the Woodstock Village Green. For further information, including a full list of participating artists, call (845) 679-2079 or visit www.woodstockguild.org.