MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Singer-songwriter Sarah Giles brought a unique event to downtown Morgantown Friday night by way of her album release and art gallery event at Hotel Morgan.

Partnering with local visual artists over the last month, Giles has used her new acoustic-soul record, ‘Burning Letters,’ as a vessel for cross-collaboration between creatives of different art forms. Artists joined Giles in a gallery showing and silent auction of art pieces.

Giles connected with various 2D artists to get their take on the album. Participating in “listening sessions,” 12 artists created their reactionary piece, painting, or drawing “live” for the duration of the 8-track album.

“It’s eight tracks that weren’t written together actually. It was just a collection of eight that I felt like ended up working really well together, complemented each other,” Giles said. “The themes and the lyrics are really about an individual that moves through this album track by track with realizations about communication and relationships.”

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Attendees were able to meet the artists at the hotel and see their works while exclusively listening to the album two weeks prior to the digital release date of April 8.

“The idea of ​​Burning Letters is actually the last track and its after she gets through the hardships, you know, relationships gone bad, and friendships that are far away, and family, and all those things. Which I also think are emblematic of COVID during the past two years,” Giles said. “Burning Letters is the finale to it, it is, I have been writing these letters that I burn before they get to you, and I don’t want to do that anymore. I want to speak my truth, I want to speak honestly, and I want to have connection.”

Giles is also a current graduate student in the Music Industry program at West Virginia University. She stated that she’s using this project as her capstone for her master’s degree. She also said that she connected with Hannah Freeman, Teaching Assistant Professor of Painting and Foundations, for guidance on bringing music to the art. Rolling a sound system into the art studio in early February, Giles held the first listening session with Freeman and her advanced painting class.