An art exhibit on tote bags opened at Southwestern Michigan College. The exhibit, which runs through March 2, will be in the art gallery of the Dale A. Lyons Building on the Dowagiac campus.

An artist reception will be at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The exhibit and reception are open to the public.

Tote bags have become synonymous with urban dwelling; they provide temporary shelter for books, groceries and workout clothes.

How is this object itself — the tote — potentially activated as a moveable artwork? How are the bags themselves traveling sculptural pieces that are potentially being reshaped and re-envisioned by the artists designing them, the goods they carry and the places they go?

This exhibition includes new transportable objects by Cabinet 713, of Seattle; Golden Age, of Chicago; Shannon Eakins, of Las Vegas; Jackie Baker, of Dowagiac; Kristen T. Ramirez, of Ballard, Wash.; Shybirdy, a farming collective based in Brooklyn, N.Y.; Ruth Marie Tomlinson, of Columbia City, Wash.; and Emily Utermark of Dowagiac.

Gallery hours are from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday or by appointment only. For more information, call 782-1382.