Here’s a riddle: How is local art like locally farmed produce?
Both are quality, both are made with love, and both impart the warm soul-fuzzies of keeping your dollars in the community.
Oh, and both are just a wee bit too expensive to be buying on a regular basis.
Luckily, there’s a work-around. Foodies know that CSAs—those arrangements that allow consumers to buy shares in local farms, which send out mystery boxes of produce throughout any given season—are a smart way to eat local and organic while still keeping the grocery bill low.
Well, here in the Twin Cities, we’ve got the same option with local art.
Community Supported Art, a novel program launched two years ago by Springboard for the Arts and mnartists.org, mimics the farm model. Each season, nine artists receive a commission to create 50 “shares” of their work. Collectors plunk down $300 for a share, and in return are promised three “farm boxes”—artist-designed crates, each containing three pieces of art—that arrive at intervals throughout the summer. By the end of the season, each collector will have received one original artwork from each of the nine CSA artists.
That’s nine works for $300. (Though past seasons have often included a “bumper crop” of bonus artwork and arts-related opportunities.)
So what’s in season this summer?
- Limited editions of vinyl seven-inch records
- Series of small tea cups
- Letterpress editions of poems and short stories
- Small original oil paintings
Shares go on sale this Thursday, May 3 at 10 a.m. sharp. And they will certainly sell out fast. To secure your nine works of locally produced art, go to springboard forthearts.org/csart to make a reservation.
Community Supported Art
Shares on sale May 3, 10 a.m.
springboard forthearts.org/csart
