BARE Walls is up & running, and doesn’t look like we are slowing down anytime soon! Each month we continue our growth, beautifying our local businesses while supporting our local artists. We are now in 7 different businesses in the Acadiana area that are able to select from our portfolio, which includes 38 artists with over 360 works of art! The feedback from the businesses and artists has been phenomenal, showcasing just how valuable art can be.
BARE Walls would like to extend our gratitude to the 24 Hour Citizen Project and the backers that helped our program get off the ground. The project may be technically “done”, but BARE Walls is far from over. This is just the beginning of what we expect to be a wonderful journey of growth, community, and ART!
Growth has been our mantra at BARE Walls in 2019. We now have 4 businesses subscribing to the program: CENTRAL Pizza & Bar, Opportunity Machine, Acadian Superette, and Scott Eye Care. BARE Walls has also acquired 27 artist members, offering businesses over 230 pieces of art to select from. Each of these pieces is currently viewable and available for purchase on our website, www.barewallslafayette.com. More business and artist contracts are in the works, giving us the potential to share more local art with Acadiana this spring and summer.
BARE Walls is currently pursuing more business subscriptions through educational events, community engagement, and press coverage. In February, the program hosted a business symposium and breakfast at Acadian Superette. Interested businesses and artists were invited to ask questions, discuss details of the program, and have a breakfast on BARE Walls! Over 20 Acadiana business and creative leaders joined us for the event. On March 14, we participated in the 3rd annual Robideaux Report by both providing artwork and engaging community leaders. Most recently, BARE Walls was featured in the cover story of the March 21st edition of Times of Acadiana. This comprehensive article by Sarah K. Wood discusses the value of the program, how to sign up, and everything in between. BARE Walls will continue to engage the creative and entrepreneurial communities of Acadiana in the coming months.
Thus far, BARE Walls has provided financial support and exposure for many local artists, even facilitating the sales of over 5 pieces. We won’t let our growth stop here. We have hired a student intern to assist with the operations of the program and will continue to grow our BARE Walls family in any way that we can. Through our targeted marketing and press strategies, we hope to gain 3 more business subscriptions as we enter the summer months. For more information on the growth and progress of our program, check out our new blog at www.barewallslafayette.com/blog.
Thank you 24 Hour Citizen for making our community-centered program possible, and thank you Acadiana for growing along with us!
As of November 1st, The BARE Walls program has officially LAUNCHED! Our website is now live, and we are pushing to get as many artists and businesses involved as possible. We already have over 20 artists as part of our roster and pushing for many more to apply. As for the businesses, we will be presenting our portfolio of artwork to the 3 commitments and put the artwork on their BARE walls within the next few weeks. Our launch coincided with the Innovation Conference which was held at the Opportunity Machine within the LITE Center. The BARE Walls team installed 13 pieces of artwork throughout the facility which was very well received by both those working and visiting the space.
Basin Arts Director, Clare Cook, participated in several panel discussions about the CREATE Initiative representing BARE Walls and Basin Arts and we are receiving very positive feedback about the program’s ability to support artists financially and also fill a need in the business community. And to top off the week, we had our first artwork to SELL in the program shortly after the launch! Our next steps include continuing to increase our artist roster and to begin to meet with potential businesses about signing up for the program. We are aiming to have our first set of businesses up and running by January.
