Community Supported Art



Sisters with our loot

Last week MK mentioned we attended the Arts & Science Council of Charlotte's first Spring CSA (Community Supported Art) event and promised we'd give more details later. Well, I'm back today with details and some thoughts after our first event.

This CSA functions similarly to a standard CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) in that the organization supports local artists (instead of farmers!). For Charlotte's first Art CSA, they issued 50 "shares."  They then chose 9 artists who each made 50 unique pieces, one for each "shareholder." There are three events each season to "unveil" the artwork.  Being new shareholders, we had no idea what to expect when we made our way to LaCa Projects last Thursday night for the first event but it was such a great experience.  Here's a little tidbit about the three artists whose work was unveiled last week.



Ceramics wrapped pretty!

Lauren Doran is a photographer inspired by Charlotte's local landscape. She feels that "plants inform our sense of place" and I couldn't agree more. Her "Garden of Shadows" series demonstrates the interplay between light and dark and reveals something special about the place we all call home.  We received a really cool small piece from Lauren Doran.  Out of all the pieces, it's probably the one I would have chosen for myself. 

Scott Partridge's work was very new to me, as is the entire world of digital printing. Scott's designs are digitally created, printed and mounted on cradled wood panels. Scott emphasized his friendly and playful designs can be enjoyed by both children and adults.  (MK already has plans to add this piece to Virginia's room!) 

Amy Sanders is a ceramics artist creating beautiful yet functional (microwave and dishwasher safe!) pieces. Our piece is about the size of a medium serving dish and is perfect for both display or use around the house.


Snapshot of my favorites from the gallery

So beyond the art, the event itself was fun too. It was held at LaCa Projects, a Latin American Contemporary Art gallery and had live music and beers from Birdsong Brewery too! Obviously we are going to like some pieces more than others but I'm happy it introduces us to pieces that may have been a little outside of our comfort zone and new galleries that would be otherwise intimidating (at least to me!). Overall I just love the concept of creating a lasting relationship between local artists and consumers. Find out more about ASC Charlotte CSA and others here if you're interested.  I just think this is such a cool idea, and a clever play on traditional CSAs.  What do you guys think?  Would you ever sign up for an Art CSA??  A few other cities beyond Charlotte have started this cool idea too.

- Heath

PS Sorry for the iPhone pics, and at the moment I have no pictures of our three pieces, more to come on that when they find a home in our home.