Fostering an Artist's Work

One of the beauties of the Hilo Pop-up Art is every year the show is in a different location in downtown Hilo. This offers the opportunity to bring awareness to the vacant spaces around town and meet different members of the community.

This past year, space was harder to come by than usual. A good problem in one respect. Once a space was found, the week of setup began. Going into a space for hours on a daily basis, we met many wonderful people who also were art enthusiasts.

One day, Charlie walked in with an idea. He had an office in the building with bare walls. He wondered if one of the artists in the show wanted to hang their art in his office, priced and ready to sell. This caught my attention, as I had plenty of art sitting at home in boxes.

Once life slowed down in December, I reached out to Charlie to see if his office wall's were still open. Now the Hilo Tax and Accounting Service office in downtown Hilo has photographs of local flora and fauna bringing in some color to the once bare walls. In a way, you could say my artwork is being fostered.

This project made me wonder... How many other offices (doctors, dentists, chiropractors, etc.) have wall space that sees many faces come through in a day? What if more people looked for ways to support an artist in their space?One of the beauties of the Hilo Pop-up Art is every year the show is in a different location in downtown Hilo. This offers the opportunity to bring awareness to the vacant spaces around town and meet different members of the community.