Wendy Hickey developed the idea for what would become ArtPop Street Gallery while serving on the Pocono Arts Council in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, in the early 2000s.
Before becoming the founder and executive director of ArtPop, or being known locally as The Fairy Art Mother, Hickey had been working in the billboard industry doing national sales and sales management for 20 years.
She asked herself how she could best serve her new board position and serve the artists in the community well. “It was like an epiphany for me, like, ‘Wendy, you sell billboards! Give artists billboards!’ and that’s really how the whole thing started for me.”
Hickey asked her previous boss if the company could provide her with unsold billboards, and in exchange, she would find a way to fund the cost of the vinyl product that wraps around the billboard and use it to promote local artists.
“You’re typically driving past billboards that have advertisements on them that are advertising a product or service. I felt really strong that it would work for artists too,” Hickey said.
Since 2002 she had been toying with this concept, which turned into a grassroots movement for the Pocono Arts Council, until she moved to Charlotte, North Carolina.
Transforming the Abstract
When she got to Charlotte, she decided she was going to get serious about establishing her idea into a business — and the first step to achieving that was giving the idea a name. She decided on ArtPop Street Gallery, with the “pop” standing for “public outdoor project.”
She met with the Arts & Science Council for the city, pitched them the idea, and began working with Adams Outdoor Advertising to work out a way to bring the project to life.
She put out a call for submissions and looked for funding from individual donors and art organizations that would help cover the cost of the vinyl product. In the fall of 2014, the first-ever cohort of artists was published on billboards around the city.
Artists are given the billboard space for one year and, after negotiating a partnership with La Meridian Hotel, Charlotte ArtPop artists can participate in pop-up galleries so residents can meet and purchase works directly from them.
“It very quickly proved itself that people were enjoying it, people were seeing it and seeking out the artists they saw on the billboards to find out more about them,” she said.
Hickey got positive feedback from the community almost immediately, with residents telling her that their commutes were more enjoyable now. “People tell me that for whatever reason, they aren’t able or have not gone to a gallery or museum and felt like this was such an easy way to connect with art,” she said.
Taking Form
In August 2015, ArtPop became a nonprofit organization, and Hickey began applying for ways to support it through foundation funding and grants. ArtPop has spent over $200,000 on vinyl printing production alone.
“Our business model is to get support from the local community that wants to promote local artists and make art accessible in that community at the same time,” said Hickey.
Since then, ArtPop has expanded into eight other states — Nevada, Illinois, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Florida. In all of those states and participating cities, ArtPop is on billboards, but in many of those places, ArtPop is also featured on other types of mixed media.
In Charlotte, ArtPop is on 10 newsstands in the Uptown area, on 32 digital changing stations in the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport and on digital wallscapes (think Times Square) in shopping centers. In other cities, it has also been on bus stops and bus sides.
“Anywhere outside of your home that you would typically see an advertisement for Coke, or a shoe store, or a plumber, you’re going to see art instead,” Hickey said. She wants to refine and establish ArtPop to the point that “you can’t go anywhere without being exposed to local art and artists in that community.”
Adam Rhew, who works for the company that manages newsstand advertisement in Uptown, said that Charlotte Center City Partners supports ArtPop because it is a “great way to make local art visible and part of the fabric of the community.”
Rhew said that not only does ArtPop contribute the “immediate benefit of great art that’s scattered throughout our community, but there’s the additive effect of the inspiration that it brings to others and what that could mean to spark new ideas and new creativity in our community.”
Shaping the Future
Today, ArtPop consists of more than just urban beautification. Artists that are chosen to be part of the year’s cohort are provided with a business art course from an art incubator called ArtistsU that will teach them some of the skills needed to become full-time artists.
ArtPop has also set up a scholarship fund for a high school senior who plans to study visual art in college. The student will be chosen through submissions from the open call and will be allowed to benefit from everything that other ArtPop artists do.
The organization is also working on integrating an e-commerce site into its current website to sell art from ArtPop artists. Depending on the artist, proceeds from the sales will be split between the artists and ArtPop’s foundation. Some of the items will include recycled goods made from previous year’s billboard vinyl. She is also working on a way to use ArtPop as an art broker for business wanting to use local art in their spaces.
Hickey said that her main goal for the organization is to refine the business model so that she can implement it in participating cities across the country. She also wants to secure long-term, sustainable funding to contribute to the new scholarship and to cover vinyl production costs.
On April 19, ArtPop announced it would return to the Piedmont Triad area of North Carolina, covering the Greensboro, Winston-Salem, High Point area. The open call will be active until May 28.
