Art-citing

Putting Art on Main

Art on Main celebrated their first anniversary in business downtown today by literally putting Art on Main Street.

Children were welcome to dabble with paints as Art on Main members demonstrated their crafts on a myriad of canvases from cobblestone to watercraft during their open house.

“This is essentially a billboard,” says Pat Stamp of the canoe she was painting in front of the store.

“We’re fortunate that North Bay Canoe and Kayak donated the canoe for the summer, and we are going to put our name and address and phone number on it and our members will drive it all over town.”

Stamp says the art is functional and will act as more than just a picture, as the shop’s budget doesn’t allow for extra fringe that other businesses enjoy.

“Art on Main is a not for a profit artist collective, meaning that all the benefits of the sales go directly to the artist and as a result, we don't have a huge budget for things like advertising. So this is an idea that we came up with two market Art on Main to draw attention to ourselves.”

Nancy Slack, chair of the group, says still having the doors open after one year in business marks a real milestone and is an anniversary worth celebrating.

“We are pretty excited about the whole thing, getting to one year is huge and it just insures our success from now on. The first three are the hardest years on a business and we've just done really well.”

Getting to the anniversary has not been an easy venture says Slack explaining that changes have had to be made along the way in order to stay in business.

“It's hard because we were not taking anything from the artists, they were getting all the money from selling their work. We just had to impose a 10 percent commission, but that's the first we've done.”

“Before that we just had them paying as $75 rent, and that paid for all of our expenses and we weren't quite making it at that, so we imposed the 10 percent commission. Most of the artist are happy to do it because they want to see us succeed as well. And for that low amount they are getting a prime retail location on Main St, and it is manned by somebody else six days a week, they only have to work one day a week,” says Slack.

Slack also says the success of the shop has a number of local artists inquiring about membership and says this to will add to the longevity of the common.

“We have new stuff coming in all the time, and that's to the diversity of the place. It's just been fantastic in the interest we have worked on the back now that needs to be put out, so it's pretty exciting.”