Meet the 6 local artists creating ‘shares’ of art for this quirky CSA program

A community-supported agriculture program is one that invites people to purchase shares from a local farm and in turn, receive regular fresh produce shipments. But this subscription model isn’t exclusive to farms.

A similar program called “community-supported art” (CSA) has adopted the model to connect Philly artists and collectors in a “maker-to-buyer” relationship.

The CSA program was started in 2012 by the Grizzly Grizzly artist collective. For the 2017 season, it’s commissioned six local artists to create 50 of a specific project, to be given away through shares that anyone can buy.

Each share costs $475 ($513 including sales tax) and are available on a first-come basis. That will net you six separate artworks from each of the six artists. If you’re short on cash at the moment, the CSA program has an installation payment plan where the total can be split into three payments.

A public event on May 20 will give you a chance to meet the 2017 artists and learn more about the CSA program. (RSVP here so CSA finance manager Mary Smull knows how many homemade donuts to make, using a “generations-old Pennsylvania Dutch donut recipe.”)

Here are the six artists and what they’ll be creating for the 2017 CSA program, as described on its website:

• Grimaldi Baez has designed a series of mapping activities to be performed in Philadelphia. Each expedition will produce physical drawn cartographic maps and sound maps of the city. For the CSA, collectors will receive an editioned print of a map and a sound survey-audio recording.
• Leah Bailis will be making a series of masks using found fabric and other materials for the CSA. Each of her constructed masks will be unique; they will be human scale.
• Marc Blumthal will be creating a new series of abstracted, archival photographs. These evocative digital images are metaphors for time and records of the past. They will be housed in a custom etched folder, designed by the artist.
• Julianna Foster will be creating an edition of artist’s books that are accompanied by a photographic print. This project will continue her investigation into narrative structure within a metaphoric, illusionistic space. CSA collectors will receive the frameable print in addition to the artist’s book in a custom case.
• Alexis Nutini will be creating a unique edition of reduction woodcuts, in which each print will have six to eight layers of color. Although all of the prints will come from the same block, each will be distinct based on the colors used and stage of the block.
• Lucia Thomé will be creating a series of glazed ceramic lions, inspired by the imagery of Edward Hicks and the creatures contained within his sixty-two versions of “Peaceable Kingdom.” Each slip-cast sculpture in the edition will have a different glazing technique making it unique.