Update: Community responds with donations after Charlotte’s ArtPop threatens to close
Editor’s note: This story originally published on April 27. On May 11, Wendy Hickey emailed an update: “We are halfway to our $30k fundraising goal to cover our 2020 expenses for the remainder of the year. We are connecting with our generous community and people are responding with gifts of $10-$1,000 and we are so grateful!”
Artist Lori Love also announced a raffle to raise money for ArtPop. For $20, you get a chance to win her mixed media Prince portrait.
In 2002, billboard industry insider Wendy Hickey came up with an idea. Rather than leave unused signs sitting boring and plain, she wanted to use them to display local art.
Her idea would beautify the community and give a platform to artists.
Spoiler alert: It worked.
If you’ve been paying attention, you knew that already, though. You’ve seen ArtPop Street Gallery’s work on billboards, digital signs and newsstands throughout the Charlotte area, showcasing local photographers, painters, illustrators and more.
But now, all of that is in danger of disappearing.
This could be Charlotte’s final year for the program if the funding can’t be met. Charlotte’s ArtPop 2020 budget of $150,000 is still short by $30,000.
In order to raise funds, ArtPop opened an online store with reproductions of the ArtPop artists’ work for sale. All proceeds go to ArtPop’s operating budget after printing and shipping costs are paid. So far, the shop’s sales are slow because it opened just as COVID-19 was announced.
“We are just starting to market it [the store] so it will take some time for that to gain momentum,” said Hickey, founder and executive director of ArtPop Street Gallery. “We believe the online shop will be a huge help once more people know about it.”
For Charlotte’s program to continue, ArtPop needs to raise $95,000 more to cover a newly adopted budget for 2021, which includes 24.6% in staff salary. Funding from Foundation for Outdoor Advertising Research & Education, a billboard trade industry organization in Washington, D.C. will cover the costs of artists attending Artists U, a class to learn about the business of being an artist.
An announcement will be made this summer if ArtPop — which stands for Public Outdoor Project — is paused for 2021 in Charlotte.
ArtPop’s History
Hickey’s plan in 2002 was a simple one. At the time, she worked for Adams Outdoor Advertising and served on the Pocono Arts Council in Pennsylvania. She used her billboard industry knowledge and passion for the arts to create a grassroots effort: Displaying local artists’ work on unused outdoor billboards.
Over the next several years, as Hickey moved with her job, she developed the same programs in each city she worked, always on a volunteer basis.
When Hickey transferred to Charlotte in 2013, she wanted to formalize a billboard program that gave local artists exposure in their communities and pitched the idea to Charlotte’s Arts & Science Council and Adams. Charlotte’s first ArtPop was in 2014.
“To be able to provide 20 artists billboard advertising for an entire year as an arts council, they fell in love with the idea,” said Hickey, 53. “Adams has always been a part of this because they were my employer for so long and, when I brought the idea to Adams in 2002 in Pennsylvania, they loved it. They love to have beautiful art on their billboards. It was just a win for everybody.”
Working full time at Adams as a national account executive and running the nonprofit proved to be a heavy load for Hickey. She made a deal with a new startup, RBX Media, to allow her to build the nonprofit while teaching RBX the outdoor billboard business.
Unsustainable growth
Under Hickey’s leadership and a board of directors, the nonprofit expanded quickly to 14 cities in 11 states, serving 368 artists with $20 million in advertising space. In Charlotte, Adams hangs the artwork on available billboards and moves the vinyl if the space is sold. In Charlotte, Adams reports about 70%-75% of traditional billboard inventory is rented at any given time.
The program grew to include digital billboards, newsstands and airport charging stations in some of the cities’ advertising package. But ArtPop’s growth wasn’t sustainable, often lacking buy-in from the cities it operated in. Hickey admits that the expansion wasn’t strategic; it was based on the cities she worked in for Adams. “Reality has set in for me,” she said. “Just create an incredible public art program in a manageable amount of cities. Create sustainability and longevity, and then expand. I just did it backward, that’s all.”
The Triad ArtPop operated for two years, then paused for a year when funding dropped off. But last year, the Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County wanted ArtPop back. The newly revived Triad program is up and running with five new artists for 2019-20, and it is developing funding for the future.
This year Hickey and the board limited ArtPop programs to just Charlotte, the Triad and Columbus, Ohio. They’re launching a new model this May in Atlanta. “It will be a franchise kit,” Hickey explained. “If you want ArtPop in your city, here’s what it looks like. Here’s how we work together to create it financially, so the city has skin in the game for this public art project that serves their local artists.”
This story was originally published April 27, 2020 at 12:28 PM.
