BUCYRUS, OH (CRAWFORD COUNTY NOW)—Bright and early this February 25, at the Crawford County Chamber of Commerce Economic Development and Business Forecast Breakfast, local business owners will get a preview of a new initiative from the Crawford County Arts Council: a portable gallery where they can view and purchase art from local artists to display at their businesses.
The gallery is part of the Art 2 You initiative, led by Kaylee Powers, Executive Director of the Crawford County Arts Center.
“Art 2 You is born from my background in e-commerce,” Powers said. “The idea behind it is to bring art to where people are in the community rather than requiring them to come into a dedicated gallery during limited open hours. We found that being tethered to a gallery, while we love it here, is a little bit prohibitive to folks who aren’t able to leave the home as often.”
“We want to bring art to where people are in their day-to-day lives,” said Powers, “whether that is their doctor’s office, their bank, their grocery store and give them the opportunity to experience local art while they’re out and about.”
“From there,” Powers continued, “another need that we wanted to address was making owning a piece of that local art, and decorating your home with art created by people around you, more accessible.”
Works by member artists will be part of presentations displayed at several host businesses, including RavensCloak Reiki & Treasures in Galion, and the First Federal Community Bank in Bucyrus. These presentations will include a QR code that, when scanned, will take customers to a gallery website where the works can be purchased.
There are works available for purchase now on the gallery website: crawfordcountyartcenter.com/art2you.
“You are able to purchase a high-quality print of that artwork to be shipped directly to your home,” said Powers.
“We were very fortunate to receive some generous funding from the First Federal Community Bank,” Powers continued, and “we are going to be doing digital advertising with the North Central Ohio Media Group” to keep patrons aware of the online and portable galleries.
The Art 2 You initiative is the first in a series of programs that the CCAC intends to launch throughout the year from its new location at 117 North Sandusky Avenue in Bucyrus.
“We have expanded our capabilities greatly,” Powers explained. “We have a larger classroom and gallery space, as well as a full kitchen that we are able to operate out of. And with that, we are opening up the opportunity to be an event rental location.
“This is huge for us as a nonprofit because it opens up a new revenue stream. And we’ve also heard from members of the community that there needs to be more gathering space. We need places to host meetings, do corporate bonding activities, and host celebrations.
“We love having birthday parties and bridal showers and all of that good stuff here. With this new space, we’re able to facilitate those more effectively. And that is going to be our mission for 2025 … establishing a space not just for the classes that we’ve planned, but to host really anything that you can dream up.”
Powers outlined her vision for these initiatives: “We are focused on building bridges out in the community and helping to bring opportunities for creativity—to meet people where they are in a way that best serves them … to break down those barriers within our community and really unite Crawford County, and bring all of our different resources together. Because when we work together, we’re stronger.
And we want to make sure that we are helping to facilitate that conversation and giving people the opportunity to meet each other and see that when you get together, you can really create something much bigger than yourself.”
To find out how you can attend the “Forecast Breakfast” where the new Art 2 You Portable Gallery will be launched, visit the Crawford County Chamber’s Facebook Event.