Canned Art (102)

It’s hard to believe this, but it is true.

There has been one surprising positive result of the economic downturn that began in 2008. Art galleries, museums, and sculpture parks have been very busy since then, joining forces with one another and with other types of not for profit groups.  The major reason for this has been survival.  We all know about the economy and budget cuts and less funds going to the arts and public charities. And we have seen many not for profits shutter their doors or lay off half their staff and cut programs. But we have also seen more collaboration, more sharing of ideas, and more group efforts than ever before.

One idea I am currently working on with our local sculpture park is combining an art fair with a canned food drive. I thought there must be a way to be creative with the effort and perhaps build something with the collected cans to make it entertaining and an artistic expression. My suggestion was to bring in a sculptor to build something with the cans. Unfortunately, there was some polite eye rolling when I first made the suggestion because there was a view that all that could be built with cans would be castles, forts, simple structures. I had to find a way to share my vision of how we could serve the food pantry as well as stay within our artistic mission and also provide some entertainment.

How could I win over the board and help them share my vision? Of course, I turned to the internet for help. Surely someone else had thought of this and was doing it somewhere in the world. In fact they had, and find them, I did. You can find them too at: http://www.cannedart.org You may even be near one of their competition locations this year and may be able to stop by and see them in action.

If you remember Pop Art and Andy Warhol, you will most likely remember his iconic painting of a Campbell’s soup can. One of the competition entries in Canned Art is a picture of Andy Warhol made of, what else but, soup cans. It’s pretty amazing. There are also entries that look similar to Lego creations and some that look like ‘modern’ art sculptures. Very interesting and not at all like the simple forts or castles one would imagine.

I’m hoping later this year, at one of our sculpture park events, we will be able to have an artist on hand to construct some art with cans for the benefit of our food pantry. The idea of forming an alliance with some of our social service providers will take us one step further towards reaching more people in the community. Feeding the soul with art is a very worth while mission, but it goes down much better on a full stomach.