Artists often put countless hours of effort into their craft, only to discover the space they need to share what they have created doesn’t exist.
Elon University’s new handmade art cooperative seeks to solve that issue by providing artists in the Burlington community and on Elon’s campus with a space to sell their work.
“We want to pop the infamous Elon bubble,” said sophomore Mat Goldberg, co-founder of the co-op. “We want to spread it beyond Elon and create a long-lasting project that allows artists to share their work.”
The handmade co-op started as a project for a Winter Term class, but it wasn’t until Patrick Harman, adjunct assistant political science professor, approached the students that the co-op became a reality.
“We didn’t think this could develop into something like this,” Goldberg said. “We didn’t think we had any efficacy. But then Professor Harman kept pushing us and that’s when we realized we could really make this happen.”
Goldberg, Sara McLaughlin, Samantha Italiano and Megan Rollins, all of whom were students of Harman and Leadership Fellows at Elon, lead the handmade co-op and planned the interest meeting held March 7 in the Isabella Cannon Room.
Involvement is the biggest component of the co-op and artists are a necessity, according the founders of the co-op. The co-op is seeking anything considered to be art.
“Right now, we’re looking for paintings and crafts,” Goldberg said. “But in the future, we’re hoping to expand to performing artists and creating something for artists that lasts long beyond us.”
Michelle Kusel, assistant director of the Center for Leadership at Elon, attended the event in the interest of supporting her students.
“I’m an artist myself, but it’s great to see my students doing this work,” Kusel said.
Kusel is hoping to support the handmade co-op by supplying them with her own work. She makes handmade postcards for all occasions and hopes to have her work sold through the efforts of the co-op.
The co-op is currently attempting to find a reasonably-priced retail space in downtown Burlington. Members of the community and students alike came to the interest meeting, and the next event will be April 15 at the Company Shops Market in Burlington.
“We’re organizing a board of directors and letting people own parts of the company,” Goldberg said. “One day, it won’t be us running it, but we’ll be able to come back and know we started something that lasted.”
At the end of the event, the students announced that more information can be found on Facebook, where a contest for the company logo will be held. All submissions for art and the logo contest are due by April 1.