Community Supported Art 2015
CEPA Gallery is delighted to announce its inaugural Community Supported Art (CSA) program to benefit local artists, CEPA Gallery’s award-winning education programs, and Western New York art collectors. CEPA’s innovative CSA program will commission eight local artists to produce fifty “CSA shares” comprised of eight artworks each. CEPA’s inaugural CSA artists are Joel Brenden, Kyle Butler, Fotini Galanes, Megan Metté, Anne Muntges, Stacey Robinson, Marshall Scheuttle, and virocode – an impressive roster of locally-based, emerging artists, practicing in a variety of mediums, all with a national or international exhibition history. Shares will be available for purchase by the first fifty art-minded patrons to sign-up as season “shareholders,” beginning on June 15, 2015. Shareholders will then receive their CSA share at a CSA pick-up party at CEPA’s Big Orbit Gallery project space at 30-D Essex Street, Buffalo, NY on Thursday, November 5, 2015 from 5:30-8:30 p.m. The party will include an exhibition of the eight artworks available in the CSA share, a seasonal cocktail buffet, cash bar, music by ABCDJ, and a chance to meet the CSA artists in person.
CSA Frequently Asked Questions National Press on CSA’s
What is Community Supported Art? Over the last 20 years, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has become a popular way for consumers to buy seasonal food directly from local farms. With the same ‘buy local’ spirit in mind, CEPA is pleased to bring Community Supported Art to Western New York, to support local artists and inspire collectors while benefiting CEPA’s award-winning education programs. This local project is modeled on Community Supported Art in Minnesota, created by mnartists.org and Springboard for the Arts.
The eight selected artists will receive a commission to create fifty “shares” for the program. Interested collectors will purchase a share from CEPA Gallery and in return receive a “farm box” of locally produced artwork at CEPA’s CSA pick-up party. Each CSA share will include 8 artworks – one from each of the 8 CSA featured artists. The artworks included in the CSA share will not be revealed until the exhibition and pick-up party on November 5th. The element of surprise is part of the fun! Featured artworks might include digital prints, screen prints, mixed media on paper, or small original drawings or paintings. Sales of member shares begin on June 15, 2015 and will sell out quickly.
The goals of the CSA program are to support artists and to create an engaged community of local arts supporters. CSA supports artists: in the creation of new work, to establish relationships with local collectors and patrons, and to participate in the launch of an exciting new model of art support and distribution. CSA Share member benefits include multiple works of art from local emerging and mid-career artists at a fantastic value. Additionally, CSA Members have the opportunity to develop relationships with the local artists and art community, discover new artists, explore a variety of disciplines and support artists’ careers and a vibrant community.
Meet CEPA’s 2015 CSA Artists
Megan Metté is a Buffalo-based, Louisville-raised photographer and video artist. Her work has been exhibited nationally from Portland to Brooklyn. Her work can be found both in print and online in publications such as Don’t Take Pictures, Afterimage, Of the Afternoon, and Musicworks magazine. Her series [ ] was displayed in a solo show at CEPA Gallery in 2012. More recently, her work was featured in the 2013 Filter Photo Festival in Chicago and the 2014 exhibition A “Womanhouse” or a Roaming House? “A Room of One’s Own” Today at A.I.R Gallery in Brooklyn. Metté holds an MFA in Imaging Arts from the Rochester Institute of Technology, and a BFA in Photography from the University of Louisville.
Stacey Robinson is a Buffalo-based artist, best known for his comic book and illustration work examining race, identity, science fiction and popular culture through the lens of Afrofuturism. His work has been widely exhibited since 2008, including a recent solo exhibition, Binary ConScience at Buffalo Art Studio (2015). Robinson’s work has also been shown in a traveling two-person exhibition with artist John Jennings, BLACK KIRBY presents: In Search Of…The Mother Boxx Connection at multiple venues since 2012, including Jackson State University (Jackson, MS), Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center (Buffalo, NY), Bridgeport Art Center (Chicago, IL), and Humboldt University of Berlin (Berlin, Germany), among others. Other group exhibitions include Arts Beats + Lyrics (High Art Museum, Atlanta, GA, 2009) and Invisible Ink: Black Independent Comix(University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Knoxville, TN, 2011). His work has been published in Studio (The Studio Museum in Harlem Magazine, Winter/Spring 2014), and in Ytasha Womack’s Post Black: How a New Generation is Redefining African American Identity (Chicago Review Press, 2010). His work is included in numerous collections, including Modern Graphics (Berlin), Rollins College, Virginia State University and Bucknell University. Robinson earned his BFA from Fayetteville State University in Fayetteville, NC and his MFA from the University at Buffalo where he was the recipient of the Authur Schomburg Fellowship (2013-2015).
Kyle Butler is a multimedia artist and curator from Michigan currently living in Buffalo. Butler’s work has been included in exhibitions at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo Arts Studio, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Exhibit A (Corning, NY), and Lost Coast Culture Machine (Fort Bragg, CA). In 2014, Butler was commissioned to execute a large performance piece for Scotiabank Nuit Blanche in Toronto, curated by Heather Pesanti of The Contemporary Austin. He has also been featured in New American Paintings (2010), and is in collections including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the Burchfield Penney Art Center. Butler co-curated the Amid/In WNY 2015 exhibition series at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center. He received his BFA with a focus in painting from Central Michigan University in 2008 and his MFA in Visual Studies from the University at Buffalo in 2010. He is represented by Nina Freudenheim Gallery, in Buffalo.
virocode is a collaborative effort of Peter D’Auria and Andrea Mancuso which has exhibited work in photography, video, installation and the digital arts throughout the United States and in Europe including the Museum of Modern Art, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Pacific Film Archive, Southern Exposure Gallery, Diverseworks, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, CEPA Gallery, New York Film and Video Festival, D.U.M.B.O. film and video festival, Burchfield Penney Art Center, Visual Studies Workshop, The Knitting Factory, the University of Arizona Art Gallery, Squeaky Wheel, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco Camerawork, European Media Art Festival, IMPAKT festival, Rockville Arts Place, Mobius VideoSpace, and Artspace Annex. Andrea Mancuso received a BFA and an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Peter D’Auria received a BFA, followed by an MA in Pathology from the University at Buffalo and a Physician Assistant Degree from Daemen College.
