MAKING AN IMPACT – BUYING ART BUILDING COMMUNITY

It’s a Friday morning – the interwebs are pinging with the interaction of digital likenesses, liking and loving, and commenting about anything and everything. This is the world we live in – one activated by our avatars – one driven by digital realities. It’s hard in a world such as this to make an impact… But we are out trying anyway…

Art on the Rio is about more than just art, artists, collectors, and sales – it’s about community. 

It’s Friday morning and we are responding to the inquiries, and checking if we have new followers on our Instagram page @artontherio. A DM we are sent asks about the price on a James Montoya piece that we have hanging at one of our Brick and Mortar Partner locations, Global Ties. We respond – and the buyer says she would like to buy it. 

Here’s where the magic happen:
Being that we are a two person outfit, we ask if the buyer wouldn’t mind stopping by Global Ties herself, checking the painting out, and taking it home after paying if she in fact does love it in person. She agrees.

An hour or so later, the Executive Director Yuriria Morales confirms that the buyer has been by and that the painting by James Montoya, “Fuego,” is headed to a new home. Everyone’s happy – including Ms. Morales, because in the interaction/transaction of buying a new piece of art, the buyer has inquired about how to get more involved in our community, and with the organization she is standing in, Global Ties. 

It’s times like these that we sit back and marvel at the functionality of this thing – this collective action oriented marketplace, where commerce and community exist simultaneously. It’s Friday morning, and not only have we put $640 dollars in the pockets of one of the artists we work with and for,  but als potential volunteers in the wings of Global Ties. We are strengthening the bench of NPOs, we are sending new consumers through the doors of small businesses for some mini-pancakes and original art – we are having folks cheers to the idea of #BuyingLocal while they tip pints, they’re talking about paintings. 

It’s possible – impact. Even on a Friday morning when we have so much on our minds, and so many replies to make on various accounts, we can account for the human interaction that is necessary to feel like an impact is being made in Burque – and we couldn’t do it without you! 

We are doing this together. We are changing the way art helps our community conduct business – curating community and making a marketplace where there were formerly independent hustlers participating in the perpetuation of a scarcity mentality city. This is not that thing. WE are about collaboration – let’s work together.