LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) — It’s every artist’s biggest dilemma — how do you get your art into the community and still make a living? An art subscription service out of Lafayette is partnering local artists with local businesses to showcase talent in spaces you wouldn’t normally think of.  

News 10’s Caroline Marcello tagged along while with members of Basin Arts as they transformed an office building through the BARE Walls art subscription service. 

Dirk Guidry is the program Director of BARE Walls, the art subscription program. 

He explains, “The way the program works is that we have an inventory of artwork made available to us by artists that are in the program and on our roster. They have art laying around in their studio, it hasn’t seen the light of day, and not collecting any residual income. We put it in our portfolio that we are able to bring to the businesses who rent out the artwork and put it in their space.”

BARE Walls has beautified non-conventional places like office buildings, spaces, and conference rooms. Guidry says, “We rotate it every three months which is such a nice turnkey service that we applied to the program. So they get a fresh look every three months.”

Michael Eble is an artist with work in the BARE Walls portfolio. He says, “For me as an artist it has allowed me to put my inventory out in the public, but also gain some residual income. I’m making my artwork work for me, then vice versa.” 

Guidry says, “Artist have the mentality of if they get more exposure it increases their chances, but they’ll that for free and they get taken advantage of. That’s why we made the program to say hey your art is valuable, we want to showcases its value, and put you up in places that way it’s not just sitting there and not being seen. The exposure and the accessibility is part of our main goal that we have with BARE walls.” 

Dirk Guidry and Claire Cook with Basin Arts along with Marie Lukaszeski Director of Planning/Design/Property Management at Lafayette General Health joined Caroline Marcello for 10 Talks Acadiana Podcast. 

You can find the conversation on all major streaming platforms starting Friday, April 16 at noon.