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Where Y’Art connects local artists to their community online By SARAH RAVITS | Photos provided by WHERE Y’ART
GAMBIT DETAILS
NOVEMBER 2020
Artists Cat Todd and Collin Ferguson founded Where
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Y’Art, an online collective, in 2013 as a way for emerging and established New Orleans artists to connect with customers and showcase their work. “We wanted to build something and get these undiscovered talents a place to be found,” says Todd. “We really wanted to create a space and a tool for locals to get to know the community and be able to use it to find local artists.” Through Where Y’Art, customers can purchase works and directly interact with artists through a messaging system. Users can also follow artists, “favorite” them, create collections and sign up for alerts when artists post new work. Todd says it has been a helpful tool for art lovers and creatives amid COVID-19 restrictions, and it now showcases and sells works by more than 150 local artists. Where Y’Art keeps just a small percent of the proceeds — essentially just enough to maintain the site; artists keep 90% of the revenue generated. “We represent a lot of artists that live and die by market life,” notes Todd. “Their world has been disrupted, and we’ve done everything we can to create opportunity for them.” Where Y’Art also has helped much of its community find work by lending their expertise to boutique hotels and hospitals in need of decor. The collective also recently teamed up with JAMNOLA to help design the 2 rooms in the city’s first experiential museum in the Marigny. Todd says now is an especially good time to “think local” and support the creative community. “The website was always designed to be a tool for discovery,” she says. “We wanted to make art accessible.” For more information: whereyart.net | Instagram: @whereyart
“Aerial Study”
BY KRISTEN ALBRECHT
“Suyeni” BY BRETT HENDERSON
“Stained Window”
BY GEORGE DOLGY
“I Can’t Breathe” BY RASHAUD BROWN
“Miles Runs the Voodoo Down”
HOMAGE TO MILES DAVIS BY GEORGE MCCLEMENTS
