Pop-Up is more than an annoying ad that jumps in front of the image that you are watching on your computer screen. Lately the pop-up has morphed into an opportunistic entrepreneur opening a shop in an empty store for a short period of time. Artists have also embraced this idea by bringing their artwork and creating an instant gallery exhibit with the “pop-up gallery.” This is an exciting concept since it bypasses gatekeepers that turn away emerging artists, or artists that are experimenting with a new medium or series.
There are many empty commercial buildings in the town where I live and few places for artists to exhibit their work. It only seemed natural to ask the owners of these spaces to borrow them for a weekend and invite artists to bring their work to create an instant art exhibit. The instantaneous nature of the pop-up exhibits assumes that all of the artworks will somehow fit into the space, even when hanging the work salon style. For the past year a small team of artists and arts activists have created pop-up galleries in this town – the artists have sold some work, gotten exhibition experience and local residents are cognizant of the community of artists that live here. For a brief time, artists shared their fresh artworks, and an unfinished commercial space was filled with people. All of these outcomes are positive – any activity that encourages the community to recognize the value that artists bring to the community sounds great to me.
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