By Jessica Steinhoff | Photo by Hillary Schave
Dane County arts organizations produce $346.7 million in economic activity annually, according to a recent Americans for the Arts study, but artists don’t always view themselves as small-business owners. Dane Arts Buy Local (DABL) aims to change that.
“Many artists are not comfortable asking for and working to raise money for their art,” says Mark Fraire, director of the Dane County Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission (Dane Arts). “DABL offers a process which lets them have greater financial control over their work.”
Dane Arts began by hosting the first DABL night pop-up markets for local artists to sell their work to businesses in 2015. The market is now an every-other-year, two-day event featuring live music, food trucks and art installations at Verona’s Farley Center. Thirty exhibitors sold about $15,000 of artwork at the 2023 market, which attracted more than 1,000 visitors.
In addition to selling art, exhibitors learn the art of sale and “form alliances” with fellow business owners, Fraire says.
Networking is also integral to the “business of art” conference Dane Arts has hosted since 2022. Each year, local experts present workshops on topics such as accounting, contracts and copyright law. Presenters at the 2024 conference included Chloe Benjamin, author of the bestseller “The Immortalists,” and Scott Mosley, CEO of the entrepreneurship hub StartingBlock.
StartingBlock now houses two DABL-run art galleries, and in 2019 initiated a Dane Arts Artist- in-Residence Program. It’s also one of DABL’s primary private funding sources, along with the Evjue Foundation.
Wisconsin ranks 49th in state funding for the arts, Fraire notes, so DABL supplements its government funding with private donations.
More funding means more opportunities, from Behind Creative, a video series of local artist profiles, to an artist directory that facilitates connections among creatives and the public. It also enables Dane Arts’ efforts to help artists stay healthy, including a 2025 DABL conference on business, wellness and the arts.
Conference planning has produced partnerships that stretch beyond Dane County. One is Arts Pharmacy, an Atlanta nonprofit, which works with healthcare providers to integrate arts and culture into health and wellness, helping doctors “prescribe” arts activities to patients.
“Art Pharmacy is expanding people’s understanding of what the arts can be, which we want to do, too,” Fraire says.
