AESTHETIC SUPPORT. Local muralist Cyndee Kaiser said Power2Give seemed like an opportunity to continue working in schools despite shrinking arts budgets.

When the economy tanks, the pain spreads across every aspect of society, and that includes the arts. But while traditional funding for artistic endeavors may be in decline, a new form is taking shape in Eau Claire through an Eau Claire Regional Arts Center sponsored website, Power2Give.

The site takes its cue from nationally successful sites like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, but focuses the help locally. The way it works is pretty simple: Artists and non-profits can set up a project on the site with a goal (say a public sculpture that would cost $300 to produce). Then anyone can contribute what they can to help the artist reach their goal.

“I think this really opens the door for the garage bands and the individual artists and people who don’t have that network or that database of names and donors to fund projects.” – Eau Claire Regional Arts Center director Ben Richgrueber

The site varies a bit, though. Unlike Kickstarter, the model isn’t all-or-nothing, if the artist doesn’t reach their goal, they still have an opportunity to take what they made. The site also offers a host of features that may make it easier for projects to succeed. Companies or groups can provide matching donations for certain projects or give gift cards that allow the recipients to choose the project they want to donate too.

The Power2Give program was started nationally by the Arts & Science Council last year. Eau Claire is the ninth city to use the Power2Give site structure and by the far the smallest (other cities include Atlanta, Miama, Charlotte and Madison).

Ben Richgrueber, the director of ECRAC, said he contacted Power2Give after seeing Madison’s site launch this summer. While he hopes to see larger organizations use the funding model, he sees the real beneficiaries being smaller, lesser known individual artists.

“I think this really opens the door for the garage bands and the individual artists and people who don’t have that network or that database of names and donors to fund projects,” Richgrueber said. “This really opens things up for them because now they do have access to those people and people can give to that and know that it’s supporting local and it’s really going to help build our scene here.”

One of those artists is Cyndee Kaiser, a painter based in Eau Claire. Kaiser has done a lot of work in schools and with children in the past (including the Boys and Girls Club and a recent project at Roosevelt Elementary). She said she sees Power2Give as an opportunity to continue working with children even as school budgets tighten.

She’s already beginning to work on a proposal to have up when the site launches, possibly with the Boys and Girls Club or Longfellow Elementary school.
Any non-profit can apply for an arts-based project, even if they aren’t necessarily an arts organization. If an individual artist wants to put together a project, Richgrueber said they could apply for ECRAC to be the financial backer. This also gives the site a bit more security than Kickstarter, which has had its problems in the past with accountability.

So even if funding seems to be going dry, in the wake of a bad economy, new models like Power2Give will hopefully give a boost to the arts community as a whole.

For more information, go to Power2Give.org or contact ECRAC at 715-832-ARTS or info@eauclairearts.com.