THINK INSIDE THE BOX. Buying into the Eau Claire Regional Arts Center’s Community Supported Art program will get you works created by nine different artists, including photographers, sculptors, and writers.

The Eau Claire Regional Arts Center offers a thrilling opportunity for lovers of local art through the 2016 season of its Community Supported Art (CSA) program.

Anyone interested in getting nine pieces of original work handmade by Chippewa Valley creators can purchase a CSA share for $250. About 25 shares remain, and they will be sold until there are none left. Buyers get additional “bumper crop” perks, including tickets to shows at the State Theatre, prints of works featured in local galleries, access to ECRAC art workshops, and numerous free goodies from various program sponsors.

“CSA is all about making a strong artistic community,” says Rose Dolan-Neill, ECRAC’s visual arts director. “We want to help keep the momentum of arts being an everyday occurrence in Eau Claire.”

“Artists and shareholders get to connect in person. Shareholders can see there’s a person behind the work they’re buying and talk to them about it. This doesn’t happen often in the art world.” – Rose Dolan-Neill, Eau Claire Regional Arts Center visual arts director

Opportunities for shareholders to grab their purchases will be scattered around Eau Claire throughout the summer. If you’re reading this, you missed the first pick-up event (it was July 7 at the Janet Carson Gallery). The next such event is scheduled for 6-8:30pm on Aug. 4 at the Sounds Like Summer Concert Series at Phoenix Park. The final event will be 5-8pm Aug. 31 at Artisan Forge Studios, 1106 Mondovi Road. Each event will include food and music, along with the opportunity for buyers to meet some of the artists who created works for the CSA.

“CSA helps artists market to a broader audience,” Dolan-Neill says. “Artists and shareholders get to connect in person. Shareholders can see there’s a person behind the work they’re buying and talk to them about it. This doesn’t happen often in the art world.”

The CSA’s featured artists, who were selected by an artistically adept jury during a private judging session, include illustrator Sandra Cress, fabric artists Jane Foos and Nancy Dutmer, painter and photographer Jessica Mongeon, metal sculptor Crysten Nesseth, photographer Hope Greene, watercolor artist Elizabeth Larson, author Patti See, and potter Revay Henneman.

ECRAC’s CSA was inspired by its acronym twin, Community Supported Agriculture. For 20 years, agricultural CSAs have operated in the way that the art CSA is designed to: connecting locals with the products available in their community and supporting local makers. ECRAC’s CSA also mirrors the artistic CSA that originated in Minnesota. The Eau Claire program started in the summer of 2014 and has since grown from offering 25 shares to 30.

“We are always pushing, growing, and working to reach the general public,” Dolan-Neill says. “But it really is a self-sustaining program that supports community artists.”

To learn more about the program or to find out how you can purchase your own share, call (715) 832-2787 or visit eauclairearts.com.