Is it possible to get art out of the museums and galleries and out in front of millions? And if we have to buy our way into the minds and hearts of popular culture are we willing to do that?

What is the patrons of the arts began to desire that the art they enjoy and buy, had a life outside their personal collections. What if art collecting became an even more generous act than it already is.

What if there was a way to buy art and at the same time buy it's mass distribution? With literally millions of potential public canvases available in the media landscape, in all shapes and sizes, maybe it's time to experiment more and theorize less.

We're experimenting with the idea in Boulder. The FearLess Fund bought a whole bunch of advertising media through a donation to Boulder B-cycle, the non-profit that is bringing bike sharing to Boulder. 50 bikes worth of basket advertising. That space will be a way to move art out of it's usual place in museums and galleries and in front of where people actually are.

This idea that we're calling Ads2Art is a one time affair but I can't help but think that it might have the legs to turn into something bigger. Something ongoing. Perhaps a kind of online gallery that builds into it's purchase price a bit of mass media. So that patrons to this virtual gallery don't just enjoy the work themselves but share it on a large scale in a way that actually contributes to their personal enjoyment.

A gallery like this would have lower overhead not needing the physical space and so could actually "rent" space in media rather than a building.

Artists could have a special relationship with this kind of gallery. Selecting specific piece they wanted to share more widely to be distributed and sold through this unique approach.

More traditional galleries could also form relationships with this sharing gallery as a way to take specific pieces and artists and use the buzz and distributions to create more interest.

And the corporate world could use this unique approach to fund wide scale distribution of art without the need to logo the work or find physical spaces to show their patronage. Simply by checking the site art fans could find out what corporate gifts provided the large scale distribution of the work of artists they love.

Anyway this would be fun to develop. I think I'll post the idea to COMMON.is to see if there is energy to move it forward.