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Patronage of the arts used to be a pretty basic proposition. Patrons supported the artist in his or her work, and in return they got to socialize with them and watch the creative process unfold. It was a common arrangement all over the world.
Lately, with the advent of crowdfunding, things have gotten a little more inventive. Artists can use public sources like Kickstand to raise money for their work.
In Idaho, one of these crowdfunding sources is an event called Feast that allows an audience to see 10 presentations and then vote on the one that they deem most deserving of funding. Feast was founded in 2012 by friends Chelsea Snow & Meshel Ledet.
Like its predecessors, the seventh Feast event, held June 22 at the Visual Arts Collective in Garden City, featured 10 pre-selected presenters who gave short talks about their projects, and asked for the audiences' vote. Each audience member had an individual ballot. The winner June 22 was Patrick Wangoi, who wants to create something called the Idaho Bridge of Inclusivity Art Center; he took home more than $1,300.
At my table at the Feast dinner, talked turned to the difficulty of finding funding opportunities for the arts. They're out there, but they're often small, obscure, and modestly promoted if at all. Yet Idaho is full of artists yearning to be seen and heard, and nobody would question the need for more art in our institutions and public places.
I polled some artists and some...