Now, WHAT’S going on?
As everyone is quickly learning, our small-business friends throughout Champaign-Urbana are suddenly in crisis mode. Until this virus is contained, ALL small businesses (including artists) are in a world of hurt together! As a small effort to DO SOMETHING to benefit everyone, we’ve launched a mutual-aid project called CU pARTners. Pleasejoin us in supporting this effort!

Here’s how it works:
Each participating small business pairs up with a local artist to form a pARTnership and offers a unique package for sale to customers and collectors. The goal is to give small businesses and their artist pARTners an opportunity to generate income NOW (though businesses may advertise a later/safer pick-up or delivery date; that’s up to each business). The content of each offer will be different, but may include:

• Something of value from the business — a gift card or certificate; business-logo T-shirts, bags, hats or mugs; or just about any other regular inventory item.

• Art from a local artist. This will be a limited-edition, exclusive-to-this-project work of art — anything from a numbered print or photograph to textiles, ceramics or even a series of original art.

Bottom line: All pairings and offerings will be a little bit different.

If you need an example to wrap your brain around, consider this: The initial CU pARTnership pairing between Art Coop and Hooey Batiks is offering an exclusive Hooey-design T-shirt featuring the Art Coop duck logo + an Art Coop gift certificate.

And if it helps, just think of this initiative as a mini, one-time version of a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) venture.

If you’re a local small business OR artist interested in pARTticipating, need help connecting with a business or artist, or just want more info about this effort, contact Cupartners2020@gmail.com. pARTcipation is free for small businesses and artists, we just want to help support our small business community!