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Supporting Atlanta’s Emerging Artists

and the EngageMINT Annual Fundraiser

By Luke Beard

March 12^th, 2019

Since moving to Atlanta, I've been on the look out for ways to contribute to the creative community that has been overwhelmingly welcoming since we got to town. Late last year I had a great opportunity come my way to join the board of MINT, a nonprofit art organization right in the heart of the city. MINT's mission is what inspired me the most to come on board "to make Atlanta a destination for the arts: a cultural hub where artists thrive, patrons experience transformative work, and communities are activated and engaged." I truly believe Atlanta is a destination city and MINT are really working towards establishing that for artists.

100+ Artists

One of the first projects I got to contribute to was "EngageMINT", MINT's Annual Fundraiser that happened this past weekend. The evening’s activities included an art auction, a sneak peek at the 2019 Leap Year artists' work, and, of course, food and drink, The auction featured over 100 works of art (some starting at $50) by local and national artists.

All proceeds directly supported MINT and early numbers look great. Below is a a visual overview of the night that I had a blast shooting.

Explore all the artists on show →

1000 Stories of Wine

One of my small contributions to the night was partnering up with the wonderful 1000 Stories to provide wine for all the guest. They were very open to support the arts and I'm grateful they wanted to work with us for the night. It helps the wine is great too.

In 2006, MINT was founded by undergraduate students at Atlanta universities. The organization was established to create a space for emerging artists and patrons to find their voices. Over the past 12 years, we have presented over 1,000 contemporary and experimental artists through our programs and exhibitions.

Getting Artists Paid

W.A.G.E. (Working Artists and the Greater Economy) is a national organization focused on regulating the payment of artist fees by nonprofit art institutions and establishing a sustainable model for best practices between artists and the institutions that contract their labor. Their current roster of organizations includes The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, MOMA, The Guggenheim, and now, MINT.

MINT is the first W.A.G.E.-certified organization in Georgia, a state with has the 49th lowest per capita arts funding in the U.S. (National Assembly of Arts Agencies), which means the burden of paying artists falls on organizations like ours. W.A.G.E. certification has propelled us to be an even more integral part of Georgia’s arts ecosystem.

Home for the Night

The awesome event space was contributed by Hathaway Gallery.

"Ya gatta have Frames"

Level Frames were incredibly generous to the night and donated 4 beautiful frames. I'm a huge fan of Level and was very stoked to work with them.

Thank You

I'm proud to support Mint and incredibly thankful for anyone who attended, the hard word all the Mint staff and most importantly the artists of Atlanta.