Fresh Artists exhibits student artwork at the Philadelphia International Airport. Image via Fresh Artists’ Facebook page.

What do you do when you have a problem funding the arts but a surplus of great student artwork? The team over at Philadelphia’s Fresh Artists recognized a solution and got down to business by turning potential calamity into opportunity. By reaching out to local businesses looking to decorate their spaces with colorful compositions, this Knight Arts grantee found a way to give young, local artists venues in which to display their creations, while paying for school programs at the same time. This paradigm shift in approaching arts funding is an example of the types of ideas that Philly and other communities desperately need.

Since its inception in 2008, Fresh Artists has grown by leaps and bounds. Its mission: to better serve children at local schools by giving them access to the process of art-making. Not only do the students participating in this program get a chance to flex their creative muscles and the satisfaction of sharing their artwork, but Fresh Artists also makes the students aware of how their art gives back to others. After Fresh Artists digitally enlarges the students’ works, the amateur art is acquired by local businesses in exchange for a donation, and the proceeds go toward purchasing art supplies for other children, simultaneously serving as an example of philanthropy in action.

Donated Behr paint chips are perfect for mosaic-making and also save these samples from being tossed in landfills. Image courtesy of Fresh Artists.

Fresh Artists also partners with companies like Home Depot and Behr Paint to gain extra resources in the way of volunteers and materials. Recently, Behr and Home Depot donated a bounty of unexpected supplies: obsolete paint chips. The color swatches used to mix and match paint in hardware stores the world over might otherwise find their way to a landfill. In the hands of Fresh Artists, however, these old color samples became a component for constructing mosaics–a surprising new tool that Fresh Artists has added to its arsenal.

Through another partnership with Marriott’s SpringHill Suites, each elementary school adopted by the hotel chain will receive a cart full of paint chips. Fresh Artists estimates these paint chips will reach some 390 schools this year in 40 states!

In addition to setting up a new 1,500-square-foot studio space in the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia, Fresh Artists recently installed artwork at the Philadelphia International Airport, and the organization is busy planning a three-day “Cool Jobs” fair for February 2016. Funded in part by a Knight Foundation grant, the career expo aims to get area kids–and at-risk teenagers in particular–thinking about their future potential in the creative economy.