Exit Space Project looking for support for local art through crowd funding

The Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts (UICA) is looking to raise $10,000 by this Saturday, March 21 to support their Exit Space Project. To do so they are asking for the support of the community in this crowd funding effort.

The crowd funding campaign would allow the UICA to set up two to three more murals around Grand Rapids.

If the goal of $10,000 is reached by March 21 at 4 a.m., the Michigan Economic Development Corporation's 'Public Spaces, Community Places' initiative will match the the $10,000 donation.

"It's art for everybody so people can contribute whatever they want contribute," says Kristen Taylor, UICA's Development Officer. "They will then literally have ownership of that artwork and they'll be able to live with it in the city everyday which is pretty cool. It's kind of like if Grand Rapids were your living room and you bought a painting and hung it up."

Exit Space features local artist in public areas. Its intention is to promote city beautification through street art that is visible to large groups of people on a daily basis. Murals done through Exit Space are located in heavily traveled areas. 

Brandon Alman and co-founder Erwin Erksitz developed the idea initially to utilize the space in the UICA that was only visible from the street.

"It was our goal to see more street art and and graffiti in Grand Rapids as a whole," says Alman co-founder of Exit Space says. "It was always the goal to figure out how to push what was just inside the UICA out into the streets of Grand Rapids."

Artists submissions will accepted through today, March 16. The second wave of submissions will be announced at a later date.

The UICA is subsidiary of Ferris State University, and all donations via Patronicity to the project are tax deductible.