Art students create ‘million dollar’ business venture | Variety

Every once in a while, we come across that one special experience, whether it was an art show in some hole-in-the-wall exhibit or a small concert, where you could have reached out and touched the musicians.

University of Georgia graduate Kerem Kilic wants to bring that kind of DIY intimacy back to the Classic City’s art scene with the business venture GoPique.

“We’re just trying to bring artwork back to where we think it thrives, which would be amongst the communities around town that represent the culture,” Kilic said.

GoPique is a web interface that connects artists to vacant venues where they can showcase their work, and vice versa. Anyone wishing to fill their garage, warehouse or any spare space with art can connect with creators of all types of media― from music to storytelling to sculpture.

“Artists have trouble finding the right space for their work,” said Art X major Keenan Parker. “And almost everybody has space, but nobody knows what to do with it.”

It all began as a project in Art X professor Michael Oliveri’s transmedia class this semester. The challenge: create a million dollar business. Kilic, Parker and their friend Roberto Bernardo originally had the idea to create a beer delivery service. However, there’s a lot of liability, licenses and extensive paperwork in the liquor business.

So they turned to what they knew best: the Athens art scene.

“We thought, ‘What if we used our artistic endeavors to make something for the creatives? Why not have a company that caters to creative people like us?’” Parker said.

Since then, they recruited a majority of the class to join the project, including Kelly Ann Ford. The third year Art X major said that GoPique is now focusing on creating a strong client base.

“We’re really just trying to start from the ground up,” Ford said. “We want to do anything we can to get our name out there, because the website isn’t going to work unless we have a good basis of people for it.”

Efforts to spread the word have included a full moon art party at house venue La Casa de ChaCha with local musicians Saline and Richard Gumby, spoken word by Tommy Weigle, a slew of visual artists and a mound of moon pies. Parker said that the relaxed venue channeled the personal connections GoPique hopes to create.

“People would walk in and be face to face with the artists,” he said. “Standing on the same level with them just felt more human.”

On May 1, GoPique is cosponsoring a collaboration concert at Iron Factory with local funk fusion group The Po’ Boys. That night, GoPique will be renting uHaul trucks and converting them into mobile exhibitions for any artists who are interested. The masses can view the installations for free if they happen across the impromptu art caravan.

“We don’t have a definite destination for where the trucks are going to be,” Kilic said. “We kind of like that because we think it’s representative of what GoPique is about.”

Despite the company’s laid back outlook, their attention to detail is evident in GoPique’s current logo. Kilic said the intricate design represents all the goals GoPique wants to achieve, from the mysterious, subversive nature of the cat to the two arrows coming together from the same source.

“We wanted to create [a logo] that was simple and rich with the symbolism of the culture we want to cultivate,” Kilic said. “One of collaboration, artistic expression, connection and community.”

Looking farther into the future, the GoPique team plans on creating an event database so enthusiasts can find shows in their area. The company also hopes to expand to other cities with niche creative scenes such as Savannah.

This may seem like too much to accomplish in one semester, but these students are committed to making GoPique a million dollar business.

“We definitely plan on taking the idea outside of the class,” Ford said. “It’s a project that’s going to take a lot longer than a semester.”

Ford went on to say that although GoPique hopes to go beyond the syllabus, the Art X program’s emphasis on ideas and conceptual art is what made this business possible.

“I think that it’s great that we can call this an art project,” Ford said. “I feel like art’s purpose is to reach out and connect people who have similar ideas so they can develop them. That’s why GoPique is like the ultimate art project.”