Art Store

Art Store , by the artist Barry Fellman, recreates the now-defunct Pearl Paint flasgship store (308 Canal Street, New York, New York):

The installation pays homage to this icon of the art community which provided both the great and the novice artist with their canvas, paint and brushes from the time of the Great Depression in 1933 to the closing of its last store earlier this year.

Art Store also highlights the ever dwindling support for art education in schools today as a result of budget cuts and the reallocation of funding from arts to other areas. Many public school teachers are left to purchase supplies out of their own pockets.

I am fortunate to live within driving distance of an independent art-supply store, the Art Coop in Urbana, Illinois. Like bookstores, record stores, and stationery stores, art-supply stores are an endangered species.

[Via Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York.]