Art Ventures – Fayetteville, Arkansas

About Art Ventures

Art Ventures is a non-profit charitable and educational organization dedicated to providing access to Art for Everyone.

Art Ventures has been a part of the NWA community since 2009 when it opened in the basement of 1 East Center Street on the Fayetteville Square as Fayetteville Underground. We moved to 101 W. Mountain on the southwest corner of the Square in 2012 and qualified for our 501c3 non-profit status in late 2014, which has allowed us to apply for key funding support from foundations and agencies. From 2012 until 2014 the organization was supported by the Fayetteville A & P Commission. Since 2014 we have been supported by the Windgate Charitable Foundation, the Walmart Foundation, Arkansas Arts Council, Arkansas Community Foundation, and individual donations. The sale of artworks by artists who live the mission also brings in supporting revenue.

Our Exhibitions and Gallery programming are free to the public, which allows everyone to participate in the gallery experience as we live our values and achieve our mission.

Our Mission

Art Ventures promotes the visual arts in Northwest Arkansas by actively collaborating with the community, supporting artists working to the highest standards, encouraging education and public engagement in the arts, and providing accessibility to under-represented communities.

Our Values

Quality of life is greatly improved through exposure to art.

The universal language of art facilitates learning and cross-cultural communication.

Individuals and communities participate in creative learning practices when they can identify culturally.

Opportunities for cultural micro-communities to share their stories serve to enrich our entire population, send a direct message of inclusiveness, and encourage education and public engagement across diverse communities.

Developing young artists adds value to the community.

Supporting and educating artists and providing exposure for their work allows them to work to the highest standards.

Our Service

Art Education

Art Ventures takes a defining step to introduce the exhibition phase and socially conscious aspects of art creation to youth and young children. Our inaugural children’s exhibition premiered in November 2017, in support of hurricane relief in the United States and its territories.

Art Business Practice

We engage students in the curatorial process from concept to reality. University students get practical work experience in the arts, including accounting and other disciplines related to successful business practice. Artists can learn concepts to develop reality-based and tested business practices. We introduce investors to artists who represent a significant possible return on investment through art purchases.

Fine Art Galleries

We provide a venue for high-quality and innovative art. Until Art Ventures set the stage in 2009 as Fayetteville Underground, most artists would vie for places on the walls of coffee shops and farmers’ market stands in Northwest Arkansas. These opportunities still exist and provide much-needed exposure, but we provide artists a dedicated and reliable space to exhibit their work and for the community to gather around Art for Everyone.

Serving Micro-Communities

We focus on representing artists from diverse backgrounds and art that tells the story of diverse cultural experiences. In 2017, we presented shows based on the contemporary Native American experience, women in art, exposing the face of racial hatred, and more. We collaborate with the NWA LGBTQ+ community, we have raised money for cystic fibrosis, and we are working on an exciting educational initiative for local Marshallese children.

Arts Incubator & Collaborator

Art Ventures identifies promising artists to help them advance their arts education and practice through workshops, artist talks, mentoring, and direct contemporary educational written and oral materials, and time. Our work with potential artist exhibitors has positively affected the strength of their own understanding about why they do what they do, their ability to discuss the focus of their work, and their ability to build an exhibition that is deliberate and profound.