Industry
Part of What creative stay case studies leave out and the questions to ask
Creative stay write-ups: local business types
In creative stay case studies, local business suppliers recur by type—art-supply stores, woodworking shops, hardware stores, framers. How to write them up.
What to take away
- The suppliers that recur in stay accounts are ordinary onesart-supply stores, a woodworking shop, photo and print shops, hardware stores and a framer.
- The exchange is a purchase plus a mention, not a sponsorship.
- Count nights, receipts and named suppliers instead of claiming a town was transformed.
- Ask before naming a business, and send the write-up once it runs.
- Before you promise a host anything, read our companion guide to local business mistakes.
The types that keep coming back
Read enough creative stay case studies and the same local business types appear, whatever the medium. The suppliers below recur across painting, photography, sculpture and print stays.
Shops that keep recurring
Business
- Blick Art Materials
- Canvas, gesso, brushes
- Jerry's Artarama
- Stretched canvas, oils
- B&H Photo Video
- Cable release, rented lens
- The Home Depot
- Plywood, clamps, truck
- Woodcraft
- Hand tools, sharpening
- FedEx Office
- Large-format printing, mounting
- American Frame
- Custom frames, odd sizes
What it supplied
- Blick Art Materials
- Painting and print stays
- Jerry's Artarama
- Southeast residencies, mail order
- B&H Photo Video
- Photography stays
- The Home Depot
- Sculpture and installation
- Woodcraft
- Furniture and woodworking
- FedEx Office
- Shows and open studios
- American Frame
- End-of-stay exhibitions
Where it turns up
- Blick Art Materials
- Jerry's Artarama
- B&H Photo Video
- The Home Depot
- Woodcraft
- FedEx Office
- American Frame
| Business | What it supplied | Where it turns up |
|---|---|---|
| Blick Art Materials (Highland Park, Illinois) | Canvas, gesso, brushes on a same-week pickup order | Painting and print residencies near a store |
| Jerry's Artarama (Raleigh, North Carolina) | Stretched canvas, oils, house-brand brushes | Residencies in the Southeast, mail order elsewhere |
| B&H Photo Video (Ninth Avenue, New York City) | A replacement cable release, a rented lens | Photography stays with a shipping address; closed Friday afternoon and Saturday |
| The Home Depot (Atlanta) | Plywood, clamps, a truck rented by the hour | Sculpture and installation work |
| Woodcraft (Parkersburg, West Virginia) | Hand tools, sharpening, weekend classes | Furniture and woodworking stays |
| Ace Hardware (Oak Brook, Illinois) | Paint, fasteners, a replacement hose | Stores are independently owned, so stock and hours vary by owner |
| FedEx Office (Plano, Texas) | Large-format printing, mounting, overnight turnaround | Shows and open studios |
| American Frame (Maumee, Ohio) | Custom frames cut to odd canvas sizes | End-of-stay exhibitions |
None of that appears in a program's brochure. It appears in first-person accounts, which is why they are worth reading before you choose between two similar places.
Supplies show up more often than services. The store that had the canvas in stock gets named; the courier who delivered it usually does not. Chains appear as often as independents, because a store manager can hold stock or lend a tool.
Timing decides which of these you can use. B&H closes Friday afternoon and all day Saturday, so a Friday delivery to a rural address can slip a week. Home Depot rents a truck by the hour, typically about $19 for the first 75 minutes. FedEx Office same-day large-format cutoffs usually fall in the early afternoon.
What reciprocity looks like at one-week scale
The exchanges that hold up are small and mutual. An artist buys locally instead of ordering online, names the shop in the write-up, teaches one session for staff, or brings the group in for a meal.
Small business support days make the same point at civic scale. The Small Business Administration promotes Small Business Saturday each November, a day to spend at small businesses and note what they do for their communities.
A visiting artist who buys from the shop down the road is that idea at the scale of one person and one week.
Count what you can, skip the adjectives
The temptation is to write that a program transformed a town. Say instead how many nights were sold, what was spent locally, how many residents came to the open studio, which businesses supplied the work.
Research here exists and is more careful than most claims made in its name. The National Endowment for the Arts publishes research on arts participation and education from its grants program.
A supplier described as reliable and fairly priced will share the piece. One described as an inspiration will not know what you mean.
A receipt from a named shop carries more weight with a funder than a line about a town's creative energy.
The write-up section that gets used
Future residents read one part of a stay account: where things came from. Build it as a short list.
Build the supplier list
- Name the shop and what it supplied
- Give cost and time, or cite shop
- Note what you would do differently
- Send the account to every business named
That email gives them something to share and shows you follow through. It is also how a tool gets lent to the next artist who asks.
If a business would rather not be named, drop it without argument. Operators avoid publicity for ordinary reasons, from licensing to a landlord, and none of that is yours to publish.
The write-ups that hold up are the ones a funder can check line by line: supplier, receipt, date.
Common questions
The questions that come up most when a stay is written up.
Should I name businesses in a write-up?
Ask first. Most agree, and a factual mention of good service is worth more to them than a compliment.
Is buying locally more expensive?
Sometimes. The gap is usually smaller than the shipping you avoid, and you get the item the same day.
What counts as evidence of local impact?
Receipts, attendance counts and named suppliers. Not adjectives.
Do hosts want this documented?
Usually. It helps them with funders and with neighbors who wonder what the program does.
