This show offers affordable art with a mysterious twist
At Collin Allen's one-day-only Cigar Box Art Show, everything is $50. But the identity of the artists is a secret.
Last December, Wichita artist Collin Allen held a cigar box in his hands and saw the potential for two small canvases.
Allen has long made his own work out of recycled materials, but he saw a bigger opportunity in the cigar box: an “organic, guerilla” group show designed to spark interest in collecting art.
“I'm trying to get people involved that maybe haven't had an opportunity or can't afford a $1,000 painting,” he said.
Allen thought he might get 30 artists to participate. But “things escalated quickly” after he put out a call on social media.
On Saturday, more than 150 pieces of cigar box art will be on view for one day only: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. at Harris & Co. Frame Shop, 1219 E. Douglas Ave. near downtown Wichita.
Each is priced at $50. By any measure, that’s a bargain for a piece of original art. To make it bit more mysterious, the artists will not be identified.
Sales are cash only, and buyers can take their purchases home right away. All proceeds go to the artists.
There’s one more rule: from 10 a.m.-noon, there a two-per-person limit.
“At least 50% of the artists in this, I've never seen their work before. They've never shown, and it's really surprising because their work is fantastic,” Allen said. “Then we have some really established artists who also jumped in.”
The youngest artist in the show is 12, and Allen estimates the oldest artist is in their 70s or 80s.
Putting Vision into Action
To make the Cigar Box Art Show a reality, Allen asked local retailers to donate boxes to the project. He sourced most of the more than 300 he collected from Jacob’s Liquor Exchange, Old Town Cigars, and Air Capital Cigar.
He spread the word through social media and set up promotional displays at galleries, including Harvester Arts and Vertigo 232. For a period of three months, artists could pick up a cigar box from Harris & Co. or Art House 310 in exchange for a $10 fee.
“It was really sweet,” Allen said. “All the galleries were participating in something that they weren't going to necessarily benefit from.”
He also received support from the Wichita Area Arts Council, which gave him a grant to cover the costs of storage.
One of the videos Collin Allen created to promote the Cigar Box Art Show.
Working Outside the Box
Allen’s art career is defined in part by an affinity for working experimentally, often in unconventional spaces. In 2019, he built a gallery for his Wichita State Bachelor of Fine Arts thesis show in a vacant building on Douglas Avenue.
Before that, he was a “garage goon” (read: preparator and artist-in-residence) at the Go Away Garage on Commerce Street. When it was still open, the shop hosted art shows that often drew hundreds of people during the Final Friday art crawls (which now happens on first Fridays). The Cigar Box Art Show is inspired in part by a “Salon des Refusés” exhibition at Go Away that showed the work of dozens and dozens of artists.
Allen hopes the cigar box show will help build community and show younger artists that they, too, can do their own thing — and support one another.
“I might help an artist do something … and it's not going to necessarily benefit me in the short term. But if it benefits them, then it benefits the art community. And all of those things add up.”
The Details
Cigar Box Art Show
10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, October 24 at Harris & Co. Frame Shop, 1219 E. Douglas Ave.
Cash only. Sales are limited to two per person before noon.
Learn more on the Facebook event page for the Cigar Box Art Show.
Emily Christensen is one of the co-founders of The SHOUT. She is a past fellow of the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and a recipient of an Arts Writing Grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation. Send her a message: emily@shoutwichita.com.
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