Ridgefield Artist Brings Her Work To Where People Live, Work & Walk

RIDGEFIELD, CT — A local artist has partnered with a Ridgefield business to get paintings out of gallery basements and into your living room.

In the fall of 2018, artist Luiza Budea started Ridgefield Art on Main. Partnering with a small group of other local artists, the organization leased artwork to local businesses William Pitt, Sotheby's, A Touch of Sedona and a few others. The artists mounted a couple of shows at the library as well, all with the intent, as Budea put it, to "keep arts in the center of town."

Then the coronavirus hit, and it became a tough time to be an artist in Ridgefield.

"It was a tough time to be anybody," Budea said.

As the venues where her art could be seen shuttered, temporarily or otherwise, the artist took her work to the streets, literally. Her sidewalk chalk drawings popped up everywhere.

Prior to the pandemic, Budea had done a few well-received chalk drawings on Ridgefield sidewalks. But with COVID raging, she went all in.

"People love them," she told Patch.

Locking the culture away in galleries and museums is a relatively new idea, as far as art history goes. There was a time when "all art was public ... in a place where everybody could experience it," but art's role in the public square today has been usurped by advertising, Budea said.

"I have so many friends from art school who have gone into some kind of commercial art. Advertising is sucking up so much talent, and giving us, 'what?' in return."

The drawings were a spontaneous reaction to the "barrier" that exists between people and art, even — if not especially — in an "artsy" town such as Ridgefield, Budea said. Despite the presence of numerous nearby venues, including The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art on Main Street, the art wasn't getting in front of Ridgefielders.

"I would ask people who I knew had an interest in art, 'did you see this show?' And they're like, oh no, I didn't have time.'"

So Budea decided to bring the art to them. She took the business model of her Ridgefield Art on Main to Dee Dee Colabella, who operates the Ridgefield galleries RPAC and D. Colabella Fine Art.

Colabella loved the idea. In 2019, she had opened RPAC, which provides not only wall space for artwork but studio space and other professional services for artists. Through RPAC, she agreed to handle "all the insurance, the financials, the contracts, all the official stuff," according to Budea, freeing the artists to create.

The result is a newly launched art leasing business, open to residents and commercial enterprises. Rental costs vary depending upon the size of the piece and the prestige of the artist. There's a three-month rental minimum, but residents can swap out the art during that period. Someone who falls in love with their rental and can't part with it has the option of buying it outright.

The gallery also offers picture-hanging assistance, as well as curation services where RPAC art experts will help you select just the right piece to hang in your bedroom or lobby.

"We think it's going to be a great income generator for the artist," Colabella said. "We're excited."