Tiny Showcase
 Shea'la Finch and Jon Buonaccorsi are self-described "nerds and knuckleheads." But don't let them fool you. In 2005, these two dreamers from Rhode Island hatched a plan to make art more accessible to the non-gallery-attending populace.
Tiny Showcase is the fruit of their furtive planning, and the site's goal hasn't changed in the three years of operation. Their mission? Offer up a tiny limited-run print each week for art enthusiasts to "take home...for around the same price as a CD, book or record..." We've been fans of the Showcase since it started and were lucky enough to score a conversation with the enchanting Ms. Finch. She's one half of the titanic Tiny Showcase empire and her thoughtful answers demonstrate the colorful spirit behind this arty adventure... Hey Shea'la, what was the impetus behind the creation of Tiny Showcase (TS)? We were born to out-idea each other. Your typical idea freestyle session can happen anywhere, anytime, and normally begins, "What if we..." The ideas are normally outlandish, ridiculous, and seemingly impossible. Once we were talking about how everyone draws at work, and they can draw some pretty endearing images on post-it notes, in the margins of memos, etc. So, what if we had a site where people could show these drawings that would normally just hit the shredder? Like, for really cheap? So.. that was one of our weakest ideas but it created a model that seemed like a solution to a lot of frustrations we had with the art world. Lots of people remain really intimidated to enter galleries, let alone to collect art. They are concepts charged with an exclusive and elitist air of mystery. And it can be financially daunting. Additionally, we knew a lot of ultra-amazing artists who weren't getting any shows or much exposure. So what started out as a way to sell office drawings snowballed into a way to make art more affordable and accessible for potential collectors, while offering artists an outlet to show art and make some money without losing their control of the original image. Did you have any other web presence prior to TS? Jon co-created 75 or Less, which is a site with music reviews that must be written in 75 words or less. It's an amazing concept [ED: we agree!—it was featured as a Yahoo! Pick back in June 2002] and has since stemmed into an amazing record label by Mr. Mark MacDougall. Were you making a statement in keeping the per print costs low? What's the statement? Yes. "Art is worthless" or "Art is for everyone." Either one works. Did you think Tiny Showcase would be a hit? Did you have any expectations? Never! In the beginning we never even thought further than a week ahead. We remember telling our print shop, "It would be great if we could print higher print runs, like in a year or two. Or sell out of all 50 prints within the month." We were completely shocked by the response to the site. Was there a moment when you knew "OK, this is cool—we've got something here"? Yeah, when the prints started selling out, we broke out in high fives. We were so psyched! And then, when they started selling out in under an hour, we broke out in hives. We were so nervous! I don't think either of us has ever been a part of anything successful, let alone something we founded. It was a heavy mix of pride and anxiety for a while. What's been the response of the artists you've featured? I don't know if it's instinctual that we only like art made by super-amazing people, but somehow the artists we've worked with have all been so kind and funny and totally good-natured, appreciative, spectacular people. I am not just saying this—it continues to astonish me. Then when an artist comes through town I think, "This is it. I bet this night will end in fistfights." But it never happens! If anything I end up trying to convince them to move to Providence. Everyone is funny. Everyone is kind. Maybe we're all just on best behavior, but every time I see a car full of artists pack up and drive out of town there are tears in my eyes. How do you discover the artists? Do you reach out to them or do they come to you? Both. We look at every submission sent to us, but then we also send invites. It's really nice if an artist has already heard of Tiny Showcase, because sometimes it's hard to explain. And sometimes I wonder if we don't sound a little sketchy at first. Is there a dream artist you'd love to have participate? Normally if there is a dream artist, we just ask. And then they either ignore us or say yes or say nice things but avoid the question. Sometimes I feel like the non-threatening kid sister of the art world. Like, we will ask anyone, regardless of stature, but I never feel like we've offended anyone by asking them to be part of something so small. If anything I imagine they are like, "Oh, isn't that cute, Tiny Showcase sent an invite. Now run along and play, TS." There's a "tiny" issue in that you guys only produce a limited run of each print. Could you be offering artists and art lovers even more if you didn't cap the prints at 100 or 200? Does more exposure help/hurt TS? The whole point of TS is to make art more accessible, but at the same time, we don't want to be a print factory. For lots of reasons, but mainly because that doesn't interest us. So in an effort to expand the site without boring ourselves or the TS readership, we've been scheming about new ways to offer affordable art without ruining what we've already got. We offered a 24 hour print run with Jacob Magraw-Mickelson, and tee shirts with almost 800 tiny letterpress prints by Jen Corace. So we have more projects in that spirit coming up. Tiny Showcase was never meant to be a way to quit our day jobs. The traditional weekly print runs will never be infinite or even much larger than they already are. So TS will always remain Tiny? Yup. We're disorganized and easily distracted. Anything larger, even medium sized, would ruin us. Can you pick a favorite from all the prints you put out over the past three years? Honestly, we can't. Every single week we get so psyched for the new print, and then we look through the past prints and freak out. I still can't believe artists let us feature all these incredible images. Have you heard from any movers 'n' shakers in the art world? Any offers to buy you out or extend the concept beyond its initial scope? Occasionally we will run into someone who would be considered a mover 'n' shaker type person and occasionally, that person knows about Tiny Showcase. We get really, really freaked out. In a good way. Buy outs!? Can you imagine? Best negotiations ever. TS would wear matching suits and demand private islands. Any big future plans up your sleeve for TS? Yes! The Tiny Showcase Social Club, hover bikes, and iPhones! Also, a new tee shirt and letterpress release early next month, a campaign to save the feral cats of the world with two of our favorite artists named Keith, and the Tiny Showcase Social Club. Seriously. It's our dream hybrid gallery/seedy place to hang out and roll the bones. Ideally, cops will need to go undercover as artists to try and bust our dice ring. What are some of your favorite art blogs/sites? Fecal Face, Juxtapoz, Giant Robot, Edward Tufte, Analogue, Buenaventura Press, The Fantagraphics Blog, this is M Sasek, HMBL Fresh Garbage and Mingering Mike [also a Y! Picks alum]. We also love browsing the new covers of all of the alt-weeklies every Thursday. Favorite non-art sites? Jon likes the Make weblog (nerdy), searching Craigslist for old pinball machines (nerdier), The Fader, Nintendo gossip sites, Turntablelab, and YouTube videos of old Reggae 45s being played. I like the Online Etymology Dictionary, the Treehouse Guide, The Guardian's daily 24 hours in pictures, Kitten War [and another Y! Pick!], and any of those sites with pictures of cats speaking in broken chat English. What do you guys do for a living? Jon is a web developer and multimedia specialist at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies. I just finished a Masters in library and information science, but have yet to convince any libraries to hire me. Any final TS things we should be aware of? Wellllll, since you asked....we are totally psyched as we will be debuting a new collection of prints this Fall. They will be larger in scale, super affordable scientific-style charts designed by our favorite artists. Think "The Little Golden Encyclopedia" but printed archivally, soy-based inks, and ultra nice paper. We will be officially announcing the work in late October. We are so there! Thanks for shrinking the art world, Shea'la and Jon!
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