That’s Entertainment!
Integrating music and art into your shop
by Chris Ryan

With so much activity crammed into the days of average Americans, it's easy for us to fall into patterns that provide little or no thought to rituals, including daily visits to a coffeehouse. People enter, make their purchases, maybe engage in a bit of conversation, and exit with their order either in hand or in stomach. But what if, during their visit, customers were to hear something—or see something—that resonated with them emotionally?

Offering music and art in your shop gives you another way to connect with customers beyond serving them coffee. Whether it's a painting on the wall or a guitar—wielding musician in the corner, associating with the arts will help establish you in your community and maybe get you out of your routine as well.

Booking 101

It's one thing to envision an artistic presence in your store, but it's another to actually bring it into reality. To book live music and art, start by having an employee in place who can help you move in that direction.

The right person. Does the thought of live music have you reaching for your earplugs? Does the term "art" conjure up visions of sailboat paintings? Look around at the baristas at your shop and ask them a few questions on where they stand on the arts. You may have a potential booking agent already working with you. At PT's Coffee in Kansas City, Mo., Kris Davidson was one of the shop's baristas until owner Jeff Taylor picked up on his interest in music and selected him to be entertainment coordinator as well. "Kris is a good cat that's passionate about music and coffee," Taylor says. "He loves putting the two together."

Other times, the right booking person is the shop's owner—and it's a no-brainer if that person is an artist as well. At Catalyst Coffee in Fort Collins, Colo., co-owners Fade Wall and Heather Michalak are artists/coffeehouse owners who conceived their shop as one that would prominently feature art. "It started out with me and my business partner and another lady who used to do art shows together," says Wall. "We always wanted it to be a part of what we were doing [at the shop], and we figured we would start out selling our own stuff."

Finding the talent. At Catalyst, it didn't take long before the owners' work was joined by art from community members. Thanks to customer interest and word of mouth, news quickly spread that the shop was open to featuring other artists, and the work started pouring in. "I think we have almost 16 different artists right now," Wall says. "A lot of it was just people walking in and saying that they were interested in showing some stuff. That's how we probably got 90 percent of the artists that are here."

With the accessibility of the coffeehouse environment, you also will likely find no shortage of talent that wants to perform at your shop. The casual setting makes artists and musicians more willing and able to share their work than, say, in galleries or concert venues that could be intimidating and even inaccessible for newer performers. "We try to focus on local artists and people who are just getting started as much as possible," Wall says. "It's a great place for upcoming people to really get used to the system."

Book 'em. With the advent of networking Web sites—MySpace in particular—it's easier than ever for bands to sell themselves to venues that host live music. Jen Scaffidi, who books music at Comma Coffee in Carson City, Nev., says she gets so many online requests from bands that she only considers booking those that are written politely, succinctly and cleverly, and who provide the information asked for on Comma Coffee's booking page. "I'd say that's less than 10 percent of the requests I get," Scaffidi says. "From those, I listen to about 30 seconds of the first song on their MySpace page or Web site and decide on the spot if I'm interested."

MySpace is particularly useful for touring bands looking to fill dates as they trek across the country. Davidson at PT's says bands that fit that criteria make up the majority of the inquiries he gets on MySpace, and he says they almost all fit into the same musical genre. "The majority of the music has been acoustic. It's been a mix so far of both solo acoustic and band-type acoustic. College bands looking for a gig out of town search for this area and find us."

Fitting them into your space. Because coffeehouses are generally designed with one thing in mind—serving coffee—it's not always easy to make room for entertainment. But at Octane Coffee in Atlanta, the open, loft—like space lends itself well to a gallery atmosphere, featuring a different artist every month. "We have a fairly large space as far as coffee shops go, and it's really industrial, with exposed brick," Octane owner Tony Riffel says. "It presents itself very well from an artistic standpoint. We've kind of developed a name for being somewhat of an art gallery in the area." On the other hand, at Catalyst, the 16 artists who display their work there show only a few pieces at a time because of space constraints. "Most of them have three to four pieces; they kind of get a section of our wall space where they can display their art," says Wall.

For music performances, it's common to put the act in one corner, requiring some shuffling to make the space into a makeshift stage. "Currently, we're just moving furniture out of a corner," says Davidson. "It's a corner that's got some pretty nice lighting to it. I've had some musicians say they really like the facility, even though it's in a corner." PT's also borrows a public address system—a mixer, amplifier and loudspeakers—from the University of Kansas, and Davidson credits it with drawing bands to the spot. "You have a better chance I think of booking bands if you have a PA available," he says.

Comma Coffee has a fairly elaborate setting for bands, with an area devoted to staging that includes lights and a PA, and an outdoor setup with an elevated stage and lights. Scaffidi says bands play in different areas depending on the night. "We're a pretty eclectic joint, so we move the furniture around a lot to keep it interesting," she says.

Paying up. Though most coffeehouses that host shows do not charge for the events, many use creative methods to pay performing bands. At Comma, musicians play for tips, and all band members get a meal and a drink on the house. At PT's, the musical acts also receive tips and are able to sell their merchandise, plus the shop offers them 10 percent of drink sales during the time that they play. Davidson says that for touring bands, he will sometimes buy their merchandise and then resell it at the counter for the price he paid for it. "At least they get some money for that night; if they're traveling, they get gas money or they get food money," he says. On the art side, Wall says that Catalyst Coffee does not sell any big-money pieces that an art gallery would, but the shop does sell a healthy volume of work. She says Catalyst charges its artists a 20 to 30 percent commission, whereas a gallery would charge 40 to 50 percent.

Perks for your shop. It takes hard work to integrate the arts into your store, but if you can pull it off, the benefits are great. In addition to the aforementioned human connection, you will also see arts events contributing directly to the amount of people in your shop and, naturally, your bottom line. "If I can get the people in there to watch the bands, they really do purchase a lot of drinks," says Davidson.

And unlike live music, art is something you can actually hold in your hands and take home with you. Customers at Catalyst Coffee do exactly that. Wall says the connection between customers and locally made art sold at the shop is one of her favorite things about the business. "People can come in here and get something to help support other people in their community," she says. "And we get beautiful art hanging up on our wall that we get to enjoy for free. I see it as a win-win for everybody. It's really a pretty sweet deal."

 

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