Supporting local artists in quarantine

Along with a long list of events, art festivals have been postponed and canceled due to the coronavirus, hurting local artists all around the country.

In the past week many around the country have been postponed leaving both artists and organizers out of money from travel expenses and registration fees. Melissa Mason a scratchboard artist from Portage said she really relies on these festivals for a majority of her yearly income.

"At least for me, 80% of my income last year was generated through art festivals and I don't think I'm alone in that. There are a lot of artist who are very successful and spend a lot of time in art galleries in their hometown or around different cities. But most of us travel all year round across the country,” Mason said.

Mason said she hopes the community thinks about their local artists when choosing to online shop while at home, and consider purchasing art through their website as it is their only means of income.

"Remember what you would have been doing, and just do it in a different way. There are a ton of different ways to support artists, musicians, photographers, your local business your local markets that may not look the same way. You can buy online, you can buy gift certificates. It's important to know that we don't have other sources of income,” Mason said.

While art festivals have been postponed and canceled Mason said organizers like those from the Stevens Point Festival of Arts have been great about sharing artist information on their

and have invited artist back for their 2021 festival.

You can find Melissa Masons artwork

.