From the Ground Up
It’s called Ground Up, and it’s a new movement that looks at art, and creates it, in a whole new way. On unassuming Smith Street in Chinatown, youths
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and now galleries and museums are calling him up to secure a showing of the movement’s arts.
Laporga would often lend his skills as a guitar player and singer at the shows, but eventually pulled back to being the movement’s head and coordinator because of its growing popularity. “Now everybody loves it. People that I know and don’t know, people on the Mainland and Europe want to get involved. It’s pretty fun and exciting at the same time.”
However, to be able to function and take in money to fund these shows properly, Laporga is in the process of making the movement into a business. This will allow the website to sell artwork like the mural painted at the show online and save money made from the events to put toward more shows and travel expenses.
“At first we wanted to try to keep it independent and underground, but didn’t know it was going to blossom,” he says. When asked if he thought this aspect of the movement will take away from the underground theme, Laporga says no, and explains how he rejects many sponsors that want to get in on the action, keeping the movement true to its word. “That’s my main goal,” he says. “To get exposure but to stay rooted in the independent and underground stuff.”
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And what’s more, instead of banking all the money made at each event (through cover charges, merchandising and art sales), Ground Up also donates portions of its proceeds to worthy causes. Funds from this particular show are shared with the Heart for Africa program, which sends volunteers to Kenya, Malawi and Swaziland to build homes and educate and provide medical treatment to inhabitants. “We like to help out different organizations when we decide to do a show,”
Laporga says. “I wanted to get involved with something in Africa, and since they asked in the past I knew we could help them out.”
Laporga says he likes to include organizations like Heart for Africa, to promote awareness and help out good causes. However, the shows’ main purpose is all about the artists and their art. “Our slogan is ‘keep it down, we’re taking over,’” he says. “And we are taking over in a hushed way. Progressing even though we’re quiet. And to go from a room of 40 people in a small room in Chinatown to hundreds here, the Mainland and in Europe in a couple years is pretty cool.”
To find out more about upcoming events, art and artists with Ground Up, visit www.groundupmovement.com
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