Working together: All hands on decks

Editor’s note: This short feature is one of several brief looks at local professional collaborations included in Xpress’ Business-to-Business Issue. 

An arts supply store manager, a charter school teacher and a skate shop owner walk into a gallery. … No, that’s not the start of a joke. It’s the culmination of an ongoing collaboration between Aly Perez, Nate Barton and Rob Sebrell, which has been providing kids a sense of fulfillment and self-worth, while teaching them about creativity, skate culture and the art world.

It all started when Perez, who manages Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff, an art supply store on the outer edge of the River Arts District, befriended Barton, who teaches art to middle school and high school students at IC Imagine Public Charter School in Asheville.

“We partnered,” Perez says. “He would teach his students stencils, and then I would come in and teach them how to spray paint with their stencils. It’s fun because they get to experiment.”

As Barton’s students grew versed in the form, Perez helped plug the class into the city’s vibrant art scene through her connection with Sebrell, owner of Push Skateshop in downtown Asheville.

“They sell skate decks and clothing,” Perez says. “And in the back, they have a gallery section. Lots of local artists display there.”

Initially, Sebrell arranged it so Barton would get used and damaged skateboard decks through Push, which Barton’s students used as blank canvases to create art. In time, Barton’s budding artists graduated to painting on newer decks that are factory seconds from a company that manufactures skateboards.

“There’s a flaw in each one,” Barton says. “We essentially get what is like a brand-new blank skate deck.”

“I sell my students the skate decks for $15,” Barton continues.  “Five dollars pay for the deck, and another five helps pay for supplies for the project.” The remaining $5 are donated to the Foundation Skatepark, a nonprofit DIY venture launched and supported by Push. Credit for the skate park also goes to “the skateboarding community that volunteers their time to build and maintain the space,” Sebrell says.

“The biggest question I get [from my students] is, ‘Are we gonna get to make art on skate decks?’” Barton says. Each year his class culminates in a show featuring the students’ art, hosted by Push.

“It’s a fundraiser for our DIY community skate park and for their school,” Sebrell says. “The students’ families are so appreciative because it’s a real gallery space. They get to come in and have a reception downtown. They’re over the moon.”

“Most galleries take 50% of the cut that the artist makes,” Barton says. “Rob is very generous and allows my students to have the full amount.”

Barton adds that opening night at the gallery can be very emotional. Push follows the standard gallery show procedure of placing a red dot on the label beside an artist’s work once a piece is sold. When that happens at a Push show, Barton gives his students the honor of affixing the sticker.

“I get choked up when that happens,” he says.