CHALLENGE

• Independent concert poster art is vital to regional history, yet DIY ephemera is rarely preserved or validated within formal art institutions. 

• Newly established small businesses, like independent coffee shops, often face steep hurdles building baseline foot traffic and attracting new customers.

• The rise of AI imagery devalues authentic human craftsmanship, tempting event organizers to swap custom graphic art for cheap automation, stripping local artists of both paid opportunities and their vital role in shaping community culture

SOLUTION

We curated "Ballpark Concert Poster Art Exhibition," a month-long solo retrospective spotlighting visual artist Basia Kurlender inside the gallery space at Nautilus Roasting — a local vegan goth coffee shop. To honor hardcore and punk history, Ballpark kept the installation strictly DIY—hanging unframed prints with bulldog clips, utilizing cheap colored paper with black ink, and pricing all archive prints at an accessible $6. In the lead-up to the event, Ballpark launched a viral Instagram advocacy campaign asking "Why shouldn't you use AI to make a show flyer?"—which directly converted digital reach into physical foot traffic, driving a packed, high-turnout opening night.