• by Amy Corr , Staff Writer @MediaPostOTL, May 10, 2010

The Durham Arts Council holds a twice-yearly Art Walk in Durham, N.C. that showcases original art from local artists while supporting the city's downtown neighborhood.

The nonprofit enlisted volunteers to create 50 pieces of "art" from donated materials to promote the April event. Talk about advertising on the cheap. Volunteers created the artsy ads from donated materials. Imagine volunteer's reactions when tasked with making art. Most probably expected chores that consisted of less creativity and more assembling.

The Republik devised the campaign, which used more than cardboard and markers to promote the event. Thirty pounds of supplies were donated by Scrap Exchange, a local business with access to items that usually wind up in the trash, like photo print overruns, logo CD cases and textiles.

Translated: floppy disks, greeting cards, records, bottle caps, postcards and DVD cases (oddly enough, most came from Will Ferrell movies) were arranged simply and stenciled only with the Art Walk dates, April 17 and 18.

There was no mention of the Art Walk on these teaser ads. It was up to the viewer to deduce what was being promoted.

"We needed an idea that would inspire the volunteers. Cheaply," said Francis George, Commander, Creative Ops, The Republik. "Had we told them to make traditional signs with markers, no one would have felt any 'ownership' of the message. But everyone wants to create art! From the outset, our intention was always to make the signs creative enough to stop people. Our first set of ideas was either too expensive, too complicated, or not exciting enough for our volunteer workforce."

Attendance for the Art Walk was more than two-and-a-half times that of last fall's.