Nine new pieces of public art are going up at the Brookfield Shops business incubator project at Eight Corners in Brookfield. The paintings, including a couple done by local artists, were unveiled Oct. 31 at an event held at the Compassion Factory.
“We are combining a retail program with the arts,” said Brookfield Village Manager Tim Wiberg who spoke at the unveiling.
Brookfield Shops, which has been open since June, consists of six shops, each housed in a 12 by 15 foot shed. They are all start up small businesses and include a coffee shop, clothing shop, jewelry store, wellness shop, bookstore, and dessert shop. All but the coffee shop are open only on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
The goal of the incubator project is to give the business owners experience and let them grow their businesses.
“We hope one of these vendors will open up a brick and mortar shop in Brookfield,” Wiberg said.
Libby Popovic, community development chief for the village, is more optimistic saying that two of the small shops are almost ready for a brick and mortar space although Popovic declined to identify which two are looking for a permanent space.
The theme of the artwork, which are large acrylic paintings, is community.
That appealed to lifelong Brookfield resident Vivian Pina, a 25-year old mother of two young girls, who created a large painting of children playing in Kiwanis Park which is where she would, as a child growing up in Brookfield, meet up with and hang out with friends.
“They wanted community, like in a vague sense and when I think of community it’s always Kiwanis Park because that’s like where the Farmers Market is, that’s where the baseball games always were so I wanted to do Kiwanis,” Pina said. “It’s kind of like I wanted to, like, do a homage to that almost or kind of just have a nice memory of it but also memories for the future hopefully for my girls to have and people of Brookfield to have.”
Vicki Perry, 45, who has lived in Brookfield since 2008, painted a colorful giraffe wearing oversized red eyeglasses with the slogan “Brookfield Is For Everyone” is a circle next to it.
“I love painting fun things,” Perry said. “I thought this goofy guy kind of represented community.”
Popovic said the goal is to combine business development with arts. Small concerts will be held in the small triangular courtyard behind the sheds.
“We are combining a retail program with the arts at an underutilized site,” Popovic said.
