Kate Armstrong and Fraser Dinsdale's new art venture, ADart, puts art in unexpected places. Picture: ADAM McLEAN
Cafe-goers will get a free shot of culture with their coffee as part of a project aimed at finding new audiences for young Illawarra creatives.
Works by area artists will be miniaturised and displayed in unexpected places - such as on takeaway coffee cups and coasters - for one week during November.
The "free art drop" is the brainchild of 24-year-old design graduate Kate Armstrong, founder of ADart, a go-between for artists and businesses.
Miss Armstrong recently won a council grant to partly finance the pilot project after she returned from a stay in Europe.
She noticed the city remained without many of the opportunities afforded to recent arts graduates in places like Sydney and Melbourne, but believes the mood in Wollongong is ripe for creative endeavours.
"[Creative arts students] have built up these really great portfolios of work, then they come out of uni and say, 'What do I do now?'," said Miss Armstrong, of Keiraville.
"The idea is to give people opportunities in their own town."
The ADart project won a $948 Wollongong City Council grant but is reliant on the crowdfunding mechanism, where businesses and individuals pledge funding, to raise another $1200.
Business owners who pledge funding, via crowdfunding site Pozible, will receive products in return - a $100 donation, for instance, buys 1000 takeaway coffee cups.
Miss Armstrong is inviting interested artists and businesses to explore ADart's Facebook page and make contact.
Illustrator Fraser Dinsdale, 22, has already signed on to have his surreal drawings and watercolours featured.
He is enjoying the "amazing" possibility that his work will be seen outside his circle of family, friends and fellow artists.
"An initiative like this could do wonders for the area," he said.
"There are so many good artists in Wollongong but the scene is just not there.
"But I think [the city] is a really changing place at the moment. With the decline of the steelworks there's more of an opportunity for other initiatives to fill that void that's now there."
For more details see facebook.com/ADart.wollongong.