The purpose of this project is to pair the products of the deep pool of talented, established women artists on Oahu looking for spaces to share, show and sell their work with the vast amount of empty and underutilized commercial space in downtown Honolulu. The cooperative will consist of a peer reviewed group of 10 -15 invited women artists who work in a broad cross-section of media.

Artists will work collaboratively to curate, install and promote sales of their artwork. Each month will feature a different grouping of works and each artist will be able to show multiple pieces simultaneously from a street level storefront. In addition to creating economic activity for the individual women, enlivening the streetscape will hopefully encourage more foot traffic and generate commercial stimulation in the surrounding community.

Selection consideration will be given to women artists who have teaching experience which will add mentoring to younger artists as well as hands-on activities and workshops to draw more locals and visitors downtown, as well as serve residents who live and work in the area. It will have 15-30 walk-in visits to the gallery space on any given day. Workshops can serve 5 -15 participants at a time depending on the size of the space. Monthly, special events and openings will draw considerably more attendance.

Success will be gauged in both tangible and intangible measures. Sales, surveys, attendance records, enrollment in workshops and people served will provide hard facts. Smiles, happy customers an improved visual landscape, new and more foot traffic, neighboring business activity and a stronger sense of community will be visible though perhaps harder to quantify.

The Return on Investments provides women the opportunity to be part of a social enterprise that promotes their artwork, 1) attracts new businesses; 2) add vibrancy to a blighted neighborhood; and 3) stimulate and diversify the creative economic development and tourism strategies.