BLICK Art Materials | Nationwide

The Project

Systematic Art's relationship with BLICK Art Materials began with a New York City store installation and evolved into a nationwide program providing professional art hanging and display solutions throughout BLICK's expanding retail network.

BLICK wanted more than a way to decorate its stores. The company wanted flexible display areas where local artists could exhibit their work, where exhibitions could be changed easily, and where artwork from artists within the surrounding community could be presented and offered for sale.

Serving Artists Since 1911

BLICK's history stretches back more than a century. Dick and Grace Blick founded the company in Galesburg, Illinois, in 1911, beginning with the sale of a single product, the Payzant Pen. What started as a mail-order business eventually developed into one of America's largest art supply retailers.

BLICK opened its first retail store in Galesburg in 1974 and continued expanding its physical retail presence. In 2013, the company acquired Utrecht Art Supplies and its network of 40 stores, along with Utrecht's historic artist-paint manufacturing operation in Brooklyn.

The company has continued to grow while remaining family-owned. Today, BLICK's retail network extends to more than 70 locations across the United States, serving everyone from students and educators to working and gallery-represented artists.

Turning Art Stores Into Places to Exhibit Art

For BLICK, supporting artists extends beyond selling the materials used to create artwork. The company works with local artists and arts organizations in communities across the country.

That philosophy created an interesting challenge inside its stores: BLICK wanted spaces where the work of local artists could actually be displayed. The installations needed to accommodate changing artwork in different sizes and formats while remaining organized and consistent with the store environment.

In some locations, these displays also created an opportunity for customers to discover and purchase artwork created by artists from their own communities, connecting the retail store more directly with the people who use the materials BLICK sells.

A System Designed to Change

A conventional fixed display would have made frequent exhibition changes cumbersome. Every new group of artwork could require new mounting locations and modifications to the display area.

Systematic Art instead provided modular hanging and tension display components that allowed BLICK stores to add, remove and reposition artwork as exhibitions changed.

The system gave individual stores the flexibility needed to showcase different artists while providing BLICK with a consistent display approach that could be repeated across multiple retail locations.

From New York to a Nationwide Rollout

What began as a Systematic Art installation for BLICK in New York developed into a much broader relationship as the concept was incorporated throughout the company's retail network.

Systematic Art ultimately supplied hanging and display solutions for BLICK locations across the United States. As BLICK's store network expanded, the modular nature of the Systematic Art system made it possible to reproduce the concept in different architectural environments while maintaining a consistent purpose and appearance.

Today, with BLICK operating more than 70 retail locations nationwide, the relationship demonstrates how a professional display system can be developed for one location and then scaled across a national retail organization.

Connecting Stores With Their Local Art Communities

The most important aspect of the project was not simply the hardware. The display system helped BLICK create spaces within its stores where artists could become part of the retail environment itself.

Local artwork could be introduced, repositioned and replaced as exhibitions changed. This gave individual stores the ability to continually refresh their displays and feature new artists without rebuilding the display infrastructure for each exhibition.

For an art materials company whose customers include artists, students and educators, the concept created a natural connection between the products used to make art and the finished artwork created within the surrounding community.

The Result

Systematic Art helped BLICK develop a flexible art display solution that grew from an individual New York installation into a program serving its nationwide retail network.

The system gave BLICK stores the ability to feature local artists, rotate exhibitions and present artwork for sale while maintaining a consistent and professional display environment.

The BLICK project demonstrates one of the fundamental advantages of modular display hardware: a successful installation can be standardized, expanded and adapted across dozens of locations without sacrificing the flexibility required by each individual space.

For retail stores, galleries and other environments requiring frequently changing displays, explore Systematic Art's professional display systems and gallery and commercial picture hanging systems.