From eleven at night to two in the morning, Highland Coffees owner Clarke Cadzow may be found once every two months hanging the local art he displays on his walls. Unwilling to disturb his customers during the day, Cadzow finds this to be the most logical option.
Cadzow is one of many coffee shop owners and managers in the Baton Rouge area to offer local artists the chance to display their work and get their names out there, while offering an aesthetically pleasing atmosphere to customers.
Glancing over the top of your coffee, you may appreciate these works of art, but might not understand the opportunities that are opened to the artists just by your wandering eyes.
Highland Coffees, La Divina Italian Cafe, and Garden District Coffee all offer free wall space to local artists, cultivating a creative atmosphere for the customers, many of whom are artists, who frequent their establishments.
“A large percentage of our customers are artists of one sort or another. They’re all different types. We’ve got a ton of musicians, artists who paint, artists that do sculpture, artists who write. We have all different types of people, all different professions, but certainly artists are a big percentage of that,” Cadzow said.  
La Divina owner Lance LeBlanc said his establishment also attracts numerous regulars with creative backgrounds, many of them LSU art professors. When LeBlanc opened shop in 2013 and decided to hang local art, he did not even need to call any of the contacts he had found at local art galleries.
The artists came to him.
“They’ll come in and say ‘I know someone. How do they go about getting their artwork in here?’ and they’ll bring in samples of their work to me. I’m almost honored that they would respect my space enough that they would want to hang their artwork here,” LeBlanc said.
Local artist Amy Dighton is currently displaying her work at La Divina.
She paints mainly in acrylics, using plaster to add texture to her abstract art. She most enjoys blending acrylic marble-like backgrounds, because one can never predict exactly how the colors will blend together.
Dighton said until recently she only created art for friends, but after receiving compliments on her chalkboard drawings at work she dove deeper into her artistic passions.
At first, she was nervous about showcasing her work, but was inspired by another abstract artist who displayed her work at La Divina, Jennifer Carwile.
“I thought, ‘my art kind of looks like that, and her art is beautiful and a lot of people liked it, so maybe I should try,’ and that’s when I mentioned it to Lance. Lance reassured me. It’s his business, so having his support is huge, because I realize that my art is part of his brand for that little bit while I’m there,” Dighton said.
Dighton hopes selling her art at La Divina will help her find out what customers like, so she can form her own style. La Divina, Highland Coffees, and Garden District Coffee allow artists to price and sell their work, helping artists to get their name out while making a profit.
LSU graduate and local photographer Geren Heurtin had trouble putting to words the feeling an artist has when someone buys their work, but it was an exciting experience.
“It’s a really great feeling for a few reasons but I think one of them for me is this: You make something and spent so much time working really hard putting it together, and they really love it so much that they want to have it,” Heurtin said.
Heurtin’s photography often takes more than two hours for just one photograph, because her style involves still life. To get the right shot, she needs to arrange the objects multiple times and edit the photos afterward. One of her favorite pieces involves two separate still life photographs seemingly connected by a rope. It looks as if the rope is breaking in the middle, creating a sense of tension.  
Heurtin said her photographs were installed on August 8th and will remain until November or December. She said after her artwork is taken down, the Garden District Coffee owner will hang a new artist. Numerous LSU students have hung their art on the walls, and Heurtin said there will never be empty space.
“I know that he doesn’t like for there ever to be a point where there’s not anything on the walls, so there’s definitely always going to be a local artist up,” Heurtin said.
La Divina’s owner also said he dislikes naked walls, and therefore fills up the entire room with the art of one artist. He said sometimes artists will paint paintings solely for the purpose of filling up the space. Not all of the artwork is sold, and, as Cadzow said, artwork in coffee shops is seen more than it is sold.
“I think that artwork is seen way more and in much greater numbers in coffee shops than it would be in galleries just because of the sheer volume of people that go into coffee shops. Now, maybe not as much artwork is sold in coffee shops, but it sure is seen,” Cadzow said.
Heurtin said being seen is important for making connections with other artists and possible buyers.
“It’s really awesome to have so many people want to discuss your work with you and find out more about it and why you made certain decisions in your art making. I think it’s also good for getting your name out in general.” Heurtin said.
Heurtin, Dighton, LeBlanc, and Cadzow all said what they loved most about their coffee shops was the supportive atmosphere. LeBlanc, an artist himself, admired the fact that local artists are brave enough to put their work out there, and Cadzow said he, who is not an artist, often wonders what it must feel like.
“Imagine, your artwork is on the wall, and the next day, you walk into that shop, and your artwork is on the walls of that shop. I would think that that would be a very interesting feeling wouldn’t it? I mean, you walk in and get a coffee and sit down and all around the shop is your artwork,” Cadzow said.