Michigan News
(2010-09-15)
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Artist William Hosner created a portrait of barista Dan Campbell. Sold portraits contribute to a college scholarship fund for baristas.
Roast and Toast coffee shop in Petoskey looks like a lot of independent coffee shops: lots of local baked goods for sale, knick knacks on the wall, the obligatory obscure indie band crooning through the speakers, and what 60 year old William Hosner might call alternative-looking baristas behind the counter, with their "tattoos and piercings and hair color not found in human nature."
A stark contrast to Hosner's cropped white hair, pressed blue jeans and button down shirt. At first he didn't really know what to make of the baristas.
"I won't say I dismissed them, but I looked past them," explains Hosner.
But then, slowly, he started to get to know these 19 and 20-year old baristas behind the counter.
"I would sit and talk to these young Americans and say, well are you in school Rach? No, not enough money this semester. I'm saving up, I'm gonna go next semester. A lot of them were living semester to semester. But I also found out that they all had dreams and visions for their lives. And they were working hard, sometimes another job or two jobs. So it was only natural for me to then say: How can I help?"
So Hosner, an award winning artist, broke out his pastels and got to work. He posted a sign-up list at the coffee shop for any baristas who wanted to pop by the coffee shop after work and have their portraits drawn. He paid them $30 each to sit for four 15-minute increments. No fancy clothes or backdrops. Just the baristas at the coffee shop, looking like themselves: T-shirts, funky knit caps, tattoos. The whole works.
After he created over a dozen lifelike portraits at Roast and Toast, he moved down to Traverse City and drew more barista portraits there.
Hosner's original plan was to put on art show, sell what he could, take half the proceeds and then donate the rest. But then he was contacted by someone from the Petoskey-Harbor Springs Community foundation:
"He said if you can raise $10,000, we'll get a $1,000 per year scholarship going," Hosner explains. "And if you raise more, we can make it bigger."
Hosner was sold. He teamed up with the Foundation to form the Caf Society Educational Fund. It's a need based college scholarship for anyone 18 or older who has worked in a northern Michigan independent coffee shop for at least one year.
All proceeds go to the foundation, and those who donate a $1,000 or more can take home one of the framed portraits:
"I think it's really cool that he'd go on to do that," says Dan Campbell. "It seems just unheard of, but it was really cool of him to do that. It was awesome."
Campbell has been a barista at Roast & Toast for almost four years. When Hosner started drawing portraits for the Caf Society series a couple years ago, Campbell was one of the first baristas to sign up.
"It was crazy," remembers Campbell. "I mean looking at it now, I had a beard and a big yellow hat with a ball on the end, all different colors. I was a different person then, lip ring and everything. I mean, I thought it was really cool. To see me on paper like that was really cool, and I actually use it as my Facebook picture."
Campbell dropped out of college several years ago to play in a band and raise a family, but he's planning on going back to school next semester. So he says the barista scholarship "seems like something I could definitely use. It's very helpful for everyone here, everyone who plans to go to college or is in college, you know."
The scholarship isn't a sure bet yet, though. Hosner needs to raise $10,000 in order for the foundation to fund the scholarship in perpetuity. So far, Hosner has raised $7,200.
To see William Hosner's portraits, and learn more about the Cafe Society Educational Fund, click here.
Contact Jennifer Guerra at guerraj@umich.edu
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