Exhibitions are one way in which ARCHIVES helps artists connect with each other and the public. Originally a bass player, he recently picked up the fiddle, which he now practices alongside the other musicians on stage. “It feels like the rug is pulled out from underneath you.” Once stripped of that formal setting, artists often stop making art altogether. Although famously a profession in which few feast and many starve, economic pressures are weighing especially heavy on this generation of emerging artists, Sonnier notes. While she finds opportunities remain scarce for working artists, ARCHIVES has helped open what doors do exist: “They’re very, very, very kind.