We recently connected with Mac Love and have shared our conversation below.

Mac, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I’ve always wanted to make art work. The idea of ART x LOVE began when I was very young and learned that my parents had given up on art to pursue more traditional and financially viable occupations. At an early age, I realized the challenge was really a cultural one, and that I’d have to do a lot of work, research, and advocacy to demonstrate the value of art as a creative profession. In college, I learned that if you’re willing to narrow and commoditize your creative vision, it is easier to make a living, but I was never interested in that. I wanted to know, how can we make people of differing value systems better understand one another? How can we leverage the health of art to improve performance, production, and outcomes for people everywhere? How can we objectively measure and demonstrate the benefits of art, and change perception of it from a luxury to a necessity? A combination of extensive academic study, diverse professional experiences, and creative projects with a focus on social innovation led us to the realization that ART x LOVE could exist not just as a viable business, but also an industry pioneer. We are combining geospatial analysis with creative community collaboration to produce projects that achieve a meaningful and enduring impact. Some aspects of what we do are cutting edge and truly unique, others are simple and easy to imitate. What I’m most excited by is the systemic change our work is inspiring, and the new resources and equitable considerations that are pouring into our creative ecosystem.

Mac, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is William Macdonald Love, but I’ve gone by “Mac” since birth because that is my family’s traditional Scottish name for each generation’s first born son. Growing up, my parent’s artwork decorated the walls. My father worked in advertising, but we watched very little television, and so creating came naturally to me as a way to fill the time and explore the world. It’s true that I always wanted to be an artist, but my real passion has always been to help others have the courage to be creative and live a fulfilling life. ART x LOVE is a natural extension of that dream. Since 2017 we have hired more than 300 artists, produced more than 300 murals and placemaking transformations, and have led hundreds of interdisciplinary creative community projects. We make art work.

We have a lot of projects I am proud of, but I’d have to say our @PLAY Akron project is one of my favorites because it demonstrated everything that we care about and value. In 18 months we explored every street in Akron’s 24 neighborhoods, conducted more than 2,000 street intercept interviews, hired 168 artists, and produced 100 murals and 50 placemaking transformations in collaboration with more than 10,000 residents. It radically and permanently changed the way that people think, feel, and operate across Akron. We were thrilled to learn after completing the project that Mitchell J. Silver, New York City’s Commissioner of Parks & Recreation at the time, said and still believed that “@PLAY is one of the single best examples of creative community engagement I have ever seen.”

Have you ever had to pivot?

During the pandemic, people couldn’t conduct community research the way they were accustomed to. We were engaged by The Trust for Public Land to come up with a creative way to gain community input and learnings to inform planning projects for cities, parks, schools, and communities across the country. We developed The Parks Unlimited Activity Book, and have now produced 30 unique books for 10 cities that have been translated in 5 languages, generating many thousands of data points from a diverse group of people – many of whose voices traditionally don’t make it to the table.

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

My Co-Founder is my wife, Allyse Kristine (Treier) Love. We met while working at a branding agency in the Empire State Building, in New York City. Allyse is from Akron and I have always wanted to live in Ohio. I convinced her my love was not irrational, and she convinced me the way I thought about art had merit. We always dreamt we’d able to run our own creative agency together, and are very happy to be doing just that.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://artxlove.com/
• Instagram: @artxlovellc
• Facebook: @artxlovellc
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/artxlove/
• Twitter: @artxlovellc
• Other: https://vimeo.com/artxlove

Image Credits
All photos are the property of Art x Love, LLC.