Episode 188 · June 20, 2025 · with Randall Fox
Randall Fox of the Atlanta Foundation for Public Spaces on building 18 neighborhood art festivals from a single Chastain Park event, curating 15,000 working artists, and why funding cuts and AI both threaten the artists he books.
The episode
Randall Fox spent 20 years as a flight medic and head of trauma at Washington Hospital Center, flying into accidents to stabilize patients before a career change brought him to Atlanta. He told Nick Constantino the move exposed a gap he hadn’t expected: Washington, like most older East Coast cities, is full of public squares, farmers markets and gathering spaces built around transit stops. Atlanta, still built for cars, largely wasn’t. Fox missed Eastern Market, the historic D.C. farmers market he’d spent every weekend at, so when it didn’t exist here, he built something like it himself.
The Atlanta Foundation for Public Spaces started with a single festival at Chastain Park, where Fox had budgeted for 75 artists and drew 125 the first year. It has since grown to roughly 18 recurring festivals spread deliberately across Atlanta’s neighborhood “pockets,” from Chastain to Duluth to Roswell to the Olmsted Linear Parks near Piedmont Park, because Fox has learned that Atlanta residents largely stay in their own pocket of the metro and want an event they can claim as their neighborhood’s own.
Curation is the core of the business. The foundation runs on a staff of about a dozen with no volunteers, and draws from a database of 15,000 artists to fill festivals that typically book 150 to 250 of them, screened by submitted slides and booth photos before they’re matched to the neighborhood most likely to buy what they make. A polished, upscale booth works in one part of town; a more bohemian setup works better elsewhere. The result is festivals with something at every price point, from $25 pieces to $15,000 paintings, because Fox has found people buy art emotionally, not as an investment, and want to walk away with something even if it’s small.
Fox is candid about the threats stacking up against the artists he books. Funding cuts to arts and humanities programs mean fewer young people are exposed to art at all, which shrinks the next generation of artists. At the same time, AI image generation is scraping working artists’ styles with no real protection for the intellectual property involved, and the same disruption reshaping music, where songwriting increasingly means engineering a response rather than playing an instrument, is coming for visual art next. His answer isn’t to fight the trend but to keep building spaces where people gather in person and buy directly from the person who made the thing, because that transaction still can’t be replicated online.
“Our name is based on that: public spaces. It was about utilizing public spaces, places you wouldn't typically think of, to bring people together. Streets, parks, marketplaces.”
Randall Fox
What to take from it
“Metro Atlanta has five sections, and people that live in one, say Marietta, don't typically want to go to Midtown. So living in the neighborhood, they told us, hey, we want something like this up in our neighborhood.”
Randall Fox
In their words
“Different neighborhoods communicate or work better for different artists. We're actually looking at their work, they send in slides, we look at their booths. If your booth isn't spot on in some neighborhoods, they're going to walk right past you.”
Randall Fox
“People are creative, and they're going to look for ways to fill their time and to make money, no matter what happens with the economy or with AI. It's just a question of how it gets integrated.”
Randall Fox
“If we take money out of the arts and humanities, we have a generation of people coming up who aren't exposed to them, which means they won't be the future artists.”
Nick Constantino
Questions this episode answers
Welcome to the Marketing MadMen, Nick Constantino here, and I have with me Randall Fox. We're going to talk about the arts, and about being a trauma nurse, which is an interesting place to start. We were both in D.C. at the same time, and D.C. completely changed, almost overnight, from Capitol Hill down to the Wharf. What were you doing there?
I worked at Washington Hospital Center, head of trauma, flight medic, for 20 years. Loved it, complete passion of mine. Flight medic means you fly into the accident, pick somebody up, stabilize them and get them to the hospital, rotor wing or fixed wing depending on the transport. I've kept my license current, I've done disaster relief in Haiti, natural disasters, that kind of thing.
So you moved to Atlanta and started the Atlanta Foundation for Public Spaces. D.C. does a really good job with public spaces, food, statues, history, on every corner. What surprised you most when you got to Atlanta?
Our name is based on that: public spaces. It was about utilizing places you wouldn't typically think of, streets, parks, marketplaces, to bring people together. I loved Eastern Market in D.C., the nation's oldest farmers market, spent every weekend there. When I got to Atlanta, it didn't exist. So I said, I want a career change, can I do this? We started with the Chastain Park Arts Festival. I budgeted for 75 artists and we got 125 the first year.
Metro Atlanta has these different sections, and people who live in one don't typically want to go to another.
Exactly. People living in one section, say Marietta, don't typically want to go to Midtown, they'll go for a concert maybe, hop on the train once in a while, but otherwise they stay in their community. So when we started, neighborhoods told us, hey, we want something like this up in our neighborhood too. That's how the name and the model came together.
Talk about the change you've seen in Atlanta since you got here.
Atlanta continues to grow, almost 7 million people now in the metro, one of the six or seven largest in the country. The population went up almost 2% last year alone. People like to get out, and that's making public spaces that much more important.
So give us a 30,000-foot view of how you went from one festival at Chastain to what you're doing now.
We're up to about 18 now. We concentrate on different demographics in different neighborhoods, Olmsted Linear Parks near Piedmont Park, Roswell at City Hall, Duluth's town green. We find parks that weren't typically used and the neighborhoods really own the events, they support them, it becomes almost a little competitive between neighborhoods.
Talk about the makeup of the company, is it just you?
I founded it, but I have a staff of about 12, and we're completely staff-driven, no volunteers, which lets us run efficiently. We've got a database of about 15,000 artists, and our shows typically run 150 to 250 artists. For the month of May I've got a show every weekend, popping around the metro.
When I think of art, the word that comes to mind is curation. Do you feel like you're curating who goes where?
Absolutely, because different neighborhoods work better for different artists. We're actually looking at their work, they send in slides, we look at their booths. If your booth isn't spot on in some neighborhoods, they'll walk right past you, whereas somewhere more bohemian and cool, a different style works better.
So what does an art booth actually look like, are we talking paintings, food, everything?
We like to say we have something for everyone. Painters, potters, photographers, jewelry makers, and even among 25 painters everyone is different. Art wise, if you want a $10,000 piece you'll find it, if you want something for $25 you'll find that too, because nobody wants to go to an art show where they can't afford anything. People buy emotionally, not as an investment.
Do you feel an obligation, now that you've built this business and this reach, to make sure that artwork continues to have an avenue to get in front of people, especially as funding gets cut?
Yes, absolutely, because a lot of these artists are struggling. When people are deciding where to cut back spending, arts is one of the first places, so we have to be careful about that. But people are more likely to actually spend when they're in a space with other people around them, enjoying the vibe, than they are just browsing online.
One of my concerns is twofold. If we take money out of arts and humanities, we have a generation coming up who isn't exposed to it, so they won't become future artists. And we have a generation who found out they can't make money at it, so they leave the field. That opens the door to AI-generated art taking over completely.
I think there can be two different types of art, but people are creative, and they're going to keep looking for ways to fill their time, whether it's leatherwork or painting or pottery, that's always been around. It's a question of how it integrates with AI, not whether creativity survives.
The biggest problem right now is you've literally got AI making a painting that's an impression of somebody's style, and that style is their intellectual property, with no real protections against it.
Right, and it's the same thing that's already happened in music, where making a song is less about playing an instrument and more about engineering a response. The good news is people eventually revolt against that, and some of the best art comes out of that reaction.
I think Atlanta should be the cultural powerhouse it wants to be, but it has to embrace the arts a little more than it has.
I agree. We don't have the museums New York or D.C. has, and you see what's happening with funding cuts at places like the Smithsonian. But that's exactly why we exist, because people want to be out, and if it's done right, it happens.
Tell people where to find you and what's coming up.
Piedmont Park Arts Festival in August will be our big one. You can find us and Google us, the team has us covered.
That's awesome. You've been listening to the Marketing MadMen, we'll catch you next week.
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