9-02-2024 4:49am

Cowpainters' Brieanne Hauger Spreads the Fever of Bears

Lesley Misko Editor

Ed.: This article was first inspired by a "B Inspired" podcast episode with Brieanne Hauger of Cowpainters, LLC, the Chicago fabricators of Bear Fever bears, recorded April 2023, and includes a history of the project, its debut in 2005, challenges during the COVID years, reflections and thank you's to those individuals like Jeff and Dennis Graber and Sarah Keane at Media Fusion Technologies who continue to be involved in the project.

by Jane Stahl

Anniversary: Coming Soon!
It’s been almost 20 years since my BFF Vickie and I spent a few days in Washington, D.C. when I fell in love with the public art project titled “Party Animals” that featured fiberglass sculptures of donkeys and elephants—decorated in creative ways that highlighted a business or specific theme. Every time I came up out of the Metro, I came upon a piece of art. I was charmed by these whimsical sculptures that everyone in the city could freely enjoy.

A year or so later, a book about the project was published. In the introduction, it was noted that an unexpected consequence of the project was the development of unity that developed among disparate groups who worked side-by-side during the course of the project: business owners, artists, students, and random members of the community. In working together, they developed relationships and friendships that lasted.

At that time, Washington, D.C. was known as the “murder capital of the world.” Developing positive relationships among people in that troubled community was a thing to be celebrated and what the world needs everywhere!

Back in Boyertown, recognizing our own community’s fractiousness at the time, I asked my marketing consultant/graphic arts husband if Boyertown might duplicate the big city’s effort and create a project featuring our high school’s mascot: bears. A few years prior, he had introduced me to Chicago’s public art project “Cow Parade,” so I knew he was a fan of the public art initiative.

Skeptical at first, he spent the day researching possibilities; and by the time I got home from school, he had located Cowpainters, LLC in Chicago, IL, a business that fabricated fiberglass animals for projects like those I had in mind. He then set about to see if the business community to which he was connected would support such a project and charged me with seeing whether the public school community that I was involved in could get behind the effort.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Brieanne Hauger: Bear Fever's Liaison at Cowpainters, LLC

The Bear Fever project is fortunate to have long-time contact Brieanne Hauger handling orders for bears at Cowpainters, LLC. Brieanne—who joined Cowpainters in 2007—several years after our launch—purchased the company in 2018—and facilitates orders, designs and sculpts custom additions to the bears, and handles delivery of the sculptures to the artists in the Boyertown area.

I was excited recently to record a “B Inspired” podcast episode with Brieanne to learn a bit more about the company and the process involved in our project from its beginning. Brieanne, originally from Somerset County in western PA, moved to Chicago with the plan of earning her PhD in Art History. “I realized, however, that I wasn’t being completely honest with myself,” she admits. “I realized that I’ve always been a ‘maker.’ I’ve been drawing since I could hold a pencil.”

In answering an ad for an illustrator with Cowpainters, she found a niche and a team. And what she enjoys most today is guiding customers through the design process. “Every project comes at a different level of development,” she explains. “Some folks don’t have much of an idea of what they want, and I enjoy helping them develop an image. Others have a mascot that they love, but it’s never been developed in 3-D. I enjoy the conversations and gathering the visuals that help in creating the custom design to turn their idea into a 3-D fiberglass piece that will live a long life in the world.”

Brieanne shares that Cowpainters, LLC has delivered hundreds and hundreds of sculptures to communities all over North America. The most popular forms are the #104 style Upright Bear that is one of the styles in the Bear Fever project, standing horses, and the bulldog. “Bulldogs are popular in Georgia and all across the country. And they’re a great form. They’re stable and can ‘take’ a lot of what we call ‘fan love,’” Brieanne laughs. “Kids can crawl on them pretty safely, and the form withstands the attention.”

Interesting to Brieanne is that preferences for the form of the sculptures change. “Some years pigs are popular; another year it’s frogs,” she explains. And so, holding inventory to supply warehouses in various parts of the country—or the world—would be a worthy goal but perhaps an unrealistic challenge for the company. “It would be great to develop a market in Australia, for example. But because folks like to customize the forms to make them unique, we’ll never see thousands of one particular form readily available.”

When asked how Bear Fever compared to other projects, Brieanne characterized the project as an “outlier.” “With over 80 bears in the project, it certainly showcases a good number. But it’s not just the numbers. It’s the goal of the project.” (Today the project approaches 90 bears. Find a map and locations chart on www.bearfever.org)

She adds, “When the goal of a project is fundraising, they’ll choose a style that’s less expensive, one that won’t remain on display for a long time. There’s often an auction involved that generates funds or an art organization, for example. If the goal is to increase tourism, sometimes the project is created to enhance a special event and, again, will perhaps be on display for only a season. Bear Fever’s longevity and stress on local pride—a combination goal—make it different.”

Other communities model their programs after Bear Fever. “North Carolina has a similar project that started in 2009; their original bears were wooden but deteriorated, so we suggested the fiberglass material,” she notes. “It’s run very much like Bear Fever, but it’s not as organized.”

“The Catskills in New York have an unending appetite for their project that began in 2010, sometimes ordering 50-60 cats a year. I love when projects take on their own life, bringing gravity and energy to the project and the community, and I love the long-term relationships that develop with certain projects,” she concludes. “The job becomes more than a job.”

The COVID pandemic brought special challenges to the company. “It was an evolving, devolving situation. We were open, then shut down, then open again. And materials were not available. There was no steel, then no resin. And when we were able to get the materials, the price had increased over 150%. Production was slow and difficult…to be honest, for a time, it felt like a real s*** show. There was so much uncertainty. Sleep was difficult for everyone!

“Meanwhile, our staff was fearful to come to work; we lost members of our team, and it takes an inordinate amount of time and energy to bring new members ‘up to speed’ with equipment and the process. And finding just the right people is difficult in and of itself. Plus, the demand for sculptures exploded. We couldn’t fill orders fast enough. The demand was outrageous.

“All these challenges created tension in-house and with our customers. Happily, as things have stabilized a bit, we’ll soon be able to offer custom treatments once again, and that’s the fun part—for us and for our customers—and it adds to the stability and longevity of the product for our clients when the custom treatments are added at the factory.”

Bear Fever: From the beginning
It's been quite an experience over almost 20 years in developing and coordinating the Bear Fever project. What luck that grant money happened to be available to purchase prototypes just as the idea for the project presented itself.

How fortuitous that the grant stipulated that the project include student involvement—particularly students “at risk.” How clever that Boyertown’s late mayor Marianne Deery had a burst of creativity in naming the project "Bear Fever."

And how grateful that volunteers stepped up to form a committee around the mission of creating greater community cohesiveness. The Chamber of Commerce saw the project's potential and invited us to present the project and its mission at Boyertown's annual Progress Dinner. By the end of the evening, we had secured a dozen orders for bears from the community's business leaders, generated enthusiastic conversation around the community about the project, and created excitement and gravitas.

Over the next several years, a committee of students created videos, wrote press releases, helped in grant writing and fundraising, presented the project to invite sponsorships and involvement at public meetings, PTO groups, Rotary and Lions Club meetings and canvased businesses by phone and during “cold calls."

The district’s schools—elementary through high school—ordered bears to be decorated by the students. Artists called asking to decorate one of the bears. A website was donated. Events and activities were created centering on the Bear Fever project.

The local media featured the progress of the project throughout those two years until 35 bears decorated by 35 different artists debuted at the annual high school Art Expo. That evening, the colorful sculptures lined the entrance to the exhibit and appeared throughout the exhibit among the students’ work.

The community--eager to see the sculptures they'd heard and read about for several years--came in droves to meet them. I recall my brother saying there wasn't a parking space within a mile or more of the high school. The community had caught the "fever!"

Since the debut in 2005, over 50 bears have been added to the project. Currently, the project includes 86 Bear Fever bears that can be found within the community and outlying areas. There are five in various stages of being painted. A few have traveled further and are installed at private residences. Residents and tourists alike take bear hunts—walking and driving—to visit and photograph our beloved bruins.

Orders for Bear Fever’s bears continue. Businesses or organizations seek a public “face” or create an identity. Individuals find that the statues serve to memorialize loved ones or celebrate services available to the community. Other communities interested in starting their own projects often call me for advice on coordinating their project.

Apparently, there is no cure for Bear Fever. And, I suppose, we’re not looking for one!

Reflections and Thank you's!
The project has been fortunate that Jeff Graber at Graber Letterin’ continues as our main artist for the project. I wouldn’t be able to run the project without him.

Jeff's brother Dennis Graber has been a valued partner in painting and clear coating many of the sculptures particularly in the project’s early years. Today he fabricates the project’s tabletop plaster bears and, along with Jeff, custom repairs bears as needed. (Thanks go to Martha Cawley who created the original mold and Doc James Tribbett who cast the plaster sculptures when Martha retired.)

Most recently, Dennis refurbished Gateway Ticketing's bear "Tix" and transformed "Artie" into "Barry Bumfoot" for the Foot and Ankle Health Group.

And, of course, we are fortunate that our sponsors are trusting and patient—with us and with Cowpainters, LLC. As Brieanne noted, the past few years have been stressful. A few orders were delayed through several of the COVID years, and sleep for me was sometimes tough wondering if the project could pay back disappointed customers if the company was not able to fulfill its orders or refund what was paid out.

And, in an amazing gesture, Media Fusion Technologies built and donated a brand-new website for the project. We’re so excited that information, photographs, and an updated map and locations chart will be available so that the project’s hometown fans and tourists to Boyertown can visit each bear, learn where to find some that have moved, and meet the many new ones showing up in recent years and in the future.

Bear Fever seemingly can’t be cured, and our community seems to be quite satisfied that this fever remains contagious!

The "B Inspired" podcast episode, recorded April 2023 with Brieanne, can be found on your favorite podcast platform.