Bill Batson taps into nearly one and a half centuries of family history in Nyack and a lifetime of political and cultural organizing to archive, celebrate and preserve his community through his art. The majority of the  works in Storefronts originally appeared as illustrations for his Nyack Sketch Log series that produced over 300 entries and two books. The ideas in his essays inspired the Flash Sketch Mob, The Bench by the Road monument in Memorial Park, the Phoenix Repertory Theater's documentary "What Happened to Jackson Avenue" and the Rockland Civic Survey Project engaging students in Ramapo and Nyack High Schools. The premise of Batson's work is that commemorating a place by observing and recording the built and natural landscape empowers the artmaker and viewer to become hypervigilant to the commonplace complexities of community and therefore better able to defend her. To Batson, the unexamined place is not worth living in.

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Bill Batson lives and works in Nyack, NY with his partner, fellow artist, Marisol Diaz and their four-legged children Chica and Zemi. Batson serves the community as the Executive Director of the Nyack Chamber of Commerce. He has worked as a communications professional for nonprofits, labor unions and government officials. In 2020, Batson was inducted into the Rockland County Civil Rights Hall of Fame.