My First Year
Well, it has taken a year to get my art business up and running and now my first year is behind me. I found out that it takes a significant amount of time and money to get even a small art business such as mine off the ground. I participated in six arts shows, was able to sell several paintings as well as being commissioned for several, much more than I had expected being an unknown artist. All of the profits from my first year were put back into the business. However, it has always been my intent to utilize profits from selling my art to support emergent needs and community/global programs and projects. I am hopeful this year to start finally working towards pushing profits from the art business into emergent needs, community projects and programs as well as building strategic partnerships that expand the opportunities to give back. One of my joys a year ago was connecting with the director of a local autism program at a show and being given the opportunity to partner with the program to provide art instruction to participants in the program two times a month. I also joined the local art guild an am currently working to expand their efforts to include special needs students in the local county fair art exhibit. I will have several other opportunities to work with the art guild to expand community events as well as efforts to support local art programs. Although not specifically related to the art business supporting an effort, another great moment came to me personally to provide support when my son recently had the opportunity to visit Malawi, Africa. During his time there, part of the work he accomplished was installing clean water systems in villages that had been donated by the Life Straw Company. It was quite eye opening to watch the work in Africa unfold from his texts and messages throughout the trip and interesting to learn the ins and outs of another culture and I was proud to be a part of helping the effort (see the picture below of a Life Straw system that had been installed). My vision for how I can help support and give back both personally through my art business continues to unfold and I look forward to stepping into it.
