I received an ANGEL donation recently from a friend. Who wants to see me engage my community once again. So this contest will happen THIS YEAR too!
2 years ago I used the Wonderland Window Tour events as a way to engage young artists and entrepreneurs. With a creative contest for primary students!
Students were given a blank storefront on a piece of paper. With a blank sign. Their job was to name their store, and embellish their shop.
The creativity and entrepreneurship in our town is astounding. I sifted through hundreds of entries and picked a few from each school that made me slap my knee and say gee.
I saw Nintendo stores, Fortnite stores, Donut shops and Art stores, toy stores and Christmas stores, clothing stores... someone even created their own clothing brand. Each one with decorated windows, and a unique name. Often personalized with their own names. "Harvey's Fortnite Store"(with a no Nintendo sign in the window, I might add) or " Jen's Donut Shop". All creative and personalized.
It was truly fun to see the young entrepreneurs and artists that my town is nurturing. If we get HALF those businesses in gfw come 20 years from now, our town will be a HOPPIN' place !
*********
The thing I like to remind people. I was told that I was an artist by my teachers, then my family, then my community through contests like this. Sometimes your family is the last to know of your talents!
Community affirmation and peer affirmation was important to my identity.
I was featured in the local newspaper at a young age for art contests! Which showed me that even at a young young age, I could make the front page of the newspaper by making cool art.
Constant affirmations from my community and my peers, gave me the identity I have as an artist.
This identity as a "talented" artist carried in my peripheral through my teens.
I became a distant and truly troubled teenager, but when the fog cleared at 18, I didn't have to search for who I was. I was told who I was in primary school... so I continued being an artist.
It is for that reason that I started an art contest for kids. I wanted to start community engagement at a young age. Thanks to The Central Voice the kids did have a chance to make it onto their news website! (Ps, #supportlocalnews because b&w paper is much cooler to save clippings of)
ALL these kids are stars in some way. They are only learning right now how much impact they have on the world. Which is why community newspapers are so important in encouraging community initiatives.
I wanted these kids to be mentioned in the NEWS PAPER like I was for my young talent or initiative. I want them to be inspired to run any business they can dream up. I want you as parents to save the newspaper clippings. I want to see more chances for our community's youth to FEEL the impact they have on their community.
*******
Stay tuned for updates!
I'll be reaching out to schools in GFW to offer another art-and business centered initiative this year!
If you or your business would like to sponsor this contest feel free to message me with your child-friendly or cash prize donations. I'd love to see more businesses help inspire the youth. More the merrier ACCEPTING LOCAL BUSINESS SPONSORS
^^^^
My own art businesses :