Get yourself out there…
I work at a small non-profit Arts Center. Well, I guess I run a small non-profit Arts Center. Being the Assistant Director of a small non-profit Arts Center was never a career goal for me. It never even crossed my mind as I was searching for a job in 2022. I started as an “Admin”. The position didn’t even have a full title. I did that job for months and then the Executive Director promoted me to Operations Manager, which was nice and I think I deserved it with my years of office experience (as well as working for Nuns, but that story is for another day). Not even two months later said Executive Director gave two weeks notice and moved to Maine. Everyone looked to me as I had been working at the Arts Center for the longest tenure of all of the employees. That tenure was less than ONE YEAR.
Yeah, I was shocked as well, but I’ve ran with the Assistant Director title since then. Having a team whom I trust to get things done and get them done well is what really makes me look so good. They are three (plus one Interim Executive Director) of the most creative and amazing people I know. We’ve done some great things together. One of my proudest is bringing back an Exhibition that is lovingly known as the “10 x 10 Community Exhibition”. The Exhibition features pieces that are all 10 inches by 10 inches. They are hung on grids on our Gallery walls in a row and look amazing.
We decided to bring back this Exhibition because I heard over and over from Community members and our Arts Center members that they loved this show. It was fun for them to produce these pieces. It was fun to be able to sell these pieces (for $100 or less on most). It was fun to see all of the different pieces hung in a grid on our walls. It is also the hardest Exhibition to hang, the hardest Exhibition to find actual 10 x 10 frames for and the hardest show to organize especially since we took in almost 300 pieces (I honestly don’t know the final count right now). Three of those pieces are my own mandalas.
I’ve submitted to Exhibitions before, but never my mandalas. I drew one of the pieces especially for the show. The one I drew and just thought it would be good for this Exhibition. The last is “Jammie’s prayer”. I got done writing about it here and decided that people need to see it, so there it is hanging on the wall in the Gallery. Your work should be too!!
No matter what art you create, people should see it. Don’t be afraid to get out there. Get out of social media and get into a gallery. They want to see your art on their walls. You’ll get great feedback about your work and you could sell something and make a little bank. If I can do it…you can too.