Today we’d like to introduce you to Margaret Coleman.
Margaret, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
We are a national (and now international, as we begin to work beyond borders!) arts nonprofit with a mission to promote research and education in the arts. We like to think of ourselves as gritty and unique, but also professional and contemporary. Its important to us to be engaged in a relevant and revolutionary arts conversation, to continue to push the boundaries of who is involved in the creative community and what art is. We are passionate about empowering artists and enabling a multitude of creative visions.
We have been growing since 2008 when we built our first building on land bordering national forest of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. That building became the foundation of one of our projects, the Visitor Center Artist Camp, where people can come from around the country and learn to explore sustainable materials, for example, dig, process and use clay from the ground.
Each project is different, we curate art exhibitions and coordinate residencies at DIY spaces, galleries, museums, art centers. We work with curators and artists to design thoughtful exhibitions that are intended to provoke dialog and create an impact. We teach workshops and do lectures, and we facilitate several community arts endeavors (spaces, etc) throughout the country. The creative conversation is what drives our organization, and finding unique voices to participate and contribute to that.
Other examples of projects include coordinating exchanges, where artists have an opportunity to travel and exhibit or make work abroad. This past December we hosted four artists from the Caribbean at a small gallery in Brooklyn, NY, and in May we designed a creative residency in Tuscany.
Has it been a smooth road?
As I mentioned, we are pretty scrappy, we are good at pulling things off on a small budget. Frequently it means that we end up believing in a project and volunteering to accomplish it while allocating only the funds absolutely necessary to get it done.
We rely on tight budgets and a can-do attitude (that sometimes gets us in over our heads!) But we work with what we have, and it has been pretty amazing to watch what can happen when creative practitioners work together toward a goal. As we have been growing, our projects have been getting more ambitious, and we have begun larger fundraising campaigns. But its always a struggle to find funding in the arts.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Art Shape Mammoth story. Tell us more about the business.
The artists we work with are amazing! Not only are they making phenomenal work, work that makes you think and feel, and want to see it again, but they are people who want to work together.
In the arts, it is easy to find people going solo or competing, people trying to climb a ladder to achieve success, and we are so lucky to continue to find people who want to know and work with one another, who are interested in the conversation our creative practice makes together.
I feel so proud and lucky to see the selflessness and sharing of this community, and the willingness to be engaged with one another, rather than simply trying to make it alone.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Absolutely! We are launching our major first annual fundraiser this year, where we seek foundational sponsors to join our community. This should significantly shift us to a place where our project and dreams can grow, where we can include more people, and reach more communities with creative conversations.
I see our organization as being borderless, as working with creative thinkers around the globe, and to pursue that dream takes resources and the building of a much larger network. However, in the pursuit of global creative inquiry, it is important to remain true to the core of what we believe, which is accessibility to the creative community, an openness to conversation, and an honesty about what we are seeking.
I want us to continue to develop opportunities for people at all stages of their careers, be it emerging or established. And we all agree that we want to continue a relevant contemporary social dialog in our work.
Contact Info:
- Website: artshapemammoth.org and visitorcenterartistcamp.org
- Phone: 917-232-9205
- Email: artshapemammoth@gmail.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artshapemammoth/?ref=br_rs
Image Credit:
Art Shape Mammoth
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