A Collective Summer
Wow, what a summer 2021 it has been for the Living Artists Collective. None of us can believe it’s already almost September, and that we’ve got two public events under our belt since vaccines. We knew things would start moving at crazy speeds once gatherings were allowed again, and that’s definitely been the case. We’re also grateful that we squeezed in our Members Show when we did, now that the Covid-19 Delta variant is raging.
With our remaining summer, the Collective and us folks who run it will take time to rest and figure out with our new board members what’s next. Before we hurtle forward, we wanted to share with you some of the great moments from our July 17th Pop-Up Market, the Members Show, and our other summer activities. Thanks again SO much to those of you who were able to come out and support. It’s wonderful to have so many folks in our corner.
Members Dinner
To kick off our summer activities, we invited Collective members to our N. Seattle home at the end of June for a Korean BBQ meal cooked in our freshly-finished kitchen. It was absolutely delicious, and so truly wonderful to meet many folks in person for the first time.
Pop-Up Art Market
Our next summer event was going to just be our members show in August or September, but when we connected with folks from Fuel Coffee, we got excited to put on some sort of event at one of their locations. This led to a pop-up art market at Ada’s Technical Books (owned by Fuel) on Capitol Hill’s 15th Ave.
14 of our Collective artists provided “merch” for sale, including art prints, mugs, jewelry, buttons, and of course the all-popular stickers! The whole event was a total success, with a steady stream of people purchasing enough to provide us with a solid funding foundation. This event helped us decide on our commission structure, which is 70% to the artist for original work and prints, then 50% to the artist for stickers and other merch. It also helped remind us of why this whole thing began in the first place: to raise funds to pay artists’ rent and keep creative folks in expensive cities like Seattle.
Out of these fun events has come amazing community, both amongst our members and with those who come out to support us. We cannot overstate how cool it is to see this model at work, and we couldn’t have asked for a better kick off event. Another HUGE thanks to Fuel and Ada’s for supporting us, and to the volunteer artists who worked the event.
Members Show
Fulcrum Coffee Roasters in Georgetown, Seattle played host to works from all our active Collective artists on August 13 and 14. This was a fantastic opportunity to show the work gallery-style for the first time as members. Many of our artists, board members, and friends came together to hang the show and run the event. We were very impressed with the turnout and sales, even considering a magnificently hot weekend with wildfire smoke and a mask-wearing mandate.
We’ll put together a separate post to share more amazing photos. Thanks again to Fulcrum for supporting us and to all those who came out. We can’t wait to put on our next event! Sign up for the newsletter to stay tuned, and feel free to reach out here or on Instagram or Facebook if you have any thoughts or questions.
The Living Artists Collective members.