Art above: He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not by Kate Harrold
I finished a 12-week class this past week at the Entrepreneur Center, which ended with an opportunity for a Shark Tank-style pitch. We had three minutes to present our business to an audience. I had worked hard on a 10-slide presentation to go along with my three-minute pitch.
Three slides into my pitch and my time was up... not so perfect was my pitch. All I could hear was my son warning me to not run out of time. I practiced but how was I to know that when I walked onto the stage holding the mic, my dream of having my own Netflix stand-up comedy special would feel real; and of course, that would add a few lines to my perfectly timed pitch.
In the line-up, I was second to go, and Kevin, who went before me, said during practice that since he was first, he "set the tempo." That prompted me to make a last-minute change to my introduction that I thought was kind of clever: "Kevin set the tempo, now I have the beat… this is Jessie from Art Beat." That is what I meant to say, but the first time it did not come out quite right, so I tried again. I also turned to Kevin, and gave him a nice shout-out, all the while, seconds were just flying by.
A couple of words into the post-comedy part, I realized that my
"Hey Kevin 😉😉, sign me up for your fitness program! 👍"
shout-out was not the smoothest transition, especially as I glanced quickly at my presentation notes and began to say what I had actually written next:
"My late husband died in 2015, and we shared a deep love of art."
I was still in that trying-to-be-funny schtick, so my words came out awkward. Then, not enough seconds later, I heard the moderator whisper, "Jessie, Jessie, your time is up." I guess I had completely tuned out the music that was supposed to be my cue.
I went into the day feeling very optimistic. I had my pitch and presentation ready. I had set up a booth with beautiful marketing materials I created. James Threalkill showed up to do live painting, and I even wore my orange coveralls. That morning, I ironed on the "Art Handler" patch Lizzie gave me a few months ago. And if I am ironing anything, you know it is a special day.
Yes, it was an imperfect pitch. And if I am being completely honest, it was a difficult day. I left feeling deflated and hard on myself, with 99% of the marketing materials I had printed for the day in tow.
So I am writing this with no moral or big ending. I am just putting it out there because it is a brick in the house I am building, which was actually the next slide in my presentation before I got cut off (it's at the end of this post). In hindsight, maybe that was for the best, because I was very tempted to introduce that slide by singing the chorus, "She's a brick house."
That being said, as I worked through the 12-week course, this analogy kept coming to mind. Artists need a home. There are ways to find a song you love again, but with visual art, you might come across something that moves you and never be able to find it again. Most local artists do not have a permanent home. Their work is seen at pop-ups, school shows, or occasional art crawls.
I can't solve this for every artist, but I plan to start with the original core group from Art Beat, the ones who made me feel at home as I took a leap to try something new; and hopefully it will grow from there.
It needs to be a mighty, mighty brick house. Art needs a stronger foundation to grow because it deserves a spotlight in Nashville. An online marketplace is a first step toward making local art more visible and accessible. It will be open 365 days a year at @artbeatnashville.com.
Every brick will be placed with care because Art Beat is a business single handedly done by me from design to website, marketing, operations... you name it. Adding more people for support is top on my wish list. I have these people below who have helped me tremendously get where I am today. A huge thank you to:
Lizzie Stuhlreyer, my amazing friend and partner in our Gulch location. Anne the Framer, and her husband Mike, for having a great eye and a lot of patience. Roy Clary for the artist interviews, and of course, the artists who are the real stars!
Online Artist Marketplace coming in July!
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