I attended the first Portland Etsy Team town hall meeting held at PNCA last night. If you don't know what ETSY is you better! We gathered to discuss the fruition and history of the PDX etsy team, develop goals to syncronize the current team and further discuss what the future may hold for us Portland Etsy Team members. Many of us had great ideas about how to promote current etsy sellers through social media, marketing, schmoosing and outreach to name a few.
My greater hope is to encourage etsy sellers to pair with local non-profits such as FreeArtsNorthWest and local businesses such as the the100thmonkeystudio to integrate arts in the community. My ideas include promoting Etsy Artists while fundraising programs that are an asset to our community. We ultimately need to bring art to others. Since I am connected to the creativeartstherapiespdx coallition, to integrate creative arts therapies into our community I am excited about the prospects. Another exciting venture was recognized to have a different mission statement that the Portland Etsy team. I heart Art Portland http://www.iheartartpdx.com gears toward integrating art into the greater portland area through etsy team members, local guilds, artisans, galleries and PNCA. Currenlty there are several workshops being held this quarter at PNCA, funded by a grant from Etsy. I Heart Art art Portland is exciting because it is Etsy's baby pilot project to integrate and promote art and artists in the community not just etsy sellers. Imagine if there was a group such as I Heart Art Portland in every city connecting arts greater purpose....I Heart Art Brooklin, Mexico, Italy............
Our Portland Etsy team has some definite work to accomplish. As one creative meeting member quoted "many hands make light work". I am excited about the prospects of the Portland Etsy team and I heart Art Portland to open new avenues to connect art into our community.
