We were lucky to catch up with Daphne Curry recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Daphne, thanks for joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

The risk I’m about to talk about is one I feel the vast majority of entrepreneurs have—— starting.

Starting is hard. It is scary, especially when you get other people involved, and even more so when you struggle with insecurity and fear. It’s tough. But when the LORD has given you a vision of what He wants you to do, risk is then spelled “f-a-i-t-h.” And if the Lord provided the vision, the only thing scarier than starting is not starting.

I’ve had a vision for the nonprofit, Stewards of the Arts, for a long time, I just didn’t realize it for real, for real. But when the pandemic hit, the LORD began to nudge me about it (through family and friends as well), so I began to attempt to write out a business plan —— and that attempt took FOREVER (ask my best friend, she will tell you lol). Why? Fear. I was consistently battling the voices telling me that “you can’t do this” or “you will fail”, and I kept stopping as a result. As soon as I would stop, the LORD would tell me to keep going, through a friend, sermon, license plate, you name it! This process took about 2.5 years —— I know, I was trippin, hard. LOL. But that’s what fear does, it grips and paralyzes you. But God!

After finishing a long, overdone business plan (lol), I began applying for the 501c3 and went through hoops to get it submitted only for it to get denied. SMH. See, the thing about having faith and still struggling with fear is that any form of opposition you face will cause you to think “you are going the wrong way” or “you need to just stop before you mess up” — and I almost did. For a month, I had an attitude, I can’t even lie. LOL. But while speaking with a tax friend of mine one day, she commented that I probably completed the form incorrectly or selected the wrong option for something. That comment stayed with me for a while and I knew it was the Holy Spirit telling me “file again” —— so I did. 2 months later, I received approval!

Since then, The LORD has led me to build a board, gather materials and resources, and more to start offering programs to the teens in the community, but it’s still a process —— and that’s when faith has to kick in even harder.

Things won’t always go the way we expect them to go. We won’t always get the turnout that we hope and work for, and I’m learning that it’s ok. Ultimate faith is trusting God and His timing, no matter what. There will be opposition, especially if you are pursuing what God is leading you to do. But if He has called you to a thing, trust and believe that He is with you regardless of what you see in front of you, and that’s exactly where I am right now.

I am excited in the waiting, though. I am excited to go through this process. I am grateful for the people who have agreed to be a part of this mission and are just as eager to serve as I am. I am grateful for supportive friends and family. I am excited to create opportunities and environments for teens. But even though I am still in the middle of it, I know that if God called me to it, it is a risk worth taking.

Daphne, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Born and raised in Augusta, GA, I attended and studied at John S. Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School and danced at Cutno Dance Studio until I graduated. The fact that I was always surrounded by people with absurdly high levels of talent gave me that true “Fame” movie experience! In college, I taught fitness and hip hop dance classes on campus and even chartered a dance organization. Though my career has been in the tech industry, I have always been involved with the arts outside of work in some capacity. I’ve helped direct music videos, curate treatments, teach at dance studios, choreograph for dance teams, work on music projects, conceptualize and design album covers, shoot and edit visuals, etc. Everywhere I go, the LORD has found some way to lead me to either an environment full of creatives or I’ll meet an individual that is usually a dancer, singer, musician, artist, actor/actress, etc. This happens ALL THE TIME. LOL.

Even though this was my experience, I struggled with the fear of rejection and comparison. Although I was always surrounded by ridiculously talented people, I found it difficult to be present and give my all because, deep down, I believed that I wasn’t doing as well as the person next to me. There were even cases when I did give my all and it was overlooked. That just caused me to sit on my talents even more and even when I tried to use them, it wasn’t my all.

With that said, the LORD showed me that this was our “why” for Stewards of the Arts —— well, part of our “why”. The first part is simply to honor God with our talents, but the other part is to help teens stop sitting on their talents due to fear and comparison. We all know social media is getting out of hand. Comparison is going crazy through social media right now. Everyone is trying to tell you what you need to buy, how you need to look, showing you how they dance, how they do this, how they do that —— it can be intimidating and make it seem like the best thing to do is to just do nothing. Doing nothing starts feeling safe. I know because I did nothing for a while.

But that’s when I realized (and am still realizing) that the talents I have aren’t mine and it’s not for me to use how I want. God gave them to me to be used for Him and as long as they are used for and by Him, I can care less about what other people are doing. God plans to use the talents of the next generation for His glory and they need to understand this now. This is how Stewards of the Arts was born.

Stewards of the Arts, INC is a non-profit organization dedicated to equipping the youth to become faithful stewards of their God-given talents in a way that honors God and serves the ATL community well. We plan to combat fear, insecurity, and comparison by providing them with the environment and tools they need to be courageous and bold with their talents. We currently offer two programs: performing arts classes and opportunities for outreach in/around the ATL.

We are super excited about whatever God is about to do! It’s about to be dope!!!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist/creative is seeing the vision that’s been lingering in your mind and that you have been building, actually coming to life, functioning the way you envisioned it, and encouraging people at the same time.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Society needs to stop telling creatives/artists that everything they create and/or build should be sold.

People must understand that creatives/artists do what they were created, gifted, and naturally wired to do. Yes, there are people who use those talents to make a living and there are people who are actually called to that. Absolutely nothing wrong with that at all. What people fail to realize is that God may call some creatives to do a thing so He can use it simply to encourage or heal others, not to get a check. But in society now, the narrative is to take whatever you do and make money off of it. The danger here is, that isn’t the case for everyone. It can also cause unnecessary anxiety and pressure on the creative/artist, causing them to build something that really isn’t true to who they are because they are more worried about it being received by a client or if it has “sellable” qualities. It can also take the fun out of the creative process (which is lame and defeats the purpose of being a creative/artist in the first place since that’s the best part).

Again, I’m not saying making money is a bad thing, I’m simply saying not everything a creative makes needs to be sold.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.stewardsofthearts.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stewardsofthearts/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stewardsofthearts
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stewards-of-the-arts-inc/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDq1np_rbKpcldgD9k-BK5Q
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@stewardsofthearts