We asked some of the most talented folks in the community to talk to us about projects they’ve worked on that they still think about, projects that really meant something. Have you had such an experience? Are you looking for inspiration for your next project? Check out the stories below, they are exciting, entertaining, and most importantly – inspiring.

Renata Vontobel

I have worked on many amazing projects throghout my artist career, but for sure writing, recording and releasing my album “Strive” was the most meaningful to me. Being able to tell my personal stories such as past relationships, dealing with mental health and being a Brazilian artist in the United States was so important to me. While creating and working on this personal project I had no idea on how the public would receive it and I am so greatful for the love and support I was blessed with after the release. Read more>>

Bree Gilliam

The most meaningful, personal, and emotional project I have worked on is my senior art exhibition during my undergraduate studies at Buffalo State College in 2022. The exhibition was titled ‘Joy Comes In the Mourning”. The title was a reference to the Bible verse Psalm 30, which says, “weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning.” Read more>>

Noura Howell

‘Smart city’ narratives herald promises of data-driven innovations leveraging increasingly invasive surveillance collecting data about people’s bodies and behaviors. This data is often enrolled to ‘know’ people more transparently, claiming to support normative ideas of safety, wellness, and productivity. Knowing people in terms of data-driven categories is problematic. Surveillance is not safety. Read more>>

Milteri Tucker Concepcion

A project that became a non for profit organization! I had just moved to New York City at 17 years old from Puerto Rico in 2000.On the subway a gentlemen asked me what time is it (as I used to wear wrist watch). I noticed he was Latine and I answered back with a question: “where do you think I’m from?” He proceeded to say Cuba, Panama, Dominican Republic…I don’t know where else? because you are certainly not Puerto Rican! Read more>>

Andrea Kulish Wilhelm

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is creating pysanky eggs to help Ukraine. I’m a first generation Ukrainian American. My mother, an artist, taught me to make these intricate and beautiful eggs when I was a young girl. My life mission is to spread joy through Ukrainian pysanky eggs- I love to teach and share them. When russia invaded Ukraine in Feb. 2022, I began fundraising to help Ukraine with humanitarian aid. One project is “Pysanky for Ukraine”. Read more>>

Tamara Deane McElhannon

Seeking meaning and understanding is my motivation for making art, and co-creating is a passion of mine. Inspired by the process of collaboration and inclusion and a desire to explore the purity of shapes and color through abstraction, my latest work takes on an interactive flair. These pieces invite the viewer to become part of the creative process by moving painted disks around a backboard. The viewer becomes the artist and then creates works of art they can call their own. The compositions can change daily – if desired. The meaning and purpose of this work are through the shared creative process. Read more>>

Roy Tahtinen

Last fall I had a woman approach me at an art festival with tears in her eyes and said, “I just want you to know that what you are doing makes a difference.” That is the best review of my photography I could ever hope for, especially for a project that started while beach combing in San Francisco. Read more>>

Nivi Shaham

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is titled “Misconceptions.” It touches on the subjects of food insecurity and some of the realities (good and bad) of being low income, and the misconceptions we hold when viewing food choices from an outside lens. Read more>>

Jayé Da’Vaughn

In order, for any project to be meaningful it must be worked on with passion behind an intended purpose. Over the course of my career, I have had the opportunity to work on projects that have harvested meaningful experiences in which impacted lives in just that, a meaningful way. Read more>>

Richard Taylor

“Well, right off the bat, the first project that comes to mind that has been incredibly meaningful and impactful in my life is my feature film, “Atom the Amazing Zombie Killer.” It was a project that I worked on with my friends Zack Beins, Tim Johnson, and Robert Sausaman. Read more>>

Tyler Miller

Since July of 2020, I have been working on my debut album, “Sophia.” The quality of the music is unlike anything I’ve ever made before. This is the first conceptual project I have ever created, and it has been a very lengthy process. My goal was to create an experience. I want my listeners to feel something deeper than just the music when they hear Sophia. Read more>>

Tammy Fallon

I help wonderful couples plan their best days with their closest friends and family. Most of my events are extremely meaningful. Truly. I get close to many clients and am so deeply invested in the planning and outcome of their weddings, I feel extremely fortunate. My partnership with Wish Upon A Wedding has been next level meaningful. Their mission is to grant wedding wishes to people who are dealing with a terminal illness. Read more>>

DNA Picasso

This 14-track body of work titled, The Colour Blü is different from anything I’ve ever created or released largely due to the amount of vulnerability it took. The album art is inspired by Pablo Picasso’s 1903 oil painting titled, “The Old Guitarist” which depicts an elderly poor musician, playing in the streets of Barcelona. In this painting, the man looks like he’s barely alive, holding onto the last thing keeping him on this Earth; music. Read more>>

John Novosad

For 15-20 years I used the stage name Hippieman. I created a show called “Hippieman’s Plan for America.” The show had elements of stand up, sketch, PowerPoint, a musical guest and an overhead projector. I learned a great deal from putting that show together. It was much different than touring as a stand up comic. Read more>>

Laura Auer

This is a really lovely topic that I enjoy discussing, as I am in the middle of a project that has been incredibly meaningful to me. If I were a filmmaker, I would be one of those directors that hides easter eggs and hidden meanings behind everything, because the art is in the details for me, things that may resonate only with a select audience seeking the depth within another’s work. Read more>>

Cuban Diva

About two years ago someone that owned a clothing company called N3verbasic was watching one of my IG lives since I was showing the Tyson fight on there and it was the funniest thing how I was holding the phone the entire time for my friends to watch it but my hand got tired I went for a tripod and he commented this is the most interesting thing I seen on IG in awhile. Read more>>

Jaharry Edwards

Hell in My life on TUBI and the Intermission Music Project on all music platforms is my most meaningful projects to date. At Starcity We have partnered with Damon Dash studios to bring you the epic Stacey Staxx Story Movie based on best selling author Angel Williams book, Hell in My Life. With all the hard work it is projected to be the #1 Movie on TUBI. The Intermission is trending with songs like Bubbly and Hit Dat this project is a dedication to the upcoming City Boy Summer. Read more>>

Joshua Mather

My new project, Therma (an anagram of my last name,) is my new passion project. I’ve been doing music professionally for a while now, and I’m incredibly grateful for that. Therma is a reconnection to why I started. With this music I’m not afraid to be loud or nerdy. I love sci-fi. I love giant robots. I love loud rock music. I like to think that all of that can be found in Therma. Read more>>

Nagasri Thota

My artistic endeavor is to express the unspoken emotions that are often difficult to express in words. There are certain emotions and feelings that we experience, but find it challenging to communicate with others. I am aware that there are people who struggle with sharing their emotions, and my art is an attempt to give them a voice and express these feelings. Emotions can be complex and challenging to articulate, and sometimes they can be perceived differently by others when communicated. Read more>>

Deshawn Visionz

A meaningful project to me would be both of my full length projects to be honest. The first one is titled “Soulstice” and that is meaningful because it was the intro to me making my transition from California to Atlanta in 2021. I felt like the world was against me at the time with one bad thing happening after another. On top of that I moved out here alone & didn’t have many friends. This project was me deciding to not let it get to me & put it all into my art. Read more>>

Laura Hyunjhee Kim

I believe the most meaningful project I am working on is revealing the vulnerable process of “life-ing.” Whether intended for public viewing or as an intimate action, every aspect of life I perform interweaves into each other. Sensing through the myriads of known and unknown felt experiences, I frame and reframe ongoing dialogues with myself, other humans, nonhumans, and more than humans. Read more>>

Monica Rose

I am such a project person, I love to create little worlds of my own and expose them to others. I think this is why I was drawn to making music and art. Creating thematic EPs and a story behind a work of visual art has proven to be one of the most fulfilling things for me. Perhaps my favorite project I’ve worked on is the one I’m currently invested in – My Expressive Arts Identity Development Program. Read more>>

Marquis Victor

Elevated Thought (ET), based in Lawrence, Massachusetts is an art and social justice 501(c)(3) organization that actively serves and develops communities through creative youth development curriculum, public art projects, youth organizing, and paid opportunities for creatives of color. Back in 2008, I was developing a poetry and mural project around social issues we saw in Lawrence with my best friend, a street artist. Read more>>

Tyler Tafolla

Every project I’ve worked on has some meaningful aspect for me and I definitely tend to leave a part of myself (sometimes unintentionally) in each of the projects I work on. My musical “Seasons” definitely feels the most personal just because of the fact that I was going through much of what happens in that show in my late teens and early 20’s. Read more>>

Dominika Dancewicz

This past year has brought unexpected new level of “meaningful” to my projects. Although both of my Houston-based performing groups (Duo Dramatique – violin/piano duo, and Axiom Quartet) have been always looking for rich, deep contexts of the programs we present, the outburst of the violent conflict in Ukraine in February 2022 has become an unprecedented trigger. Read more>>

Rae Senarighi

The You Are Loved campaign has been one of the most meaningful projects I’ve worked on. It began as a single billboard in Madison, WI, and has spread all over the nation in the form of yard signs and bumper stickers and over 300 grassroots funded billboards. When I made this artwork, I was thinking about all of the trans and LGBTQ+ kids who are watching politicians calling for (and writing laws intended to) eradicate our existence. I wanted to create a message that would give even one person hope. Read more>>

Sarah Buckley

Some of the most meaningful projects for me have been pet portraits. Our pets hold such an important place in our families and in our hearts, and memorializing their memories in thread is incredibly special. I’ve had the pleasure of stitching several pets, including two of my own dogs, and these pieces are truly treasured. Read more>>

Thomas Brazzle

During the pandemic I worked as the Project Director and Film Producer/Director for a collaboration with the CDC Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts and Out of Hand Theater. The project was to use the arts to educate communities about vaccine safety and efficacy, while building confidence in hesitant communities around the COVID-19 and Flu Vaccines. Being in Georgia, where one of the first major outbreaks of COVID occurred in Albany, GA influenced our approach to this project. Read more>>

Christopher Burdett

While I didn’t know it then, but my entire career has led me to write and illustrate the first novel in my Grand Bazaar series. I have designed monsters and built words for television, movies, and games, but it was all practice and learning that allowed me to tell my stories and make my world. The Grand Bazaar of Ethra VanDalia first breathed life while I was in college with the creation of the titular character and the first images of the world they come from. Read more>>