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.

Sara Pizzi

One of the most recent meaningful projects I worked on was as co-choreographer and dancer of sarAika movement collective new production named “Double Bind”. A contemporary dance work that integrates spoken word, custom hair art, and costume design. The process has consisted of independent research, and interviewing folks from NYC, Italy, and Japan, to acquire a full scope of the cultural experience that women share in sarAika movement collective’s broad community. Read more>>

Jeff Blue

I always strive to have meaning in everything I work on. Probably the most meaningful music project I’ve developed is Linkin Park. I get at least two emails a day thanking me for discovering and signing the band because the band’s music saved someone’s life. The songs are powerful lyrical and musically, reaching into the soul, hopes, and fears of every age, ethnicity, demographic. No matter who we are, we’ve all faced rejection, roadblocks, and stress. Linkin Park’s message is universal, face your fears, have faith, and you will overcome. Read more>>

David Deutsch

Meaning can come from so many different places, and have so many deeply rooted emotions. I often find meaning in projects that afflict the most emotion, and the ones who have the most story behind them. Of these projects, I released my own album titled, “Prism.” This album is so much more than just 6 songs and some cool artwork. This music, this album, this project is a representation of all the thoughts and feelings, and emotions, and experiences that I went through basically throughout the entirety of my life. Read more>>

Dawn Clement

I’m currently the pianist in an all-female quartet called Esthesis Quartet. This project started during lock-down as a music composition support group and became a fully fledged touring and performing group. All of the members of Esthesis Quartet are educators in higher academia. So, not only do we compose and perform, but we also love teaching. The musicianship and camaraderie is vibrant in the band and we get to represent another side to the way things can look on the bandstand in a Male-Dominated field. Read more>>

Krista Vanterpool

As a jewelry designer, I find nothing more fulfilling than creating pieces that hold a special meaning for the person choosing to wear my jewelry. One recent project that stands out is a custom ring I made for a client’s sister as a Christmas present. The client shared that her sister was a strong cancer survivor who had recently gone into remission, and she wanted to give her something she could wear every day to celebrate this victory. Read more>>

Hat Pin Panic

Writing and recording an EP during the pandemic was a uniquely meaningful and challenging project for our band. We had been meeting and writing songs prior to the pandemic, so when the lockdown hit, we were able to use the recordings from those sessions as scratch tracks to record final versions of our parts remotely at each of our own homes. The process of collaborating remotely required us to adapt and experiment with new methods of writing and, in some cases, learning new technology to record and share our work. Read more>>

Tori Freeman

I created the Venus bralette in the summer of 2022 as my first major body jewelry project and it definitely altered the trajectory of my career. I had only started making jewelry a year and a half prior to the completion of the project and had spent that time exploring techniques, developing my style and cultivating the various skills that were needed for the Venus bralette to work. Read more>>

Ava Claire Henson

Without question, my most meaningful project to date is Tunes for Kidz . Tunes for Kidz is a fiscally sponsored project by the Arts and Business Council of Nashville, a nonprofit organization. We provide musical instruments as well as music education to areas of low socioeconomic status in the Nashville area. I became in involved on day one when the founder invited me to run our small Instagram account. Read more>>

Joseph Brown

My newest album ‘Inner Exodus’ is coming out soon. It’s the deepest project I have ever worked on. A lot of those songs were written in a time where I was going through a depressive state. While I was in it, I was just writing songs that helped me realize insecurities and pain I had and how I was coping with them in unhealthy ways. This album is filled with my best songs that I wrote in this season, following a story line that tells about me going into a state of depression, realizing things about myself and my beliefs with God, and coming out with revelations and a new level of faith in God. Read more>>

Monica Johnson

(I am not sure if I can use the ballerina’s name in the article.) The most meaningful project I’ve worked on was a painting for the “Pointe of Art Exhibition and Benefit”. This proceeds from this event were given to The Monterey Peninsula Ballet Theater Scholarship Program and supports those dancers that cannot afford the expenses required to dance. Read more>>

Kimberly Fletcher

I recently completed the Easterseals Disability Film Challenge on April 2nd with my business partner Tiana Ferrell. The 2023 film challenge is celebrating its ten year anniversary and we had one weekend to write, produce, and direct a 5 minute short film Blind Date in the genre of Romance. Needless to say this was very exciting, and nerve wrecking to strategize on an entertaining concept while meeting very intense deadlines. I worked as producing partner of the film and assisted in developing the concept as well as ultimately ensuring the production was successfully completed. Read more>>

Hannah Malone

I found floral design while searching for a way to bridge my creative desires with the “normal” working world. I immediately loved working with flowers and plants. To create designs and arrangements as living, breathing tokens of love. For end of life celebrations, for precious wedding days. Materializing the ephemeral feelings of the moment. Plucking the magic of flowers from the ground, and bringing them inside, never grows old to me. My favorite part is creating a moment for people. A moment that is more meaningful with the presence of art. Read more>>

Jairo Guerrero

To put the relevance of my project “Techxturas Sonoras – Tribute to the literary memory of Mexico through electronic sound” in context, I will first tell you something about the history and the path of life that led me to it. I consider myself a maker of sounds, a creator of sensations through music. My dialogue has always been through this language. For more than 30 years he was linked to music in many ways; as a music journalist, where she wrote in numerous national and international newspapers and magazines about the groups, sounds and issues around her. Read more>>

Sophie Green

I think that having a bigger purpose for your work can definitely help to prevent burnout. I always knew that I wanted my artwork to make a difference in some way and I am passionate about trying to use my artwork to raise awareness and money for wildlife and conservation issues. For example, my 2022 collection, Impermanence, was inspired by an expedition I went on to the Arctic, where I witnessed first hand the devastating effects of climate change. Read more>>

Manuel Urueta-borunda

up to date my most meaningful project has been having the opportunity to exhibit my work right next to the great master jose guadalupe posada and all the amazing other artists in the collaborative exhibition . all thanks to the invite of my friend Elvia Rubalcava from the fullerton museum center in california. it was a great experience and honor to give a tribute of my work to him and all of his beautiful creations. Read more>>

Gregory Allen

For me, experience is crucial when it comes to writing music. In 2015 I was in the throes of alcoholism and one event lead to another while I was hitchhiking in down south and I had an incident with a train in Florida. I was hospitalized and had bilateral amputations. I played music in the hospital for my visitors and folks I shared a room with. Following that I recorded some music when I relocated to physical therapy rehab. Read more>>

Margaret P Bean

I am a playwright and I write from a place of passion, so all of my writing is meaningful. I write inspirational books to inspire and encourage people to be and go forth and fulfill their dreams and believe in themselves that dreams do come true. I also write stage plays with a message for the masses. My first stage play titled the “Game Changer’ was produced in 2017 and the meaningful message dealt with HIV, dating games and the seriousness of safe dating and keep one’s self healthy. Read more>>

 

Vanessa Kenney

If I had to pick one, it would be the “Independence Day” storytelling show I produced last July. Unintentionally, I ended up putting forth this all-female show amplifying our voices and how we defined freedom for ourselves just a week after American women suffered a huge loss in women’s rights. All of my performers brought so much power, vulnerability, and support for one another. Read more>>

Kurt Blair

In 2022 I dropped what has been regarded as my best album to date, an album dedicated to my late fiancée who passed away from brain cancer this past March. The album is called “Astrodite”, a play on space and the Greek goddess of Love. My fiancée, Courtney was Greek and we both shared an infatuation with space. The album was all love songs written for and about her. She loved it and would listen to it all the time, which is all I could’ve asked for. The album can be found on all streaming services. Read more>>

Indy Saini

When I was in college, I got the opportunity to direct a play on the main stage of the theatre. I researched all kinds of plays, thinking about what types of stories and themes I wanted to explore. At the time I was also a philosophy student and studying various religions from around the world. I ended up choosing a dark drama written in post world war Europe around themes of sexual power dynamics, existentialism, and in which a character committed suicide. Read more>>

Shelby Fleming

Sculptor turned Fashion Designer: Creating my first fashion line. During the COVID-19 lock down in 2020 I set a goal to learn how to sew. I started making masks for INTERFORM in Springdale Arkansas that were then donated to local schools and hospitals. After everything INTERFORM had done for the community during COVID I wanted to give back. I met with INTERFORM’s Senior Director of Fashion Design and Apparel Education, to discuss teaching a wearable sculpture with assistance from a seamstress. Read more>>

Alexis Gaston

Thus far, the most meaningful project I’ve created has been the writing and recording of my new EP. The past eight months of my life have been some of the hardest times I have ever endured. Through that period, there were many songs that could not have been written if I hadn’t gone through such a dark time with my mental health. Although I’ve been writing my own songs since the age of 10, I feel I have never written anything as honest as this upcoming EP. Read more>>

Christen Reed

I think my very project was a really meaningful project for me. It was my first ever. It summed up a time period of transition and free flowing expression for me. I started off as a business owner and artist specifically in the drawing field and music was taking a back seat. So throughout that time I kept writing music on the side as just expressing myself and ideas, thoughts and that first EP is a combination of those songs and ideas to showcase who I am and what I’m about in a summarized since ti the world. And people loved it too, so that and an even more meaningful experience on top of all the other significance. Read more>>

Christi Slider

As a small business owner, I get to make my community and surrounding communities better. We recently started our Annual Pooch Playoffs. It’s a march madness twist on a cutest pet contest. We take beautiful portraits of some of our clients best pooch friends, and then we set up a bracket style competition with a one pooch win all concept. The best part of Pooch Playoffs is being able to work with a local non profit and donate session fees to the non-profit. For 2023 we picked a local non-profit named Friends of Waxahachie Animal Services. Read more>>

Lacy Hale

In 2017 a group of white supremacists had advertised that they were coming to a town near my home. Their intent was to recruit for their ranks. I am a painter and printmaker so in protest and response to this event I created a block print of a simple mountain background with the text “No Hate in My Holler” standing large in the foreground. A ‘holler’ or hollow is usually a creek or watercourse that flows between the mountains that historically people in the mountains have lived beside. The road usually runs by the creek as well. So hollers run up and down every mountain in the Appalachians. Read more>>

Joshua Higginbotham

I would have to say two meaningful projects I’ve worked on would be, putting out my first album “The Billi Show” as a music artist and having a track I produced off Mac Millers last album musically. I started as a music producer/musician, growing up in church I learned how to play instruments, which set the pathway for me to compose my own songs and starting my production career. I got into the game producing under the super producer duo Produced By THC. Under their network as a ghost producer, I started to get paid and work with major artist. Read more>>

Kate Duffy

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on to date has been Clerical Error Production’s presentation of Samuel Beckett’s play Happy Days at the end of February, 2023. It was a significant step forward in my journey in Irish drama, which began in 2016 when I co-wrote, with MaryAnne Mathews, a three part historical musical drama called Mother Ireland. The show marked the 100th anniversary of the Rising, dramatized the roles played by women in Ireland’s fight for independence, and was performed at Indianapolis’ DivaFest. Read more>>

Ariel Henderson

So far the most meaningful project I ‘ve worked on is publishing my first devotional in 2021. There was so much growth that I had to go through before publishing. In my book I talk about my experience with losing loved ones and the grief/ depression I encountered because of it. I struggled with the thought that no-one would be interested in what I had to say but it wasn’t until the winter storm here in Texas that gave me the push I needed. My family and I were homeless for 3 months because our apartment flooded and was beyond repair. Read more>>

Clément Oberto

The most meaningful project I’ve had the chance to work on so far is a music video for Gary Clark Jr. named ‘Pearl Cadillac’. The song is about saying thank you for all the love he received from his mother and finding a way to make her proud. It especially resonnated with me because at the time I received the song I was journaling about the exact same topic. So the timing of it combined with the chance to expend that desire into a project was really impactful. Read more>>

Gail Kotel

I’ve been passionate about the environment since I can remember, working with NYPIRG (now PENNPIRG) and sitting on their board before I was in my 20’s; and starting a recycling program at SUNY Purchase, my alma mater. My artwork in college sought to expose environmental wrongs such as the Exxon Valdiz oil spill. This passion continues In my current work where I upcycle old frames, windows and bubble wrap. All of my materials either come from the trash or would become trash. Read more>>

Lenardo Blackmon

My comedy special is the most meaningful project I’ve worked on to me to this point. I wanted to get out a project to be remembered by. To also challenge my self yo complete a project as well as tell about myself through my art form. Read more>>

Kim Syverson

This backstory is an emotional one. A few years ago, my uncle died suddenly. He was especially close with his family and grandchildren. Because of their sudden loss, three of his grandchildren made their own bracelets to wear everyday to keep that connection with him. A year later, my cousin, the mother to the three grandchildren, reached out to me. She asked if I could make “nicer” custom bracelets for her three children. Read more>>

Kelly Archer

Most projects my company (Chadash Contemporary Dance Movement) undertakes are meaningful, which is why we exist. It’s important that our projects are not only meaningful to me and to our audiences, but also our company dancers. Years ago in college, I knew I had a desire to become a choreographer. I remember listening as some of my friends, who were also dancers, talked about how they longed to one day dance in a company whose work was meaningful. Read more>>

Megan Ann Jacobs

I am blessed to do a lot of work I find meaningful and impactful in the arts community, however, if we talk about most meaningful to me it would have to be everything related to the inaugural production of Theatre Unchained which was also the world premiere of my play “Coping with Autumn.” To get the whole picture of why this has been the most impactful endeavor in my life we have to break down the events into the different creative streams that came together for this project. There is my journey as a playwright, as a director, and as an arts administrator/Artistic Director. Read more>>

Donna Guzzo

Raising funds to have a home for the First Coast Cultural Center. The center’s mission is to bring the arts into the life of the community though exhibits, programs and outreach; and by honoring a donor-driven philosophy. We currently put on 172 programs per year, host 5 -6 pop-up exhibits per year and host an annual signature event, Beaches, A Celebration of the Arts where we recognize others in our community. Read more>>