We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Erik Sacony a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Erik , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

I had the idea while living in the city and teaming up with The Grey Lodge in Northeast Philly. Michael (Scoats) Scotese gave me my first gallery and showcase at his bar there and to my surprise, it was a great success.

Shortly after that, I had moved back to my hometown of Lansdale, Pa. The art scene wasn’t as vibrant there as it was in the city, but Lansdale was also coming into its own at the time.
I watched as more restaurants and craft breweries, apartment complexes opened around town, and the surrounding neighborhoods. I wondered with all the progress Lansdale was making and how it was revitalizing so quickly, would they appreciate an art scene?
It was December of 2017 when I started the idea to create and develop a platform for local artists to showcase their talents, while partnering up with local craft breweries. I called it Headway Art Collective, LLC.

In December of 2018 at an event called Deck The Walls hosted by Amy Rims (another local artist in Lansdale) I premiered Headway Art Collective.
I had a wooden plank with the company name, and design. A few black and white T shirts made, and all my tattoo flash painted in acrylic paint on canvas on a simple table with black cloth. Here’s goes nothing….

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have a few hats that I wear. I’m a real estate agent in the city at family owned office in Northeast Philly, Im a full time tattoo artist, and I run and coordinate events along side my right hand in Headway Art Collective, Shannon Vogel.

When I first opened Headway, I ran it all by myself. I had one goal, and that was to recruit 10 local artists from that December event by the end of January. By February 2019, I had 12 artists, myself included. I’m a graduate of West Chester University, and Dad to my best buddy, Vinny.

That’s when I walked into Well Crafted Beer Co. in Lansdale. I met with their manager at the time Joe. I explained the idea of local artist / local beer and pairing them to create an environment where people are eating, having drinks, and shopping local art. I could tell he wasn’t sure about it, and a bit hesitant, but gave me the “let’s give it a shot”. With a month to prepare, I went to work immediately. I created a social media presence and started posting, I called the show Crafts and Canvases. I made flyers, printed them and did the old school flyers on windshield promotion.

It was Sunday, March 24 2019 myself and 5 other artists set up around the perimeter of the brewery and officially kicked off Headway Art Collectives first event. We packed the brewery, to the point they had to wait for people to leave to make room. It was a huge success for a Sunday afternoon. By the end of the event, we had a standing date to come and showcase once a month. This was a hit, people appreciated it. I was stoked. I needed to recruit more artists. I needed to paint more inventory.

I was doing 15 hour days between the real estate, tattooing, and now Headway. I was committed to making Headway work and to the artists who gave me a shot and signed up. Over time we expanded, we hit 20 artists, then 30, our events grew bigger, and reached other breweries. We covered Montgomery county and Bucks county. I went back to the Grey Lodge with Scoats and did another event with him in Philly. I became committed to not only the success of a Headway, but to the artists as well. Seeing them succeed and have this platform motivated me more.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

When I first started Headway, everything was free to the artists. There was no table fee, or percentage of sales to be paid to me. It was all me. Between social media marketing, boosting posts, to paper flyers, driving to the breweries to meet with owners or managers. I took care of it all on my own time. It was a struggle for me to collect a fee. For some artists, this was a side hustle, a small part of a secondary income. How could I collect money from them when they’re just trying to break onto the art scene.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

By the time the pandemic hit in 2020 Headway was up around 50 artists. It was time to adjust and get even more creative. That’s when Shannon Vogel came to me with an idea of an online art auction. With a portion being donated to a family in need during that time. We raised just under $1,300 dollars for a family who lost their child. We then contributed to a family who lost belongings in a house fire, and raised $500 so that we could go shopping for art supplies for the one child. Artists were donating and taking small portions but giving back to the community that was truly supporting them. Once we were cleared to conduct shows again, we hit the ground running.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @headwayartcol
• Facebook: Headway Art Collective
• Other: @e.saconypaints @esaconytattoo

Image Credits
Misty Cooke