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

Kris, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. 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?

In 2021, I left my longtime career as a public school art teacher to start my own mobile art business in a repurposed city bus. It was a huge risk, and one that I had never planning on taking. I LOVED my job, felt that it was using all my skills and talents, and that I was fulfilling a vital role in my community. My plan was to retire from the school system…and then that path was derailed by the COVID 19 pandemic.

In 2019, I had moved to a new-to-me school, an arts magnet where I had joined a thriving new team of art teachers. It was difficult decision since I’d been at my former school for 18 years and had deep roots there with both colleagues and students. When the pandemic started, we suddenly pivoted to online learning. During this unplanned time of isolation at home, my husband and I decided to renovate an old school bus into an RV. This experience started the chain of events that led me to leave public ed.

A trifecta of things had happened that led me to re-evaluate my work life. First, the process of transferring to a new school and team had temporarily lessened my intense ties to my work. It takes a huge amount of energy to move schools and I had done a lot of work to re-establish my program in my new location. As the pandemic began, I was exhausted from that move. Secondly, renovating my first bus got me thinking about the possibilities of a mobile art program, and the joys of having control of a space of my own. This was a pipe dream that I was hoping to explore someday in the future. Third, I’d suddenly become a front line worker in an older room with poor ventilation during a pandemic, struggling to make my room safer for me and my students…..and I started to question how teachers were being supported in the crisis.

As I considered all of this, a bus suddenly became available that was perfect for starting an art business….and my family decided to buy it. I suddenly had an unexpected, exciting opportunity and a big decision to make. It was an agonizing choice but I eventually decided to take the leap. It took all the courage I had, and owning my own business continues to have its ups and downs, but it has opened opportunities and experiences I never thought I would have or even knew existed.

There were many lucky things that lined up in order to make my risk worth it, and I have been so fortunate. I now operate my own art studio and mobile art service, creating experiences, camps, parties, etc. for a wide variety of clients. I take my bus to museums, parks, gardens, private homes – anywhere someone wants to make art, and the list is expanding all the time. It allows me to use my teaching skills to design something for any client, and while I’m responsible for all aspects of my business, I’m also in control of them too.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I own and operate The Art Bus FL and Little Orange Art Studio. I’m an award winning former public school art teacher with experience creating with all age groups, and I use those skills to create art experiences for a wide variety of needs. My Art Bus is a full mobile art studio with work space, sink, projection equipment and all the supplies we need to create art inside and outside the bus. I travel to locations and work with groups large and small. So far I’ve used the Bus for parties, classes, paint and sips, events, schools, field trips, enrichment, team building, festivals and pop-up workshops…..and I’m adding new mobile art experiences to my list all the time.

There are very few mobile art services operating in our area, and even fewer art buses, so what I provide is fairly unique. I can provide a highly customized experience and have a lot of flexibility in meeting art needs. Creating art on a bus is a novel experience and has a lot of great benefits – no mess or prep, and I provide a fun, creative art activity wherever it’s needed. People seem to love it! My experience allows me to throw in a lot of extra learning and value.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I’m in the middle of such an experience right now. My landlord at my warehouse studio space recently decided (after allowing it for 3 years) that I could no longer use the space for camps for children, citing liability.
This was a blow because it’s an amazing, fun and funky space that I had customized for camps and classes, and it was a very popular service where I’m located. The city I’m located in is a tough real estate market for any art business. However, resilience is absolutely what you have to have as a small business owner. This is definitely not the first setback I’ve overcome. I’m pivoting to my mobile service for camps and looking for related business spaces to host camps with the bus this summer. I’ve already formed some great partnerships with art-friendly locations and am looking forward to more. I’m actually excited for what these collaborations can offer my art campers.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

The mission statement of my creative journey is to be of use in my community. I want to use my experiences and skills, and all the cool art equipment I have gathered over the years, to reach kids and adults with my message in the years before I retire. My message has always been that art enriches life – not just for professional artists, but for everyone – and that art skills are absolutely within everyone’s reach to achieve and are worth achieving. I want to make good use of my given purpose with this new model, just as I did in my art classroom for many years.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.theartbusfl.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theartbusfl/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theartbusfl