We recently connected with Melanie Shaw and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Melanie, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I live along the Eastside Beltline Trail in Atlanta, surrounded by vibrant street art around the city. Every day, hundreds of people visit and stream by my porch-walking, skating, and biking on the trail. There is this amazing energy that results. One day, I drew a hopscotch on the paved path. All day, I saw people disrupt their excursions to jump and play. The smiles, the laughs – were infectious. I wanted to tap into that joy. I was reminded of a Brian Eno quote, “children learn through play, but adults play through art.” I wanted to find ways to bring art to others – to build community and spread delight. So, I gathered up some craft supplies and my husband and I packed 100 gift bags and distributed them to passersby. Gift recipients were delighted, so we decided to make it a monthly thing. Pretty soon, my limited artistic vision became a barrier to finding new ideas to share. It was then that the Art Share Foundation was born. I reached out to local artists to collaobrate with them on a monthly art drop. The artists receives a stipend and the foundation covers all materials to create an interactive gift to share. In the year that the foundation has operated, we have created over 1500 artistic gifts including crafts, interactive art pieces, musical performances, and a huge mural.

Melanie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I was born in Atlanta, but as a middle schooler, I moved to Princeton, NJ. I was a voice performance major in college at Rutgers University, where I met my super talented husband. After we married, he joined the military as a fulltime musican, and we got to live all around the world. I loved exploring the art in each new place we were stationed. I became a music teacher, then a school counselor, and I continued going to school. In 2006, after earning my Ph.D., I became an online faculty. Teaching online allowed me to relocate as needed, without disrupting my career. When my husband retired in 2016, we moved to NYC. I would spend most weekends visiting galleries and exporing all things visual and performing arts. Because our adult daughters lived in Atlanta, we decided we wanted to move closer and so we returned to the city of my birth in 2023. I was worried that I would miss the vibrant creative scene in NYC, but I found that Atlanta had so much to offer! I was especially drawn to the amazing street art – murals, graffiti, and the ever-evolving landscape of a growing metropolis. Out of this creative slurry, the idea for The Art Share Foundation took hold.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

When we first started, I named my organization after the Beltline. I did not realize they had a trademark on that word and I received a cease and desist letter to stop using the name and I had to surrender the website as well. This was a pretty upsetting blow to a new nonprofit organization. Thankfully, my amazing CPA was able to convince me that rebranding was the way to go. I did a search for the safest “non trademarked” words I could find to describe what we were doing as an organization and voila! The Art Share Foundation emerged as the clear name of choice.

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

I wanted this organization to be service and joy driven, so I opted to become a nonprofit. As a result, I am totally self-funded at this point. It means that I remain small scale – completely doing this just to gift others engaging artistic offerings. The world needs more giving, more goodness… and this felt like a great way to do that. To spread love and light through giving the small bit of extra my husband and I have to donate each month. At some point, we might seek grants or other funding sources, but for now, this feels right-sized.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://theartshare.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artsharefoundation/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/melanie.shaw.7
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melshaw/

Image Credits

These are all my own photos and you have my permission to use any/all of them. :) Mel