We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nicole Zappala. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nicole below.

Alright, Nicole thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us 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 started to connect with my inner creator in 2018 by taking abstract classes at a local art school when I moved back to San Diego from San Francisco. From moment one, it was pretty clear that my style was neon and LOUD and came complete with throwing paint all over the place. My garage worked well enough… until it didn’t. I needed a different space to create and test an experiential collaborative canvas concept I had been toying around with. I identify as an experience designer outside of my identity as an artist. I think through every piece of an experience and really want people to feel different and supported on the other side of an experience I create. It was around this time, my hands covered in paint, that I started to realize how important it is for adults to play – and also how hard it is to tap back into that – even if you have you kids like I do.  You see, when I was a kid I was encouraged to be clean, efficient, and to do what I was supposed to do , as many kids are. When it came time to get messy in my art, it was hard! It felt wrong. But it also felt right. Pushing through the discomfort and letting go of expectation was the beginning of my putting a whole bunch of colorful dots together. Adults need to play just like kids do and getting messy and creative is an amazing way to jump start that.

I ended up finding a studio space that was about to be torn down so they didn’t care if I got paint all over the place. That said, it wasn’t really nice enough to have groups to but it was perfect for my creation purposes and for my art partner Mara and I to test a whole bunch of stuff. When I got notice that I’d have to leave only a few months in, I started going on exploration walks to find a few space. After calling a bunch and talking to a few that were also slated to be torn down, I really honed in on the concept I called  vacancy to vibrancy. The question I posed to building owners was – can we breathe life into a space that’s awaiting demolition? Can we shine light on art for a time while you’re waiting for permits, to break ground etc? Dead buildings are a detriment to communities. Creators need space, these people had it. Seemed like a perfect fit.

I saw a sign pop up on a beautiful building that had always called to me. It has an incredible rainbow mural on the exterior and super serendipitously, a friend of mine from long ago answered the call. I took a risk, pitched a concept and he was beyond supportive. I freaked out for a few months and then, finally, in the fall of 2022, The Rainbow was born.

It is an ephemeral experiment in creativity, in experience, and in art! Like I said, I identify as an experience designer in my day job, that means getting super detailed in considering the way humans experience a defined period of time in a space. At the Rainbow, it’s the same. I ask questions like how do I want people to feel after this? What do they need to know? What do I want them to know? How can we facilitate connections between them? How can we create a container within which they can be free to X, whatever the goal is.   Questions like these and more plus the flexibility of a model like this enabled me to run funky risky tests from the jump. I did and I learned a LOT in the process. And also had a ton of fun.

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

I’m an experience designer and artist who has been doing art in my head for longer than I’d like to admit. Only in the last few years have I really committed to doing vs thinking about doing and me oh my has it been wonderful. As an artist – whether my canvas is an experience or an actual canvas – I aim to shift people’s awareness in a meaningful way. Dont think youre creative? I’ll show you you are. Think art isn’t for you? Feel you’re not seen? Think play is just for kids? Have trouble keeping perspective? These are all questions I think about constantly and aim to weave into my art always.

The Rainbow is a demonstration of my doing vs just thinking about doing. I’m a community builder naturally and during the pandemic I started really paying attention to the things that call to me – and taking action on them. The Rainbow in its current form is an art and experience space, an ephemeral experiment in playful creativity and connection, but it’s more of a concept, a vibe, it’s a mind and heart set. It’s a space to safely take chances, to feel free and seen, to make things, and to play.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I’m pulled to productivity and efficiency for sure. So much so that I miss things sometimes. While these skills can be super helpful as an entrepreneur and I’m happy I have access to them, I have to make sure I’m using them for good and to be impactful rather than being productive for the sake of being so. A frame my coach really helped me think about this through is to map my actions to my values. The relevant one here for me is efficiency for impact. By adding the for impact, I assign purpose to my efficiency. For example, if I clean the counter top after a meal, I’m being efficiently impactful because I’m keeping my kitchen safe and clean for my family. If I wipe it down 8 times or move a dishtowel around from place to place or – you get the idea – it’s not impactful. Living through this frame has really shifted the way I spend my time and my awareness of it. I’ve had to unlearn and relearn that a lot… sometimes daily if I’m honest.

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

The vacancy to vibrancy concept allowed me access to a space for a reasonable rent. This freedom plus knowing that the space had a built in end date created a container within which I could create and test freely. I made calculated financial decisions based on tests I wanted to run. The goal – and I acknowledge this privilege – was not primarily financial, rather, I thought of the business feasibility as one of the core metrics among many. This allowed me not to define my success on being ‘in the green’ but rather, if I was able to make a community impact the way I wanted to. Again I’ll say, this was a total privilege and I did my best to share the space with others, come up with creative collaborative pricing models, etc to share this privilege beyond myself. It’s also important to note this is not my full time job. I do work a ‘normal’ job so that also played an important role.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.therainbowsd.com
• Instagram: @therainbowsd

Image Credits
Sydney Valiente