We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Randy Dence. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Randy below.
Randy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
The idea for the business grew from our founder Kaili’s experiences of providing art lessons over zoom during the covid lockdown. While some children readily took to the online learning experience other children seemed to struggle in the absence of more personal interaction and feedback. Based on our desire to meet the needs of all types of learners we decided to open Whitepine Studios in the summer of 2021 and offer classes and workshops for all ages and abilities. At this time, we also decided to develop a full mobile studio that could take our classes to those not yet comfortable in coming to our studio…we retain the mobile studio today and still provide art classes to a wide variety of learning and living communities.
Once we opened our studio and began classes, workshops and celebrations we were truly able to pursue our mission of “Inspiring the Artist Inside”.
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.
The mission of Whitepine Studios is to teach the fundamentals of art and design in a fun and supportive environment. Whitepine Studios has developed an extensive variety of classes and art themed events for all ages and artistic abilities.
Product & Services include:
• Art Classes and Camps
• Private Lessons
• Painting pARTys and Events
• Art Gallery
• Mobile Art Studio
Kaili’s commitment to art instruction has been the driving force behind Whitepines Studios’ remarkable rise. Her fervor for teaching and her mission to make art accessible to individuals of all ages and skill levels have been fundamental to the gallery’s evolution. It is through Kaili’s imagination and ability to connect with students that Whitepine Studios developed their unique tagline “Inspiring the Artist Inside”.
Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?
We opened our studio in the summer of 2021, and we were profoundly humbled by the excitement and joy we saw in the faces of our young campers and birthday party participants. The need to create and socialize is an extremely important part of the human condition. We frequently hear comments like “best birthday party ever” or “my child’s whole outlook has changed”.
We clearly met the need of a post-covid society and soon out grew our original space. Our first art camp in summer of 2022 was oversubscribed and we had to turn away campers. This led us to open a beautiful new space in spring of 2023. In our beautiful new space, we will be able to accommodate over twice as many campers and provide better camp experience by separating the camps into groups of younger and older children.
While the immediate impact of the new venue will focus on our art camp business, perhaps the most important long-term impact on both Wp and the Saline community will be our ability to offer a dedicated art gallery space and a unique, visually appealing space for adult classes and events. This open, flexible, and attractive Main Street space will serve as an evening adult destination for creating, crafting, shopping, and socializing.
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
We have met our aggressive growth goals through three main sources. The first is word of mouth. Our exceptional art experiences lead to the development of a very strong referral network. Mothers love to tell the stories of great birthday parties to their friends and family. This leads to their children’s friends and siblings booking art parties of their own. Almost every art party leads to 2 or 3 future bookings.
Second is our business partners and business events. We offer both in-studio and a mobile art studio that serves business customers like home schools, senior living communities, church groups, business outings and special education classes. This exposure has raised our profile in the community, provided positive PR and introduced us to many new customers.
Third, we maintain an active social media presence on Instagram, Linked-in, X and have over 1,200 followers on Facebook. Our web site was created by Tyler our Technical Director and is integrated with an award winning registration application. Registrations can be received and paid for 24×7 365 days a year. The ability easily view, select, and pay for a class has been a key driver in customer growth and satisfaction.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://whitepinestudios.org/
- Instagram: @whitepinestudiosart
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whitepinestudiosart/
- Twitter: @WhitepineStudi1
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/whitepine-studios-saline
Image Credits
All photos were taken by Randy Dence the Marketing Director at Whitepine Studios.