Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Wendy Hickey. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Wendy , appreciate you joining us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?
Mine is a creative journey with a twist. For nearly 20 years I was in sales, national sales, sales management in the billboard industry. The creative is really what drew me into the out of home industry and when I wasn’t on sales calls you would find me collaborating with the design team. In early 2000’s I was serving on a local arts council and it occurred to me the best service I could be doing for local artists, was putting their art on our billboards!
This was all the way back in 2002 when a very grass roots effort was born.
I was able to get serious about ArtPop, the 501c3 nonprofit I founded and gave it a name and a mission in 2013. Our programming hit the streets in 2014 and as they say the rest is history.
One my most proud moments is when I was able to become our first employee on May 1, 2018. I have been promoting and serving local artists and making art accessible to everyone in the Charlotte, NC/SC region.
Something that could have sped up the process, was knowing how to run a nonprofit and to fundraise for long term funding.
Regardless, we are joyfully celebrating our 10 year Anniversary of our “official” mission.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
ArtPop Street Gallery is a 501c3 nonprofit organization the promotes local artists small businesses and equips them to achieve sustainable success. While simultaneously making art accessible to everyone in the Charlotte, NC Region and our artists works of all visual art disciplines are featured, locally, regionally, nationally and sometimes internationally! On billboards, static, digital, spectaculars, Times Square, every type of display screen or structure imaginable.
We have four pillars of our mission, our Cities Program, Inspiration Projects, Events and Upcycling.
What I am most proud of is the community we have built, hundreds of artists, inspiring and uplifting each other and our community! When our artists succeed, we succeed!
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
See them, value them, pay them, artists offer creative solutions to most any problem, so hire them, commission them, don’t ask them to do something for free if it does not make sense to the artist to do so.
Artists are small business, treat them as such. Art belongs everywhere, support your local artists!
If you are not in a position to collect art, there are so many ways to support artists, through social media, likes, follows, shares and kind comments go very far! Tell a friend about a local artist you love!
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
Since I am not an artist, but I am an art promotor, the passion started with a love of creative and a gift for marketing/pr
When speaking with most artists, they often say the same thing, I don’t know how to market myself, how do I get my name out there, how do I connect with the community, how do I get paid opportunities? I knew I had to do this work.
Contact Info:
- Website: ArtPopStreetGallery.com
- Instagram: @ArtPopStreetGallery
- Facebook: ArtPop Street Gallery
- Linkedin: ArtPop Street Gallery
- Twitter: ArtPopStGallery
- Youtube: ArtPop Street Gallery
- Other: You can also find our archived art on Google Arts and Culture – ArtPop Street Gallery
Image Credits
In order – 1- David Bulfin @bulfin 2- @HotPicKorea 3-Melody Roberts, CEO, Out of Home Creative @outofhomecreative 4- Alex Cason – @zandercason 5- Alex Cason 6-Alex Cason