We were lucky to catch up with Zoë Roché recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Zoë thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
Blue Barn City Farm was an idea that came to my husband, Angel and I as we stood in our enormous, empty front yard in Tarzana. I had just finished up treatment for Breast Cancer and wouldn’t be returning to my 17 yearlong office job. We knew we needed to do some landscaping and we started talking about the space as if we were making it to share. “This will be where the yoga classes are, over here can be a big meeting space with a fire pit, let’s make a goat pen here so people can visit” The knowledge that we were building a community space was just there, like “of course!” Once the yard took shape, we hosted a few events to see what worked best. Yoga on the lawn worked and so did a ceramics class! Blue Barn City Farm aims to be a grounded, accessible, genuine and friendly outdoor venue. A real retreat within the city. Unfussy. We knew it would work because we were creating something we wanted for ourselves as well as something we wanted to share.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I loved, studied and practiced art from a very young age. An emotionally expressive child in a Los Angeles progressive school, I was supported and encouraged by teachers and family to endlessly express myself through dance, paint and clay. I eventually earned my BFA in Visual Arts from Bennington College. I loved the idea of Ceramics but was too impatient to feel successful in the medium and actually shifted my major away from it. I started practicing clay arts again 30 years later as a way to heal after breast cancer and it turned into the most therapeutic thing I’ve ever done for myself. For me it was a grounded meditation, so much more about the process than the result. I was hooked! Once I set up my home studio and started “making work” I felt that familiar cloud of expectation and impatience return, totally inhibiting my creative flow. One night after a dinner party some friends followed me to the studio and I handed them each a hunk of clay. They asked me what to make or told me they weren’t creative and I just encouraged them to smoosh the clay. The calm that rushed in was palpable. That was when I realized that my practice alone was unbalanced and that facilitating others would restore the balance and the flow. Leading children and adults through their own personal creative journeys with Clay is just as dear to me as finding my own path. The lessons are always reciprocal, playful exploration is contagious and end products are never the goal. The finished, glazed works picked up 3 weeks later are simply artifacts from the archeological dig in to yourself.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
I rely heavily on 3rd party sites like Class Bento, Course Horse and Class Pass. I feel like the marketing they do really drives local customers our way and I appreciate how streamlined they’ve made the booking process as well.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
We are definitely still building it and I believe that we offer a genuine, safe and welcoming space for everyone to explore creativity and themselves.
Contact Info:
- Website: Bluebarncityfarm.com
- Instagram: @bluebarncityfarm
- Other: https://classbento.com/blue-barn-city-farm
Image Credits
Zoë Roché