Working on something meaningful is a common desire – but how? We started asking folks to share the story of how they ended up working on a project they felt was meaningful because we wanted inspiration but also because we wondered if hearing from people from across a range of industries would help us identify patterns making it more likely for anyone to be able to find and work on projects that they would find meaningful.

Edward Dennis

I would say the most meaningful project to date I’ve worked on is my Children’s book. Years ago I worked as a Special Education instructor in the inner city. As a 3rd generation Mexican-American I encountered many children that were 1st generation or immigrants themselves. I often got questions from them during the heated political climate of 2016 about “the Wall”. I didn’t know how to respond to be honest. That is what led me to create my book. Read more>>

Kaigetsu Simovich

The most personally meaningful project I’ve worked on to date is a demo tape called ‘just happy to be here’. It is the debut demo tape for my latest collaborative project, a group called Topeka Clementine, and serves as a series of sonic journal entries that catalogue the various feelings that accompany a fall from grace, struggling with sobriety, and grappling with the acceptance of impermanence. Read more>>

Dylan Dent

The most meaningful project(s) that I’ve worked on is probably my Weirdo series. Specifically the Weirdo 2. I started working on the Weirdo 2 in 2020 before the pandemic started. As the year went on my circumstances changed and I was able to explore my artistry in brand new ways. I went way, way, deeper on the project than I thought I would or even could. I was very meticulous and detail oriented, I tried not to waste a single moment. Read more>>

Anna Mikhaela Reyes

I am currently creating a series of conceptual works based on mental health, trauma, and healing, which encompasses topics from anxiety and depression to narcissism and social stigmas. This work is important to me because not only does it provide me with a medium to tell my own personal experiences, it also helps to form connections with others who have experienced similar situations and challenges in their own mental health and healing journeys. Read more>>

Paige Loehr Author

As a creative, the goal is that every project we work on is meaningful. I knew that my life as an author had to be on my own terms so that I could remain authentic in my work. I remember in high school after discovering my love, passion, and excitement for writing and telling stories. Also upon finding out that I was actually good at writing, I decided to join every creative writing outlet the school provided. I joined the yearbook staff, the newspaper staff, and broadcasting class, and a creative writing class. Read more>>

Wytessa O’Neal

The most meaningful project for me would actually have to be plural and most current. Though knowing I’m an artist/creative, oddly enough, I’ve spent so much time trying to define just me as it pertains to my purpose, while filtering it through the things that I do (which was a stifling mistake). Because of this conundrum, inwardly I sought to emphasize on who I was by highlighting the things that I thought I should do, this produced a duplicitous way of living. Read more>>

Dailen Ogden

The most meaningful project I’ve ever worked on is my current one—a graphic novella called WIFWULF, set to release to the direct market and comic shops in fall 2022, published by Vault Comics. This is a book I co-created with two friends: Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing, and it’s a deeply personal story mined from our separate but parallel experiences with relationship abuse, both experienced and observed. It’s raw and painful, and it’s beautiful, and I’m so proud to have my name on it. Read more>>

BLUVVD

I recently finished my very first mural. It was by far one of the most challenging and meaningful projects I’ve ever undertaken. First of all, I had to figure out a bunch of logistics and learn to paint – something I’d never really done in my career. I even mocked up a section of the design at home on butcher paper the day before I started because I was so worried about messing up! I started in April of 2021 and expected that it would take me about a month to finish up. Read more>>

Brandon Blvd

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on actually occurs Friday, September 23rd 2022 @ the Green Room of Crosstown Arts here in Memphis. In Memphis, there are a lot of underrepresented people. These are awesome and talented individuals that are just trying to make a name for themselves in whatever way they see fit. I first came to this realization reflecting on the stories, journeys, and lives of friends and peers that are from Memphis’ Historic Evergreen District. Read more>>

Big JLD

My most meaningful project? That’s a good question honestly I have multiple but bill say my current project I put ou there will be “welcome home” it has some layers from my life and past. It’s a reflection of dealing with my moms death and over the years of trying to handle it as find things to help me cope with the lost. It was was really tough especially losing her when I was just 16 and my sister on being 13 so this project got some raw emotions that I bottled up and let out making this project. Read more>>

Shayla Sadler

My most meaningful project was with my client Aisha. Aisha is a cancer survivor and her sister, Kiara, reached out to me because she was familiar with my work. She was CONFIDENT that I could give her sister what she needed . Kiara wrote and said,” I was hoping that through the amazing work you do that you could help her see the beauty in her own skin.” She then goes on to describe my work as something that “provokes the natural, beautiful, sexy, confident woman.” Read more>>

Inaya Zuwena

Austin Sober Social Club has been one of the most meaningful projects that I have worked on. What I crave most is a sense of community, a space where people can come together and nurture authentic connections without the presence of alcohol. I wanted this space but couldn’t find this space, thus Austin Sober Social Club was born in October 2021. The Club is an inclusive social space for all who are sober, sober curious, or alcohol-free. Read more>>

Kyle Sigmon

Our first album is really meaningful for me. It was released in August 2022 and contains 15 songs. I had written several of these songs years before our band even existed. I’ve been a singer/songwriter since the early 2000s and always wrote based on what was inspiring me at the moment. At some point in my life I just wanted to make the type of music that I loved listening to, which was a lot of 90’s alternative and early 2000s rock music. I was also just going through some changes and had learned some deep meaningful lessons about life through the hard stuff. Read more>>

Ali Sperry

My latest record, In Front of Us, came out this past spring and is extremely meaningful to me on many levels. Firstly, the recording process was different from any studio experience I have had in the past, due to the constraints of recording it in the thick of the pandemic. The record started to come to life at a time where it felt like the world was still. Read more>>

Paul Helfrich

I have been fortunate to be part of several meaningful projects with symphony orchestras. I think the two most significant things that can happen to an orchestra are a new conductor and a new hall, and I have experience with both – new conductors with the Erie Philharmonic and West Virginia Symphony, and new concert halls with the West Virginia Symphony and the Orlando Philharmonic. Read more>>

Robin Howard

I’m working on the most meaningful project of my career right now, a body of work called Peace Objects. Over the last 20 years, my assemblage work has been characterized by intricate elements tightly packed into wooden shadow boxes or sculptures made from bundles of found objects and textiles. A thread that runs through all of those works is the concept of layers and layers of time and how experiences build to make a life. Read more>>

Karen Durbin

Every home staging or design project I’ve done has been meaningful to me. I love helping people see their homes in a new light — to fall back in love with their space if it’s a design project, and to help buyers fall in love with the space if it’s a real estate staging project. I fall in love with every home I work in, and bring my artistic vision to life. But if I had to say what my absolute favorite project has been, it would be staging a 19th century Victorian for a client who had moved into a retirement community and needed her home to sell fast so she wouldn’t be stuck paying two mortgages. Read more>>

Andy Hanson

The most meaningful project for our band has been learning how to write, rewrite, and produce compelling and meaningful songs. Compelling songs in that they connect to what it truly means to be a human being. We tend to walk a fine line between heavy and dark moments all while celebrating triumphant and meaningful positives throughout our exsistence. We want to write songs that celebrate both of those places and that has been the most rewarding project to date. Read more>>

Keila Dumas

I wrote this poem called “If My Hair Could Talk” while in college at FAMU. I was living this Clark Kent life of being a traveling hair model with L’Oreal/Matrix and coming back and being a regular student. During that time I also co-founded and stayed a member of the campus’ premiere poetry & spoken word group “VOICES” and ended up performing that poem in so many places. At one point, people just called me “the hair poem girl” — like, what? Writing about my personal and spiritual experience with my hair really created so many opportunities for me. It’s really surreal sometimes. Read more>>

Ghost Poetry Show

Ghost Poetry Show in its entirety has been the most meaningful project we’ve worked on. It did not start out that way; however, it has grown into something far beyond what we could have imagined in a year’s time. It started from a place of necessity, when a dozen poets just wanted to have a place to perform and share their work but has blossomed into a community that has impacted far beyond the 12 individuals that initially came together. Read more>>

Laura Spector

Museum Anatomy is the title of the most meaningful project I’ve worked on. I am interested in the history of unseen, stolen, and destroyed paintings. I think of history as a giant tapestry and when an artwork used as a piece of documentation of time goes missing its as if a stitch has been disrupted, creating an aberration in how we understand history. When a painting is stolen there are five parts to the story: The model, the painter, the painting, the collector, and the thief. Read more>>

Shannon McGarvey

This might sound like a cop-out but… Every project I take on is the most meaningful project I’ve worked on. I get to tell stories for a living. How cool is that? And not just any stories. Stories that can affect real change. That’s super meaningful. But I guess if I had to pick, my most meaningful project would be the work I’ve done and continue to do around the Long Island Serial Killer case. I began work on the story in late 2016 as a researcher for what was originally slated to be a documentary film project. Read more>>

Lisa Sharik

In my work at the Texas Military Forces Museum over the past 14 years I have had a number of opportunities to make connections with people or between people. I have helped return items from WWII found in France back to the original soldier or to family members. Objects like a duffle bag left behind after a soldier was injured, a mess kit, a letter to a soldier found in a barn and most recently an ID tag found on the ground in France which I was able to return to the son of the veteran. Read more>>

Jan and Rick Swanson

Janet: I sew custom quilts using t-shirts from the recipients childhood. These quilts are usually gifts from the parent, who saved the child’s t-shirts over the years. They make a great high school graduation gift, especially if the child is going off to college. As far as my painting, years ago I did a series of wall murals in the nursing home where I worked. The residents enjoyed the murals, rather than just having plain drab walls. That meant a lot to me. Read more>>

Temitope Peters

I try to pair all of my music projects with an educational resources that helps to integrate the methodologies of my lyrics into the listeners’ daily life. Kind of sounds like brain-washing seeing that typed out , however, the reality is that media is a teacher. The reality is daily life IS affected by what media we consume so I figure, if I recognize that to be the case, then I can be really intentional in WHAT I am creating. Read more>>

Randy Louis

I think currently the most meaningful project I’ve worked on is the one I’m working on right now. All in part because everything feels fresh and all new to me. I’ve been trying to follow-up the last record I put out and doing a sequel type EP for ‘Love on TV’ for a while but nothing was really working until just recently. Which has been a maze on its own but I don’t know. This one feels fun. I’m loving it so far. I hope it’s not too long now. I don’t want to say too much but to just get ready for number 2 :D Read more>>

Latifah ShaDaé

I’m currently working on a super meaningful project right now. It’s been in the works for a while now and I’m so proud of where I am with it. Back in 2019 I went on tour in China. I spent time in Beijing, Xian, Nanjing, Suzhou, Yangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Island, and Shanghai. I was there to study Chinese art and history. My experience there inspired this collection I’m working on. Read more>>

Brittany Bouyer

It’s definitely a personal project I created in 2021 in response to the first threat on women’s right to choose that was announced in Texas. I had such an immediate gut punch reaction I didn’t know how to respond with words so I sketched a floral uterus on the plane coming back from a trip with my husband. As soon as I got home, I started illustrating more details using my iPad and shared it on my instagram almost immediately and the responses were incredible. So many women were telling me how this lit them on fire to stand up for themselves! Read more>>

Eric Bradley

All my poems are meaningful to me. These last two books I’ve written, are the most well thought out an therapeutic poems put together. First book titled “Becoming Of Age” I asked a question, its gear towards the fellas because we mature later on in life in certain areas. The question was when did you feel like you’ve became mature? This question I even asked myself, there were times I was immature in my decision making. It is also thought provoking, it really has a person check themselves an many different ways. My poems reflect on different situations in my life i had to grow from. Read more>>

Kristen Ford

I would say making music and being a storyteller is a meaningful job for me. Every other gig I’ve held has led to boredom, disappointment, and disillusionment. Of course pursuing music can also be those things, but I’ve been writing songs and playing guitar for 20 years, and I still find reasons to love it. Read more>>

Nicholas Velasquez

All of them have been meaningful to me to be honest but to pick just one; I’d have to say is SEQUEL: CRUEL SUMMER – PART 2. It’s meaningful to me because the team is highly different than any other team I’ve worked with so far. Very polite with everyone no matter how stressful a day might be, people are always ON TIME for their scenes and know their lines professionally. I’d say the director; SCOTT TEPPERMAN really knows how to get a team together and successfully create a horror/thriller movie. Read more>>

Meagan Wright

The most meaningful project that I have worked on is the non profit that I started, Gather People. I think sometimes we don’t set out to do something “meaningful”, I think often the seed that gets sown that produces those meaningful things comes from frustration and desperation to fix an injustice or problem. At the time that I never set out to start yet another non profit to engage artists, especially musicians with the questions of what it would look like to be healthy, emotionally and physically and then use our creative abilities to serve other artists and our communities. Read more>>

Ameena Zeeba

The Tiger Project ! Last year I while visiting the Indian forest in Bhandavgarah to see and photograph tigers I got a opportunity to do something and get involved in a conservation project. I immediately fell in love with majestic creature and started learning more of the difficulties that came to the tigers in their habitats and one of the emerging problem is dried up water holes. Read more>>

Vincent White

The most meaningful project that I’ve worked on is my (now published) memoir entitled: “Finding Chris, My Father”. It is a coming-of-age story about my life growing up in Richmond, Va. dealing with fatherlessness and loss of identity. Growing up, my “father” was a habitual offender, so he was in and out of jail/prison. My mother wanted to protect him, told me that he was in school; and use to bring me to see him frequently over the years (until I figured out that he wasn’t). Read more>>