by Dan Perkins
Her
business card says it all. At the top of
the vertically formatted card is a picture of
a series of one hundred dollar bills fanning out
as though arranged and held by a bank teller.
The bottom of the card reads: "NO MORE STARVING
ARTISTS!"
The card aptly
communicates what Nerissa Street is all
about.
Street, 31, is founder and CEO of The
Artist Initiative, Inc., a South
Florida-based venture committed to helping
artists succeed artistically as well as
entrepreneurially.
Street’s business card also
establishes the purpose of her organization.
Beneath The Artist
Initiative name is its
mission: Creating Wealth for Artists.
The latest and
most compelling manifestation of Street’s
mission is the Collabo exhibit, which
features a collection of emerging visions
created by individuals Street calls “artist-entrepreneurs.” The exhibit, which runs through
January 20, 2007, is located in Gallery 6,
on the sixth floor of the Broward County Main
Library in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The
exhibit features the work of five South Florida
artists: Khrys Kelly, Ed King, Francesca
Lalanne, Caiphus Moore, and Tonietta Walters.
“If you’re an
artist and you’re looking for ways to make money
with your work, to find multiple streams of
income, The Artist Initiative is where you want
to be,” said Street to a gathering at the December
2nd opening of the Collabo exhibit.
“We’re building a community of people who
believe that artists should not starve. We
support each other and believe everyone can be
successful.”
Street is an up
and coming visionary in South Florida's entrepreneurial and creative
communities. She is driven by a clear sense of
purpose, unquestionable resolve and boundless
energy.
Street’s first
venture under The Artist Initiative moniker was a
series of lectures entitled the Wealthy
Artists Series.
“The Wealthy
Artists Series grew out of my desire to help
artists become more business savvy,” explained
Street who intends to turn the series into a
regular offering.
The idea for the series came to Street
while she was a manager at a
local bookstore owned by a major chain. At the store,
Street frequently interacted with artists whom
she said had
no idea how to market their work or how to
connect with people that might be willing to
invest in their work.
“They would come,
present their work, but would not follow up with
prospective patrons,” recalled Street.
Frustrated by an
array of missed
opportunities, Street designed the Wealthy
Artists Series to help artists function as
business people.
“The information
presented in the series is what every entrepreneur needs to succeed,”
said Street. “Artists can no
longer rely exclusively on charity or grants.
Grants come and go; but if you have business
skills, you can prepare for the ebbs and flow of
the market.”
Perhaps the word that bests describes Street’s approach to
developing business, including her own, is
COLLABORATION.
While forming The
Artist Initiative, Street teamed up with an
equally imaginative and resourceful individual,
Ed King.
King is an artist and graphic
designer who steadily provides Street with first-hand
evidence of the enormous potential for artists
to succeed as entrepreneurs. King, a
self-described neo-pop artist, sells his
colorful paintings along side merchandise he
creates through his business entity,
Kaleidoscope Conspiracy.
King is also a
member of several business networking
associations that have enabled him to expose his
creativity and brand to a wide array of South Florida business
owners. Through one of his business networks,
King formed an alliance with the owners of a local
coffeehouse who
use a logo he designed to market their establishment
and select blends of coffee. In exchange, the coffeehouse
now carries King's
line of merchandise. King sees
the arrangement as a mutually beneficial way to
build public awareness for his art.
Street is intent
on empowering other artists to develop equally
innovative approaches to marketing their art.
During the opening
of Collabo, Street announced that the Dade
Community Foundation has agreed to establish
a fund to support artist-entrepreneurs. Street
will help define the criteria for grants that the foundation
will help fund. According to Street, all
proceeds from the sale of the works featured in
Collabo will go towards the fund.
The unanticipated,
but welcomed
announcement is evidence that others in South
Florida share Streets’ conviction that it is
time for artists to succeed - not only creatively,
but also as entrepreneurs.
dibVIDEO:
diversityinbusiness.com talks with
Collabo Organizer, NERISSA STREET
The End
