Hearing about the funding opportunities made the weekend in Sackville worthwhile. Meeting like-minded artists was a delightful surprise. This was a great networking opportunity and I particularly pleased to have met Dawn Steeves and Carol Colicutt from Fredericton. When feeling isolated, it is so nice to come across others who speak the same language. I now I am not alone on that sentiment either.
Hearing about good things happening with Visual Arts in NB was promising.
One of the biggest take-aways for me was the importance of exhibiting one's work. Most funding opportunities require it, and it's imperative for creating creative discourse. In my case, I have a couple of huge steps to take before arriving there.
Since I was asked a few times to see some examples of my work, I've realized that you should have something on you. I had my phone with, but have since created an album on it with just ART, so if you pass it to someone to flip through, they also don't have to flip through photos of your family. That was a 2 minute solution. Having a business card or something with a website would be helpful too. I've got all these resources in place for my business, and will have to produce and curate the same for art.
Arriving home, I made a handful of connections online to people that I met over the weekend. I am pleased to be building community.