Art and the Zen of Bicycle Maintenance
When I lived in DC, one of my favorite local orgs was Art Enables, a non-profit studio and gallery for artists with mental and/or developmental disabilities — or, as they say in their much-catchier tag line: “Outsider art, inside the Beltway.”
I’m still on their mailing list, and I got a postcard yesterday for an event I’d definitely attend if I were in town:
What: Art and the Zen of Bicycle Maintenance
When: Saturday, May 15, 2010, from 3-5pm
“The artists at Art Enables work at making the best outsider art inside the Beltway. The young people in training at Phoenix Bikes learn entrepreneurship from running a bike shop. They also make bike art. Karma.”
Two great community orgs coming together to produce a creative event… I love it. It reminds me of a theme from my work life over the past few years: collaboration. Right now I’m wrapping up a project that brings together 12 public media organizations to cover the economic crisis, based on the premise that what they can create together is greater than the sum of its parts. Not exactly the same as a bike shop and arts org putting on a show together… but actually, not so different. In both cases, partners will reach more people together than they did alone; and in both cases, the output is something neither org could have created in isolation.
For more of my thoughts on collaboration, check out this blog post I wrote for MediaShift.
How about you? What experience do you have working on projects involving more than one organization? Or, what co-productions or partnerships have you admired from afar?
I believe the image above is by Art Enables artist Jamila Rahimi
My latest collaboration has been with two other guidebook authors. We initially teamed up to work together on book signings and events. It’s been nice having partners in this process. We split up the jobs and sell each other. It’s much better than going it alone.
Our work together has led to us creating a travel blog together (http://arizonatravelandadventure.com) and now we’re working on a book project together. We really like the brainstorming that occurs when we meet. And even though we are three different female personalities, each of us opinionated, we respect that about each other and get along well. I hope we continue collaborating for a long time.
Jackie, glad to hear this partnership has worked out so well for you!
I’m bidding on some projects with another freelancer, for largely the same reasons you list. Having someone to brainstorm with is key for me, and I’ve found that working with someone with complementary skills/temperament leads to ideas for projects that I never would have thought of on my own.
Having a partner also pushes me to take steps on things that I might have just pondered if left to my own devices.