Last weekend, I displayed my art in public (and, for sale) for the first time. I've been prepping for this for months and focused mainly on producing the expected number of pieces (15 đ” !). I was in the final days when Wesley Griffin asked me what I think might have been a slightly facetious question: "So what's the Impact Business Model?"We talked about something simple at first - a donation model. Each piece has 2 prices: one price for the creature, and one price $15 higher that corresponds with a $25 donation to one of five non profits (buyers choice). That felt nice. But ultimately, even if all 5 non profits were chosen equally and every buyer chose to donate, that amounted to $75 per non profit. A symbolic gesture - but, anyone who knows The Impact Collective PDX knows we're not really about lip service.The brainstorming that started with Wes continued with Rebecca Goldcrump. And then what started as a casual art show at a cafe I frequent turned into a new creative endeavor that serves one of our pillars of impact: The Collective's Vision of a Better World. Donations are great but we want people to take action - we want a donation to turn into a curiosity about that non profit to turn into volunteering to turn into collective action. So, the theme of the show and the story behind it was born: Creatures of Impact. Each piece comes with a suggested direct action.
But I couldn't stop there. I started thinking about sewing circles, which historically served as subversive political spaces for women, providing a venue for organizing, activism, and voicing opinions particularly during times when we were excluded from public discourse. These gatherings empowered women to fundraise for causes, advocate for suffrage and abolition, and express dissent through protest art.So then I made an Instagram, and then I made a website. I have a vision for a collective endeavor - where other artists contribute to the site and the "price" is a direct action. And then people take their creatures along on those actions and snap pics and tag @creaturesofimpact on Instagram and inspire more people to take action and so on and so on and so on! This is getting really long so I'm gunna wrap it up - what I want to close on is this: I was able to move from a spark of an idea to a plan to execution because The Impact Collective has a framework that we base all of our decisions on. That framework guides us towards our vision that the strength of the collective determines the success of the economy.
When I brought this idea to Rebecca, suggested it be a TIC initiative, it was about 3 minutes later that we were able to place it squarely in one of our pillars; tie it to the outputs of "Connecting whole humans within our community" (measured by the number of connections made within our community) and "Collective effervescence" (measured by the number of connection events facilitated); and map it to the desired outcome of "An expansive community strengthened by multi-faceted, deepening and reciprocal relationships" (measured by the number of overlapping connections within our community, number of contacts who moved to the next phase of relationship, length of relationships).Creatures of Impact is just getting started - the show is the first chapter, not the whole story. If something here resonated, come find us: follow along on Instagram @creaturesofimpact, pick up a piece and take the action that comes with it (currently on display at Bula Kava House on Division), or reach out if you want to bring this kind of intentionality to your own work through The Impact Collective. However you show up, you're part of the collective, and we're so glad you're here.
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