The tables are already set up by the time the kids arrive. One of them is an artist the age of seven. She’s been quietly working on her craft, checking out the Greenhill website and painting portraits of the animals who need a home, something she thinks a lot about. She’s priced her portraits and practiced her pitch. She’s nervous but she knows this is important. These animals matter. By the end of the inaugural First Friday Youth Art Marketplace, she’ll have raised over $600 for Greenhill and even helped some of those pets find a home, but something even more important will have happened. That little girl will have had her first glimpse of what it looks like to be a part of the creative economy that thrives in Eugene. She’ll see a pathway and a place for herself and her future in this community that didn’t exist hours before.
Lane Arts Council is doing something incredible next month at the second annual First Friday Youth Arts Marketplace. They are crafting a space where young artists in our community can practice entrepreneurship, public speaking, philanthropy and belonging.
Economists call this the creative economy: the web of artists, designers, technicians, educators and makers whose work fuels culture, business innovation and community identity.
Lane Arts Council is helping ensure Eugene’s creative economy stays vibrant while showing the next generation that they belong at the center of it. On the surface, it’s a joyful scene with kids selling paintings, teens showcasing design projects, and young musicians performing. But the reality is much more strategic. Eugene’s creative workforce is being built in plain sight…