On October 18 I interviewed two artists who have used Kickstarter.com's website funding resource to 
raise money to enable them to complete art projects. Casey Sheppard, a jeweler from Lincoln, NE, started her project on the site last Spring when she was accepted into the Cherry Creek Arts Festival. She was moving into her first big show and short of resources for the booth fee and the materials she would need to create the jewelry for the show.
Evan Reinheimer, who specializes in aerial kite photography is from Long Island, NY. His project is live on the site now and has 10 days until his funding deadline. He is trying to raise money for a shooting trip to Australia this winter.
This episode recounts how they used the resources at Kickstarter. They talk about how to do it, tips for someone new, what they learned along the way and about how much work it was, because the essence of it is you have to ask strangers to support you. The cool thing about being a supporter is that you are not only pledging money you are actually an investor in their projects and at completion of the project you receive a "reward."
Here is Casey's project: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/37372733/casey-sheppard-jewelry-collection-for-cherry-creek?ref=live
Here is Evan's project: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1986082413/kite-aerial-photography-in-australia?ref=live
Evan is still raising money to fund his trip. Visit the site and "friend" him and share his links on your sites (free), or pledge (not free)! If his project doesn't get fully funded he gets nothing. If it does you will get a reward.
Listen to the podcast here:
Comments
Here's a great article from ArtInfo.com that talks about arts groups carrying on and finding their own funding withouth government help: http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/834732/3-models-cash-strapped-art...
I certainly will Connie....the idea is "marinating" in my head now.........;)
Cool, Cheyenne. Nice project.
That was one of the topics we covered pretty thoroughly, the work to get the project funded. But don't we all work very hard to get to the shows, market the work to the attendees, there is a lot of time involved in all the outreach to customers. And that is what we do -- it is all of a piece. One of the joys of being an artist is being able to incorporate all parts of your life into a lifestyle that feeds creativity. You don't have to go off to a job and turn off those essential parts of your life.
Let us know when your next project comes up.
GREAT! I used Kickstarter almost 3 years ago to raise funds for a nostalgic photo series and project called; "Ghosts of the West"....I was successful and was able to publish a book and do a Gallery exhibit of this series in Ancient Light Gallery which I owned in Scottsdale Arizona for a few years. It is a great forum to help get GOOD projects off the ground.....here is my project - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/494231038/ghosts-of-the-west-ph... and here are some of the results of that project - http://ancientlightphotos.photoshelter.com/gallery/Ghosts-of-the-We... - this project for me was all about preserving so much of the Old West and Southwest through my photos that is all but disappearing....I still continue to shoot these nostalgic and beautiful subjects. I have another project in mind that I might be posting to Kickstarter again soon......fund raising is a lot of work and very time consuming and my main goal was ALWAYS to get my "donors/sponsors" their "rewards" as fast as possible ....without them I could NOT have done it.......thanks!!!!!