Community, Collaboration and Fundraising
I have been thinking a lot about creative community, collaborating and how to best raise the funds to make space for these opportunities and relationships with other artists. My Portuguese friend, Mariana and I have been collaborating on a project we call Com Fusion (it’s a mix of Portuguese and English that means With Fusion) since 2021 now. It started with a visit to Mariana’s studio in Portugal, and the conversation lead us to start planning collaborative collections of work between us, and the bigger project of creating a Ceramics Community Center together in Portugal.
Mariana and Nicole at the opening of Com-Fusion in Caldas da Rainha, Portugal
So far, Mariana and I have created two full bodies of collaborative work together: one during the summer of 2022 in Portland, and another in spring 2023 in Portugal. The work has been such great learning for both of us, and has been so well received, we are eager to do it again here in Portland this summer. The hope is that Mariana will come to Portland for a four week artist residency with me, and we’ll have time to produce both a small pre-order of our more popular designs AND new work for a shop update, plus do some planning for the bigger community center goals.
I brought three pieces of our collaborative work back with me from Portugal, and have posted pages for each of them all on my website (images above), but instead of buying them outright, we are selling $5 raffle tickets for each one as a fundraiser to help cover the costs of Mariana’s travel, and provide a little income while she’s here creating, and not making money teaching workshops back in Portugal.
Why do we need to fundraise for this? Great question! Portugal is actually one of the poorer countries in the EU, and the minimum wage there is just 760 euros a month! So taking four weeks off from working (and boy does this lady work so hard!) AND paying for a plane ticket to the US ($1,000-$1500 with luggage, and airport transit) is a really big sum for her to come up with. So we’re hoping to raise $2500 to cover her travel, and have some left over for expenses while she’s here, and her bills back home.
Mariana working on one of our collab pieces last March.
As I think about how to raise the money we’ll need to start our ceramics community center, I can’t help thinking about utilizing the community I’ve been working so hard to build - on Instagram, through emails, and through my relationships with other amazing ceramic artists, as a means to help raise awareness and money to make our community center dream a reality. How? I’m hoping to offer space in my home studio for other ceramic artists to come and collaborate with me on making work, and sharing bigger ideas and resources for the planning of the community center. If artists can’t make it to Portland, I hope to collaborate through the mail (like I did with Adrienne Oates back in 2021… although I am working on getting her to visit and collab in person this time!), and we’ll save at least one, one-of-a-kind creation to raffle off, to continue raising funds for the community center. A community center built and paid for by the community it will serve and support. It’s a lofty idea, but I’m up for the challenge and so excited to share progress as we move along.
What is the vision for the ceramics community center? My high level plan is to create a space for local (portuguese) artists to create work, have access to kilns, wheels, and other ceramic equipment that is expensive and hard to acquire for one person. Artists will be able to rent space, buy blocks of studio time and rent kilns. We’d also like to offer workshops on traditional Portuguese ceramic styles and techniques, like majolica, moroccan tile painting, mosaics, and other ceramics skills like wheel throwing, and handbuilding. We’ll also host foreign (American and other nationalities) artists for residencies and retreats, and have a cooperative gallery space to show and sell artists work. It’s a giant undertaking, but I have literally been dreaming of this since my early twenties (and I’m 45 now).
This is the “Emerald Palace”. It needs a ton of work, and is WAY out of our price range, but a girl can dream, right?
I even found my dream building in Caldas da Rainha, Portugal, to house this community center! Of course, it’s way out of my budget and needs a ton of work, but other than that it’s perfect. ha ha. I’ve dubbed it the Emerald Palace, and if I can find a way to acquire this space and build the community center of my dreams, I am going to do it! Of course, the start up capital for that is lacking, so we are also researching grants, crowdfunding and more approachable spaces to build the community center. We’re exploring more realistic options as well- don’t worry.
All this is to say, when you see me posting about raffling or auctioning various ceramic items off, all of those proceeds will go towards purchasing studio equipment, and building the community center in Portugal. I am determined to make this thing happen, and am so grateful for all the help and encouragement along the way. If you have questions, ideas, or words of encouragement, please do leave a comment or send me a note. I always love to hear from you all.
I’ll be sharing updates as I have them. You can sign up for my email news if you want to know more, or be notified when new pots are available on my site.