Sapienter

An inspiring day at #LaTricoterie for the #ShiftingEconomyWeek. Merci #LaRecyclerieSociale et #Refoodgees pour votre accueil. Des idées géniales, une vision militante et une ambiance fun. Looking forward to returning with Laurence Bastin because when a kitchen smells that good, you can't stay away long.

The ups and downs of entrepreneurship. I just returned from Quebec, and I’m slow to push Sapientera forward amidst the urge to paint the ideas that fill my mind. I remind myself that I had wait-and-see expectations of what impact Sapientera would have. It was founded in part so that I can learn about other artists’ experience in Brussels. I have coaching to look forward to with Womenpreneur-Initiative and Trianon Scientific Communication, a TRACE Support Programme for tourism SMEs conference on eco-circularity, and a partner project with SimulArte in Udine. So off to it!

Preparing a pitch is a time to reflect on the past half-year, and journaling about it has been surprisingly restorative and delightful.?How has Sapientera progressed? In a different direction than I imagined! With Trianon Scientific Communication, we’re coming up with a baseline so we can better assess our social and environmental impact in the coming years. And to make allowances for our non-stop questioning and adapting to new information. Who else is using birch paper as a nameplate?

Overwhelmed and without many reference points in Belgium, I took the “Supporting Individual Artists” online training, offered through Americans for the Arts in 2020. After witnessing arts institutions shift to CYA-mode during the pandemic, many of them not present for artists, I resolved to directly serve artists in some way or another. I groped around for ideas for a couple of years – which eventually led to building Sapientera. Turns out, all the answers were in the textbook! Using my class notes as a starting point, I’m freewriting my way to a strategy for the next year. Grateful to Americans for the Arts and Black Chick Media, LLC for planting those seeds. #serviceleadership #supportingartists #solidaritywithartists #artsmanagement #entrepreneurship #americansforthearts #artsinbelgium #emergingartists #artsactivism #freewriting

More info coming in the autumn on the feasibility of an artistic exchange between jazz artists in northeast Italy and emerging artists in Brussels.

A goal met: I'm using the slower summer weeks to finally work through the Adobe Illustrator tutorial book, which gave me the tools I was missing to compose our letterhead. It's satisfying to learn this software, it was on my to-do list for the past decade! Illustrator has become far more complicated in the meantime. Next up, Premiere Pro!

Bootstrapping a new enterprise on a shoestring takes a community to put each piece of the puzzle in place. So many people have had a hand in this. I want to highlight Karen El Haddad and John Scapes for their graphic design. John pushed me always further on the logo concept, especially when I felt it was "good enough." Karen helped me think of all the ways we might communicate visually, and thought of a color scheme and uses for the logo. Thank you to these talented designers who do it out of friendship and solidarity. #logodesign #letterbrush #watercolor #learningeveryday

Sapientera’s first general assembly was a humbling, genuine experience. Nowhere near the perfunctory, officious meetings I have heard about. The members brought care and inspired ideas to the evening. I was touched by their commitment to see this project make a difference for emerging artists in Brussels, in a way that is sustainable for me as its founder and that takes into account the way I work. We’re here, we’re doing this work-in-progress, even when it looks insurmountable. It isn’t. #socialimpact #artivism #lowerbarriers #bringupvoices #gatekeepersaside #talentscout #emergingartists #artsinbrussels

Workers' movements and the crafts' environmental sustainability: qu'ont-ils en commun, you ask? Le démantèlement du business as usual, le questionnement du néo-liberalisme. Rester vigilante lorsque quelque chose est présenté comme 'inévitable'. Making Design Circular, Didier Brissa, merci de déculpabiliser, for removing the blindfold, de réintroduire la solidarité and play.

I spent weeks reflecting on vulnerability, solidarity, frustration, invisibility, and allyship, after listening to Katie Treggiden's Making Design Circular MOOC. And then I did a bold, unusual thing (for me). I presented our social impact work as honestly as I could…. to EU staff in a talk organized by the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA). Was it appropriate, well received, or even a smart move? It certainly wasn’t your typical consultancy pitch. It’s messy, but that’s where humans live. The best part was learning from Joke Quintens and Ugo Guarnacci, speaker and moderator. Thank you for letting me follow in your footsteps. #allyship #DEI #socialimpact #artsactivism #Brusselsculture #artistsolidarity