KANE — PA Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship invites visual artists and graphic designers in the Pennsylvania Wilds that are working to scale their businesses to compete in an innovative new investment program, the Artisan Collaborative.
The new program, which will run through December, will invest in rural artists to help them develop and bring to market new PA Wilds branded products to meet growing consumer demand. Professional Juried Artists in the Wilds Cooperative of PA (WCO) network who specialize in visual arts and graphic design are eligible to apply and will be selected through a competitive application process.
Four artists will be accepted into the pilot, where they will be paired up to a rural manufacturer or producer and collaborate with that company and the nonprofit PA Wilds Center to develop and bring to market new consumer products that align with the PA Wilds brand values. The artists will be paid for their designs, and have professional development opportunities, including marketing, expanding their business-to-business network, access to new markets, and referrals to resources to help them continue to scale their businesses beyond the scope of the project.
Participating artists will be paid $5,000 each for their designs, and receive $1,000 in professional development support. The Center will also cover $10,000 in start-up inventory from each manufacturer for the new product lines, support third-party distribution logistics, and invest $6,000 in marketing the products and partnerships behind them. All told, each artisan-manufacturer partnership will see a $22,000 investment.
“We see this as a unique opportunity to work collaboratively with both local artisans and manufacturers to bring new products to market that reflect this region’s beauty, bounty and rural traditions,” said Abbi Peters, PA Wilds Center’s chief operating officer.
Four established rural manufacturers or producers have partnered with the PA Wilds Center on the pilot project and will be paired up with the artists selected, including: Organic Climbing/Nittany Mountain Works in Centre County; St. Marys Box Company in Elk County; Xtreme Wear in Clearfield County and Laughing Owl Press in McKean County. Products to be developed may include branded shipping boxes, stationary sets, coasters, cards, shirts, hats, hoodies, totes and bags, and more.
The Artisan Collaborative is being launched with funding support from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Richard King Mellon Foundation, the U.S. Economic Development Administration and the Appalachian Regional Commission.
Peters said the hope is to expand the pilot in coming years and to include other types of artisans, manufacturers and products.
Visual artists and graphic designers interested in learning more about the 2024 Artisan Collaborative can visit WildsCoPA.org/artisan-collaborative to learn more and apply by Aug. 16.
