Matt Connarton Unleashed: Mosaic Art Collective (Liz, Hannah, Atlas)

0:00 Speaker 1: Joining us now in the studio. So we have Liz from the Mosaic Art Collective. And Liz, this is your third time on the show.

0:08 Speaker 2: Second third, I think this is my second time.

0:10 Speaker 1: Second, Okay, all right, And you've got Hannah and Atlas with you, and they are first timers on the show. Yes, I did meet Hannah at the at the last event, right last. Oh that was last weekend. Actually, it all becomes a blur. And and I'm meeting Atlas for the first time, and you are the I'm pretty sure you're the first individual named Atlas I've ever met, so welcome to the show. So, Hannah, what what is your involvement with Mosaic Art Collective.

0:43 Speaker 3: I am one of the resident artists. Mosaic is, for those that don't know, is a gallery with a gallery hosted inside and four artists studios. So I'm lucky enough to be one of the four. And I'm also the secretary of the Mosaic Are Collective board.

1:04 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, and Atlas, how about you?

1:07 Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm one of them.

1:09 Speaker 1: Pull up, pull up, mic over it and yeah, you gotta be right on it.

1:12 Speaker 5: I'm the head of pr for a Mosaic I've been with him since June.

1:16 Speaker 1: And lean lean over a little bit, so you're like, you got to talk right good. Yeah, that's that's the worst micu okay in the room unfortunately.

1:25 Speaker 4: Yeah, so I was. I'm now pead of pr for Mosaic.

1:29 Speaker 1: Okay.

1:29 Speaker 5: I've been with the Mosaic since June and I've just been trying to be a part of it every way I can.

1:34 Speaker 4: It's been an awesome right so far?

1:35 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, excellent. Well, congratulations, very good, very good.

1:38 Speaker 4: I appreciate it.

1:39 Speaker 1: So, Liz, how how's it been for you? I mean, this has really grown right. Uh. I was commenting to Hannah that earlier off air that that was quite the turnout. Yeah, last Saturday.

1:49 Speaker 2: Unfortunately I wasn't.

1:51 Speaker 1: At those Oh that's right, yeah, yeah.

1:53 Speaker 6: But I have heard it was a fabulous turnout. We've had a couple of slower months. I think in general there was a lot going on in the art world, so probably less people were available, and I think luckily this time around there were a number of people that were available. But also it's a larger show because it's I don't remember exactly how many artists we have, it's over sixty artists in the show, and when that happens, you end up with a pretty good turnout. All the pieces that are up on the wall right now are small work, so they're all more affordable, really great gift giving sizes and prices, and so we're really lucky.

2:41 Speaker 1: When you do something like where the theme is smaller, I mean, did you put us like a size limit on that, like they couldn't be yet larger than a certain than certain dimensions.

2:52 Speaker 6: Yep, so the dimensions are smaller than twelve by twelve inches, okay, and that's in any dire so because we do have some sculptural pieces as well.

3:03 Speaker 1: When you do something like that, do you find that you get a different submissions from people who may not have submitted before. Do you see a lot of new names sometimes?

3:15 Speaker 6: I think in the last several months we've seen an uptick in new artists, which is really cool because I think around June I started feeling like maybe we've tapped into all the artists in the area and this is this is the amount of artists that we have. And then really in the last three months or so, we've seen a huge a huge number of new artists showing up for open calls. So I don't know that it's changed necessarily because of the sizes or if it's just that more people are finding out about us.

3:52 Speaker 5: And I would argue artists love a good challenge. Yeah, anything more restrictive in terms of theme or anything like that. Really as me personally as an artist, like, I find that very helpful because I can put more into it knowing exactly what I'm looking for.

4:08 Speaker 4: So I think the twelve x twelve sort of I don't want.

4:13 Speaker 5: It's like more of like a challenge to try to make something beautiful out of something within that space.

4:18 Speaker 4: And I think people responded really well to that.

4:21 Speaker 6: And atlicit actually took the challenge in a totally different direction. And he has a really cool piece in the show where he painted on a knife. Oh really, So that's definitely worth checking out if you want to stop into the gallery or go online and look at our online gallery.

4:38 Speaker 5: Okay, Yeah, was that difficult that was to Yeah, it was a totally different canvas to paint on. It's not something that you would expect to have trouble with, but it was quite quite difficult. But I had so much fun doing something within that brand new medium.

4:54 Speaker 4: Yeah, it was obviously inspired by the Mosaic Wonders show.

5:01 Speaker 5: Okay, like this, this seems like the perfect opportunity to try something new, put something new into it, and yeah, it was great and it came out with an awesome result and I'm so happy that I was able to do that.

5:12 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, excellent, excellent. Now when when people submit, you know, you call it a juried a juried what's what's the right term?

5:22 Speaker 3: A juried show.

5:24 Speaker 1: Juried show, like who chooses? Like, obviously, Liz, you're you're part of that process, but are you also both Hannah and Atlas are you both involved in that well in terms of choosing who gets in?

5:37 Speaker 3: And it's a collaborative effort. It's usually about three to four people that are selecting the work, and then we get together as a group several days after the work comes in and we collaborate once again and make decisions on how to arrange the show so that it's harmonious and each piece that is situated in a way where it really shines next to the other work. So it's a really interesting process not only choosing the work that is selected, but also how do you arrange such a diverse arrangement of such selected works.

6:24 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, has the number of selections, or I should say, I'm sorry, the number of submissions? Has that really kind of increased over time, because I would imagine, like the first show that you did there, I would imagine that was a significantly last number because it was the first show. Or maybe not. Maybe there's such a need and demand for what you're doing. Maybe you had a lot right out of the gate. I don't know.

6:46 Speaker 6: I mean the first show was interesting because I had never done anything like this before, and really it was just a complete guess to see what would happen. I did end up reaching out to another one of the residents at Mosaic who has a strong connection with a number of local artists, and told her that we hadn't gotten the numbers that I had hoped and I had to extend the deadline, and I said, can you share this with your audience? And she did and that that brought in some more people. So we did end up at the very first show, I think we had forty or so artists.

7:27 Speaker 6: The work was a really interesting range of emerging to professional artists, and I think from month to month it kind of ebbs and flows, like I truly get freaked out about a week before the deadline because most artists wait till the very last minute to submit their work, and I usually, like the week before will start like if I really noticed that we haven't had any submissions, I'll start like tapping people and being like, hey, are you planning on cubmenting your work? And you know, chances are some of them are, or some of them are just too busy that month, but yeah, it kind of it changes.

8:16 Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, now that makes sense, the small Wonders that's actually running for two months, Is that correct?

8:22 Speaker 2: It is?

8:23 Speaker 6: Okay, So this we have historically done a small work show in November and December. Part of that is self preservation because we're getting into like the busy holiday season and I at the beginning just couldn't take setting up another show in December. But also I think it offers more time for people to shop and see the show. We'll have another opening the second Saturday of December for Amy who runs the Seesaw Gallery.

9:00 Speaker 2: She'll have a the name.

9:01 Speaker 6: Of her show number of presently I think is what her show is called. That's another open call, and she'll have an opening that night as well, and we're hoping that there'll be another good turnout, and then I think we're also planning on doing a closing on December twenty second, so we try to like keep you know, movement in the gallery, get people in. And as of right now, we had been doing almost month to month shows, and I think going forward after November and December, we're planning on doing bi monthly shows instead.

9:42 Speaker 6: We needed a little more time. I think all of us, just from an organizational standpoint, needed.

9:49 Speaker 2: More time to.

9:52 Speaker 6: Rest and then also be able to bring in some workshops and stuff like that. We'd really like to do more community outreach, and it's hard when you're either setting up or taking down a show with.

10:04 Speaker 2: Like a week or two of the show.

10:06 Speaker 6: So we're hoping with the extended shows that we'll have some more time to do that kind of stuff.

10:12 Speaker 3: Yeah, that makes sense, and it also gives artists the opportunity to bring in more of their friends and family. A month is a really tight turnaround, so yeah, the.

10:25 Speaker 1: Opportunity, Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. I remember Jenny and I attended an event that you had had about I don't remember the gentleman's name, forgive me, but about Ai in art. That was really interesting.

10:41 Speaker 6: Yeah, he that's Carl, So he was fast this it's interesting because like AI has just exploded now, so but at the time, it was like this fairly new thing that was sort of like freaking all the artists out. And I think because of his background, he comes from a tech background. He calls calls his or called his job an ethical hacker for I b M. So he would look for the weak points in the system and try to try to break it so that he could learn how to fix it. So he did a ton of research on AI and brought that workshop to us, which was super awesome, and we would like to offer more of that kind of stuff.

11:30 Speaker 2: I know.

11:31 Speaker 6: We were in talks with Karen Jerzyk, who's an installation artist. She is not an AI artist at all, and she gets called that a lot. She's a photographer.

11:45 Speaker 1: Why why does she get called an AI artist?

11:47 Speaker 6: Her artwork is pretty surreal, Okay, it's her artwork is surreal, so it has a vibe that kind of lends itself to looking like it's computer generated.

12:01 Speaker 1: That's interesting to me.

12:02 Speaker 6: Yeah, but her she does she actually doesn't even use like photoshop all that much. Yeah, which most photographers these days, I would say at least use a little bit of touch up sure at points in their process.

12:21 Speaker 4: Yeah.

12:21 Speaker 6: Yeah, but she does not, and she's actually had a lot of success with what are they called NFTs and stuff. So we're hoping to get her in and have her do an artist talk and sort of, yeah, talk a bit more about that.

12:38 Speaker 1: That's that's interesting to me.

12:39 Speaker 5: You know.

12:39 Speaker 1: The subject of AI comes up a lot on the show, and it's interesting, you know, because we talk about people looking at art and not knowing or other or any kind of image and not knowing whether it's real or AI generated, And we worry about people looking at things and assuming that they're not AI generated when actually they are. But her artwork, you say, like people accuse her of using AI and she's actually not. That's interesting. So the inverse can also be a pitfall. Yeah. I wouldn't have expected that.

13:10 Speaker 1: Wow, that's fascinating.

13:11 Speaker 6: Yeah, definitely somebody to check out. Yeah, yeah, what was her name again, Karen Jersik. She's right in Manchester too.

13:19 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, wow, you do you do any kind of classes there or do you have plans to do in the future for people who think they might have to have ability, but want to kind of expand on it.

13:33 Speaker 6: I don't know that we're looking to do. I mean maybe maybe.

13:37 Speaker 2: At some point.

13:38 Speaker 3: Yeah, I think once we get our heads wrapped around the scheduling and have a little bit more time to think about what kinds of programs we're looking for, what kinds of classes would really benefit the community the most. Yeah, and just seeing what people are interested.

13:57 Speaker 1: In, right right.

13:58 Speaker 6: We have done some like workshop style classes. Jackie Hansen did an eras or printmaking workshop a couple times. We had somebody do a terrarium building workshop. I think there was actually a word press workshop at some point.

14:19 Speaker 1: Really, yeah, well on how to build a website.

14:24 Speaker 6: I it was interesting because it was it was attended by artists and then who don't use WordPress, and myself who uses nothing, and my husband who is a web developer and uses web WordPress all the time. So it you know, WordPress is really hard to use. That's what what I've come to learn.

14:51 Speaker 2: So it's not the.

14:52 Speaker 6: Most like artist friendly development helpful yeah can offer really yeah?

15:01 Speaker 1: Yeah, no, that makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense. When did uh when did Mosaic first open? It's been at least what has it been two years. Has it been longer?

15:09 Speaker 6: It's been so two and a half fish, I mean yeah, I think we opened in uh September of twenty twenty two, okay, and after a year of being an LLC, we transitioned to a nonprofit model okay, and then we've been a nonprofit for just over a year okay.

15:30 Speaker 1: So yeah, what was that always the goal to become a nonprofit or.

15:34 Speaker 6: I think for me, when I was originally dreaming up Mosaic, I mean I was really young. I I Mosaic was something I wanted to do when I was like fresh out of college. I graduated and was just lacking art community and couldn't figure out where I belonged.

15:56 Speaker 2: Yeah, so in.

15:58 Speaker 6: Some ways, I think I didn't really know what it would totally look like, And once I started doing it, it just became like like a larger thing than I could do by myself, and the community aspect of it was so important that I felt like I was already reaching out to people and asking their advice or asking how to do something. So the nonprofit just sort of like naturally made sense, right. So I don't know that it was like necessarily like the thing I thought would happen, but it made sense when we went in that direction.

16:40 Speaker 1: Yeah, of course, of course. Are you're not from Manchester originally? Correct?

16:45 Speaker 6: I actually am from Hooks It. I went to Central okay. Yeah, so I grew up here.

16:51 Speaker 1: Oh you did? Okay? Okay? Did you move away at one point? Move back?

16:54 Speaker 2: I did?

16:54 Speaker 1: Maybe that's what I'm thinking of.

16:56 Speaker 6: Yeah, okay, I lived So I went to art school down in Baltimore, Maryland, Okay. And then after Baltimore moved back here for a very brief time, and then up to Vermont. And then I lived in Burlington, Vermont for fifteenish years. Oh okay, and then moved back during the pandemic.

17:16 Speaker 1: Gotcha, gotcha? Yeah, Burlington's got a not a bad little music scene there.

17:21 Speaker 2: It's just a fabulous music good.

17:23 Speaker 1: There's some good bands up there that kind of you know that a lot of people around here might not know about because Burlington it seems like it's so far, but it's really not. I mean, how far? What is it?

17:32 Speaker 2: Two and a half hours?

17:32 Speaker 1: Two and a half that's what I was thinking. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's some cool place. Is higher Ground still there?

17:38 Speaker 2: Oh yeah?

17:39 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a cool venue.

17:40 Speaker 2: Yep.

17:41 Speaker 1: I haven't been there in a very, very long time.

17:43 Speaker 2: We should take a field trip.

17:45 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a cool place. Not in the winter though, No, we'll do that.

17:49 Speaker 2: Well, I love it.

17:51 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah. If you are just joining us, we have Liz, Hannah and Atlas from the Moses Art Collective here with us live in studio on this Saturday morning. Do you do you work with other studios as well, Like do you have these relationships where you kind of I don't know because you did refer to is it Seesaw.

18:16 Speaker 6: Seesaw Art on Hanover. Yes, So Seesaw is sort of similar to Hannah. You want to explain it, Like, they also rent space in the gallery or in the studio, Okay, and rent rather than use it utilizing it as a studio, they they use it as a gallery.

18:36 Speaker 1: Okay.

18:37 Speaker 6: Amy Reagan, who runs Seesaw is also one of the founders from the Rochester Museum of Fine Art.

18:44 Speaker 2: Okay, and she.

18:48 Speaker 6: Runs sort of like a boutique style gallery. So it's usually like two to three artists from the region.

18:55 Speaker 2: Okay.

18:56 Speaker 6: Yeah, But we also have worked with n h a A. We've worked with Queer Elective, We've worked with the Women's Caucus, the Women's Caucus for the Arts. This year we kind of took a slower role on partnering, just to see, like get our feet wet and see what it was like to be a nonprofit.

19:19 Speaker 1: Right.

19:20 Speaker 2: But I'd like to do some more partnerships going forward.

19:23 Speaker 3: Yeah, And speaking of partnerships, many months at the gallery we choose a cause to support. Oh okay, And this month we are gathering art supplies for the Webster Webster House okay Webster No, well, okay.

19:46 Speaker 6: So we did Webster House last year. Okay, this year we're hoping to donate to Waypoint, but we don't have we haven't heard that.

19:55 Speaker 1: Oh okay, okay, so that's kind of.

20:00 Speaker 3: We're also having a weekly raffle of all sorts of community restaurants, artists and other other prizes and things like that to benefit.

20:14 Speaker 6: It's yeah, the Reproductive Freedom Fund of New Hampshire.

20:19 Speaker 1: Okay.

20:20 Speaker 2: Yeah.

20:21 Speaker 6: We're just wanting to do whatever we can to help out our community right now, and I think that's a good way to do it.

20:28 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, No, I think that's I think that's great.

20:30 Speaker 2: Yeah.

20:32 Speaker 1: Yeah, I seem to remember I think I think maybe the last time you were on you might have talked about Webster House and are you are you trying to do something different each time, like to help a different organization or yeah, I.

20:42 Speaker 2: Think I just wanted.

20:43 Speaker 6: I think we were hoping to like spread the love around as much as possible.

20:48 Speaker 3: It's kind of nice. It's a way where we can say, hey, we're we're seeing you do some great work and we'd like to we'd like to benefit you.

20:59 Speaker 6: Yeah, And I think, you know, as far as like the donation, like the art donation, the supply donations. For a lot of us growing up, art was incredibly important in our lives.

21:12 Speaker 2: We recognize like the need.

21:15 Speaker 6: For kids to have access to art supplies, and yeah, there are a lot of art are a lot of kids who don't right, and it doesn't seem like.

21:26 Speaker 2: The immediate need.

21:27 Speaker 6: But I think to express yourself definitely helps make situations feel less overwhelming.

21:34 Speaker 1: Sure, yeah, yeah, Well, you know something that we talk about a lot on the show, and it's, uh, we talked to a lot of musicians, so it tends to be more in that modality. But we talk about and I was talking about it with Dentis actually from the Gray Curtain during the first hour a little bit too. U the event that he's doing tonight in Connecticut. We were talking about you know, taking taking traumatic events, or taking problems that you have or you know, mental illness or whatever it may be. And uh, any time that you can create something from that, you know, take it, but create something, create art, create whether it's visual art or music or whatever it is, or write a book or you know that to me, that's the best therapy, right when you can take something negative and do something creative and productive with it.

22:23 Speaker 1: And and I assume now I have no you know, I'm I'm a musician, but I have no ability whatsoever for visual art. I can't paint or anything like that. So so I'm kind of a no trust me it is. But but I assume a lot of visual artists, you know, they they put that into their u into their their paintings. I would imagine, you know, as an expression of of that that pain and that trauma. And stand up comedians are really kind of famous for that. Like any stand up comedian you talk to, it's like they they've had like major trauma and the way that they deal with it is learning how to make people laugh, whether whether they're actually making jokes based on what they've been through or not.

23:07 Speaker 1: But that's like that's their therapy. You know. Stand up comedians are almost always you know, like just messed up people in some way, you know what I mean? But no, but I think that's I think that's so important. And you know you mentioned too developing that in kids. Is that is that something that is lacking in our schools? Do you think? I mean? I remember, you know, I went to a private school from grade two to grade eight and we had art class and that was that was where I learned that Actually, no, I have no visual visual ability art wise, I have no art artistic ability in that sense.

23:45 Speaker 1: But do you think that's something that's lacking? Is that something that where parents need to really kind of encourage that and foster that because I don't know. I don't know if our schools are doing that at all or not.

23:58 Speaker 3: I'm a school teacher and art teacher, so you okay, great, and I know that, or at least I believe that New Hampshire public schools are required to offer art and music okay kindergarten through high school.

24:16 Speaker 1: Oh good, Okay, I didn't know that. So they're required a lot to do that. Yeah, oh that's excellent. Okay, I didn't.

24:21 Speaker 3: However, with different towns receiving different funding, some programs don't have don't have as much to offer as other towns.

24:34 Speaker 1: Yeah, because uh, I know that. You know, these school budgets tend to be tight, and it seems like when you hear about budget cuts in public school it's usually you know, the sports are protected and everything else kind of is on that second tier where they think, oh, maybe we can get rid of this, we can get rid of that. But but you so, you're you work in public schools and you're an art teacher, so your a proof of concept that this is this is still happening in New Hampshire where we have the arts being so.

25:04 Speaker 4: Very much so.

25:05 Speaker 3: New Hampshire has one of the strongest art programs i'd say in the country, Elastic Art Awards, which is the largest and most prestigious high school art show in New Hampshire number two in terms of the size and scale of net, right behind New Jersey. And it's all volunteers.

25:28 Speaker 1: Great. So that's great. Yeah, it makes me proud to be a New Hampshire rite. Oh that's really good. I had no idea.

25:35 Speaker 6: I mean, I think in general from I have three kids in the school system, I think in general they have had a phenomenal arts education. But also I mean, art school is what you put into it, and if the parents aren't willing to foster a love of art or culture, they're only going to get what they get at school. So I feel like, you know, especially looking at my kids now, go to the schools that I went to as a kid, and one of the teachers is my one of my teachers, so she's been there forever, and I think, like in terms of I think, you know, she's doing a good job.

26:31 Speaker 6: I think the younger teachers that are coming through, you.

26:36 Speaker 2: Not that young, even teaching a long.

26:38 Speaker 6: Time, but I like Hannah does a great job. But I think, you know, the younger teachers that are coming through have a different concept of how to teach art, and I think that that can be kind of interesting to watch. I think they are, uh not too long ago when I was teaching, there was this method called teaching for Artistic Behavior, which is more of a choice based learning, and I think that.

27:07 Speaker 1: Not but what does that mean? Choice based learning?

27:09 Speaker 6: So it's not like here's a picture of a snowman, and this is how you make this picture of a snowman. It's more like, here are the materials that you might need. This is what I did do how you do it? That everyone sees differently and everyone's going to create a little bit differently and intuitively.

27:33 Speaker 1: That makes more sense to me.

27:35 Speaker 2: It does, and it.

27:38 Speaker 6: I feel like it offers students a chance to delve into the arts where they are most interested, because some kids aren't really interested in getting their hands dirty, right, but they are really interested in puzzles and building and that kind of thing. And so I think, you know, offering as much as we can do our kids is really what it's all about. And I think in New Hampshire they are doing a pretty bang up job.

28:07 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, No, sounds like it sounds like it. Yeah. Do you do you have do you have students submit like? Did you have like high school students and younger submitting to we do?

28:20 Speaker 3: One of my favorite submissions for this last show is was mother and son. Her son builds these lego worlds, okay, and she photographs them. And so she's new to the area and found out about this call and submitted one of the photographs of her son's lego build and was just so excited to bring him to the gallery and share that with him and you know, to be embraced. So that was really really cool.

28:55 Speaker 1: That's very cool.

28:56 Speaker 3: And we also at Mosaic we have an art intern who comes in and he submits quite a few pieces to the different shows as well.

29:06 Speaker 1: Okay.

29:07 Speaker 3: In addition, last year there was a show to Manchester Would Love, which featured works from all of the Manchester Public High schools. So it was an opening dedicated just to the students and their teachers and that was really really cool.

29:24 Speaker 1: Yeah. Oh wow, oh very good, very good. Are there more? Because I feel like you knows as you're as you're talking about these different these different places that are involved in art, are are there more? Is there more of an art scene than people realize? I guess is what I'm asking because I feel like you know, as you're mentioning you know different like you mentioned Seesaw and these other places like them, like I wonder if and I guess Atlas this is part of where you come in, right, making sure that people know that there is all this, you know, like because I didn't even realize sitting here, you know, I'm asking you about you know, do they even teach art in schools anymore.

30:04 Speaker 1: I had no idea that New Hampshire is doing such a great job with that. Is there more of an art scene than people know about?

30:11 Speaker 4: Yeah? Absolutely.

30:12 Speaker 5: I'd say that like in the past two years, it's really blossomed quite a bit and just receiving the inter network of knowing about the art has gotten a lot more prominent, I would say as somebody who's fairly new to the whole art scene in Manchester. Yeah, definitely feels like it's blossomed in the past two years.

30:34 Speaker 1: Yeah absolutely. Oh that's great.

30:36 Speaker 5: Yeah, awesome to see the festivals that are out there, all the events that are going on, and Mosaic being part of that.

30:43 Speaker 4: Yeah absolutely, Yeah.

30:44 Speaker 1: Yeah, Oh that's that's great. That's great. That's really good to hear.

30:47 Speaker 6: Ultimately, I think the arts scene has been here all along. I think that it's just sort of more out in the open now.

30:56 Speaker 4: M I would agree, Yeah.

30:58 Speaker 3: It's it's more a lot. I feel with the closing of traditional galleries, there's more room for alternative spaces and people are getting really creative and open minded. Places that come to mind are like Pillar Art Project, where they have a small gallery front up and conquered with a ghost kitchen in back and Outer Space Gallery, which is hosted on the second floor of a Victorian office building.

31:27 Speaker 1: Oh wow.

31:28 Speaker 3: So I mean there's these these pockets that are opening up and people are getting much more creative and it's less about profit and more about community and getting the art work out there.

31:40 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, that makes sense. Why have you reference traditional art studio or art galleries rather? I want to make sure he's the right term closing? Why is that?

31:52 Speaker 6: What?

31:52 Speaker 1: Why is this? It sounds like there's been a shift in that sense.

31:56 Speaker 3: Yeah, there has been a shift. Some of the shift is a lot of art has gone online, rents have gone up. It is difficult to sustain a gallery model where you know you're relying on foot traffic and you know whether or not your audience is going to be receptive to the work, whether or not they have the means to purchase the work. So so yeah, a lot of places, especially when covid hit had to close their doors.

32:28 Speaker 1: Yep, Yeah, that makes sense. So it sounds like so the traditional gallery model is more just you have it's almost you know, like a like a retail store in a sense. Right, you've got art just hanging and people walk in. You hope somebody walks in and buys something. So it sounds like there's been a need, especially after the pandemic, to be more creative with how you do things, and like you're you know, you're very creative with how you're doing things at Mosaic, and you know you've got all these things going on, so so that makes sense.

32:54 Speaker 5: They like in the wake of tragedy, like in terms of the COVID pandemic, a lot of people who are around community organization tend to be like, Okay, this is the time to dig it and roll up our sleeves. Yeah, this is what we need to do for the people in our community.

33:06 Speaker 4: Because they really really need it.

33:08 Speaker 5: Yeah, And I would say that it's definitely evident in the wake of a pandemic that really rocked everybody, especially people in places of need, seeing that come from that, right, it was so apparent, and it's very lifting, and it's very enlightening. It's a wonderful. It's wonderful to be a part of it. Yeah, sure, absolutely, Yeah.

33:35 Speaker 1: Well, something I always say too about the pandemic is as awful as it was for so many reasons. We also have to try to find those silver linings where we can, you know, speaking of dealing with trauma, right. And something that this also comes up a lot on the show is that it kind of forced people to be more creative in ways that maybe they hadn't considered before. You know, you see it a lot with me. You know, like during you know, when everybody was staying home for sample with music, you saw a lot of these bands, you know, doing live performances where they're all you know, they're all connected on zoom and they're they're doing these live performances online things like that.

34:11 Speaker 1: But uh, you know, but it affected everyone and obviously you know, it affected visual art and I think it it sounds like it it did kind of force people to to be more creative with that as well. And and and how they how they show the art to the world, and uh and all of that. What's what's kind of the what's kind of the future trajectory for for Mosaic? I mean, you talked about some of it, but is there anything you have planned that we didn't mention that we should know about her?

34:40 Speaker 6: We do have a new show going up in January. It will be one of our two months another two month shows and I can't recall what the name of it is.

34:51 Speaker 4: Yeah.

34:53 Speaker 6: Yeah, but the show itself is op art, so optical illusions and black light art. Oh cool, sort of like I think, kind of like Creatures of the Night sort of a thing we figure with the darkness happening at like four o'clock, we're going to take advantage of the darkness outside and bring it inside and let the gallery the artwork kind of illuminate the space.

35:22 Speaker 1: Oh that's cool. Yeah, yeah, I like that concept.

35:25 Speaker 2: Yeah.

35:25 Speaker 1: Well, I talk about taking something negative and creating something that I hate it when it's dark at four in the afternoon. Oh, I dread it. I dread it. Does anyone like it? Really?

35:35 Speaker 2: I don't think.

35:36 Speaker 1: I don't think even people. I don't think even people because some people are weird and they actually enjoy winter. No offense if any of you are like that personally, I think enjoying winter is very strange. But uh, but I've never heard anyone say yeah, I like it when it's dark at four in the afternoon. That I've never heard. No, it's yeah.

35:50 Speaker 4: I feel like every single day it's like, is it really dark this?

35:53 Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, you don't really get used to it. It's you're right, yeah, like every every day it's like, oh it's it's dark again at four in the afternoon. Yeah, it's not great. It's not great. Well, listen, thank you all for coming in. This has been wonderful. And what should people know about, you know, you should probably mention the website and anything else people should know about what's happening at Mosaic right now and of course how they can submit for a future.

36:19 Speaker 6: Oh so visit our website that usually has up to date information Mosaic Arcollective dot com. We're also on Instagram under Mosaic Art Collective and any of the open calls are always listed on our website and on Instagram. And then we also have a mailing list that you can sign up for on our website and that will also send out the calls for art.

36:44 Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, all right.

36:46 Speaker 1: Perfect, perfect, and congratulations again. On last weekend it looked like a really good I know you weren't able to be there list, but it looked but it looked like it was very successful. And you know, Jenny is so proud to have you know, multiple pieces hanging there, and it's just you know, she hasn't I don't think she'll mind me saying this. She hasn't been an artist for that long in the grand scheme of things. I mean, it's been maybe five years, yeah, since she first picked up a brush and said I think I want to try this.

37:11 Speaker 1: And I'm just in, like I said, as someone who doesn't have that ability, I'm just I'm just amazed at how much she creates and how amazing it is. And you know, I'm just I'm just in awe. You know, she's got she's got her artwork hanging at home of course too, and so I see it every day. But I'm just you know, every new piece she creates, it's like wow, Like how to even do that? You know, It's just amazing to me. And and to see how far that she's come with it, you know.

37:36 Speaker 2: Yeah.

37:37 Speaker 6: And a lot of the artists that Mosaic are I mean, well, i'd say some are a.

37:43 Speaker 3: Lot of artists that we are the first venue where they show. And you know, I remember the first show that I was in and what an exciting event it was and how cool it was to be up on the wall with all these other artists. And at the same time, we have artists that show nationally, so it's a really really great range of different artists, art styles and everyone is welcome.

38:12 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, oh that's fantastic. All right, well, Liz Hannah Atlas, thank you all so much. Thank you, and we'll do this again soon, I'm sure.