Creative Rural Minds

Last week we hosted one of our largest events to date, Creative Rural Minds, with more than 120 people in attendance. It was a networking event for creative types and entrepreneurs designed to stimulate conversation and collaboration in Prince Edward County. Organized by myself and local filmmaker and council candidate Lenny Epstein, it was inspired by the Creative Minds events that took place from 2009 to 2010 as a product of our local Economic Development Office.

Logo by Milé Murtanovski

As the event got started we had live music by Cole Norton as the Picnic PEC food truck served up some good eats. 

photo by Dougal Thomson

We paired up strangers at the name tag station, where they had to draw portraits of each other on their name tags - in 30 seconds or less!

photo by Dougal Thomson

Then we had some short presentations; first up Peter and Alice Mennacher related their experiences as creative pioneers in the County; their Blizzmax Gallery in South Bay is now in its 21st year, and the County has sure seen a lot of changes since they first opened their charming barn gallery all those years ago.

Peter and Alice. Photo by Dougal Thomson

I made a short presentation about the Firelight Lantern Festival, and then Lenny announced the launch of the Prince Edward County chapter of the Awesome Foundation. The Awesome Foundation for the Arts and Sciences is an ever-growing, worldwide network of people devoted to forwarding the interest of… awesomeness! The idea started in 2009 in Boston, and now dozens of local chapters of the Foundation distribute $1,000 grants to projects and their creators. Awesome PEC is a group of ten locals (I'm one of them!) who will each contribute $100 towards a fund to make the County more awesome. Grants and can be used for any type of project that benefits the County and are awarded with no strings attached; projects should be able to be completely accomplished for the $1000 awarded. Deadline for the first round of applications is August 1, 2014, and we hope to award the grant quarterly. Think you’ve got an idea that will make the County more awesome? Apply online!

What a turn out! Photo by Marc Keelan-Bishop

Following this exciting announcement the crowd mixed and mingled as DJ Ombudsman spun some sweet tunes. 

Photo by Dougal Thomson

This is just the first of the Creative Rural Minds events - we're planning more to come! If you'd like to join our mailing list contact me at krista(at)smallpondarts(dot)ca. We also welcome your comments and suggestions about future events.

Thank you so much to all the wonderful folks who helped make this happen. See you next time!

Photo by Dougal Thomson