Putting Creativity to Work: Ohio Attendees Reflect on the 2019 SAVVY Arts Venture Challenge

“The SAVVY experience was an intense week of bringing together amazing, diverse people from all over the United States. I worked on helping a local hydroponic lettuce farm achieve more revenue streams by connecting the arts to his business.

Once placed in our teams, we were instructed not to take on a role of something we normally do. I was assigned the role of video producer. This was a fun task, as I was able to come up with the visual concept/pitch for our project.”

“SAVVY was definitely not an introvert-friendly workshop. From the moment we arrived, we were forced to interact with others in ways that most of us had never dared. We were constantly in a state of interaction and problem-solving.

Our team’s community partner was the Columbia Fireflies. Upon spending some time with the staff of this minor league baseball team, we determined their number one problem was connecting with the Latinx community. We developed an arts festival for the ballpark that embraced the visual, performing, and musical arts of the home countries of the many Latin American team members.”

“This was a professional development experience unlike anything I have done before. My team was assigned to work with Proof Alcohol Ice Cream, a Columbia, South Carolina-based ice cream company that includes 7 percent alcohol in their ice cream.

My team developed a subscription service allowing customers to have three pints of seasonal flavors shipped to their door four times per year. We also proposed including a fourth container that we called 'party in a pint.' This would include a custom piece of artwork (visual art, original music playlist, dance choreography, etc.) with each shipment as well as encouragement to post photos engaging with the artwork to social media. At the end of the week, we were rated the judges’ number one pick and the overall winner of the competition.”

“I found value in SAVVY’s unique method to find real-life partnering organizations, emphasis on finding new ways to use arts in the community, and the connections I made with other arts professionals. SAVVY does an excellent job of finding local, real-life partners in the community that the attendees can work with. I commend them for that, in that this is the first I have ever witnessed and one of the best aspects of the program.”

“SAVVY was very hands-on. We would learn tools and ideas and then would immediately implement them in planning our arts-based solution.

I think one of the most important takeaways was working with so many wonderful people. My team was diverse, interesting, and very hardworking. Our community partner was extremely giving, honest, and bold. These aspects of SAVVY were the most special.”

“SAVVY was completely different than any other professional development I have been to. This wasn’t a conference or even a workshop in the traditional sense. We were on a team solving real-world problems with the arts as a way to a solution. Not only did we do that, but we also learned leadership techniques and brainstorming activities we could take back to our own organizations. It was one of the most exhausting experiences but also extremely fulfilling.”

“I see how arts solutions can be utilized for community and business-related organizations. I learned some excellent team building and communication strategies that I can use, and lastly, I met a wealth of individuals who I can call or reach out to as I progress professionally.”

“I learned a great deal about how the arts can benefit non-arts organizations. I look forward to thinking differently about what partnerships with corporations and other community organizations can look like in the future.”

“I can apply nearly everything I learned within my classroom—from the performance exercises, to the market research, to perhaps even hosting a SAVVY game of my own in my ‘Art and Community’ course. I hope I can one day use the knowledge within an organization of my own creation.”