Amazing Local Artist Spotlight! (A.L.A.S.) INTRODUCTION

WHY AM I DOING THIS?

In my current employ as the manager of a small, rural community local arts nonprofit, I run into a certain pervasive misconception that rural communities have nothing to offer, in terms of arts culture, to the larger community or region as a whole. People who live in cities become accustomed to having a smorgasbord of world-class art at their fingertips. Because of this, there tends to be a disconnection in their understanding of where all this art originates from.

For artists, finding a space in which to showcase their art to the world initially can be incredibly difficult, especially in a large city where there is a saturation of creative people all around competing for the same space. Because of this, many emerging artists are forced to look for alternative platforms on which to display their talents. This might mean finding smaller, less well-known galleries, festivals, venues, and markets. Quite often, these artists find those opportunities in smaller communities where there is a better chance to be seen and build some momentum.

Therefore, it tends to be the smaller communities, rather than the larger cities, where much of this talent is first being developed, honed, and showcased. In essence, rural communities and their arts organizations act as the crucible necessary to develop skilled artists that may later go on to bigger success in the city.

HOW YOU CAN HELP!

You can do so much to help these artists make the world a more beautiful place by simply UPVOTING and RESTEEMING. It takes nearly zero effort for you, and the more rewards the post gets, the more money the artists will receive; it's that simple!

If all goes well, I should have the first installment finished in the next week, so stay tuned. Thanks!

If this is successful, I would like to increase the frequency to bi-weekly instead of monthly, as well as eventually expanding submissions to include artists who are already on Steemit but perhaps do not have a large following. However, for the moment, due to time constraints, I'm going to focus on encouraging artists that I think would bring a great value to the platform to give it a shot.

(All the sources for the pictures in this post can be found by clicking the images themselves.)

_{This post was edited with HastyMarkup!}