Applications for Wild Goose Creative’s Community Arts Incubator program is closing on June 30. The organization is still looking for creative mentors and mentees to participate in the pilot program.
The incubator, funded by CoverMyMeds, seeks to provide mentorship opportunities to emerging creatives in Columbus, by pairing mentors with mentees in the visual arts, literary arts and performing arts. The program will serve emerging artists 18 and up.
“We’re really, as far as mentees go, looking for folks that are wanting some guidance, some one-on-one support from somebody who may be a professional artist…just somebody to create goals and create accountability in pursuing a creative career,” said Lydia Simon, executive director of Wild Goose Creative.
The Community Arts Incubator will be a six-month program from July to December, with monthly workshops providing marketing, financial and other guidance, as well as meetings where mentees will check in with mentors concerning progress on their pre-outlined goals.
Mentees will also participate in a showcase at the end of the program, presumably with the help of their mentors.
The program will not be able to accept every applicant, however Simon said the organization hopes the program is successful and can continue every year, so that they can build capacity.
The start of the program will be in tandem with the opening of Wild Goose’s new location in Franklinton, 188 McDowell St., next month.
The space at the center of the Franklinton Arts District is bigger than its founding space in SoHud, which closed last summer as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Simon said before the pandemic, Wild Goose would have to turn creatives seeking to rent their space for events away, so the goal for opening a second space was to provide more space and flexibility.
However, with the charge of the coronavirus pandemic, it was no longer financially realistic to operate two spaces when events were no longer taking place.
“The majority of our earned revenue, it comes from event rentals. And so that was really challenging for us. We were sad to leave Clintonville because our history has been there,” said Simon. “But Franklinton, we already had so much support for it, community-wide, and it’s an amazing place to be for our future.”
The new space is almost twice as big as the SoHud space and will feature a fully functioning kitchen space.
Simon is looking forward to being in “the most exciting arts district in Columbus” — which means actually having foot traffic for its gallery nights — as well as new programming and shows.
“We’ll have more galleries or pop-up shows and more flexibility to accommodate the need for gallery walls for artists and creatives in the city,” she said.
The new location opens to the public on Friday, July 9.
For more information, visit wildgoosecreative.com.