Art vs Craft: A Network Venture

NiC.NaC.Designz is a small company, originally dealing strictly with custom orders and collaborations, I wanted to broaden my network and present everything NiC.NaC.DesignZ & NiCcessories offered, and on July 9^th and 10^th 2011, I had the opportunity to participate in DuSable Museums' 37th Annual Art and Craft Festival - part of the Museum’s mission is to “…promote understanding and inspire appreciation of the experiences of Africans and African Americans through activities and art…” this festival is only one of many ventures offered at the museum.  Thousands of people converge on the museum’s beautiful grounds each summer for the Annual Arts & Crafts Festival.  This year 2011, the Festival “Goes Back To Our Roots,” being a showcase for local artists, a juried exhibition of fine art and unique crafted work which features artists working in traditional, ethnic and experimental fine arts and crafts and underscores the mission of preserving the history and culture of the African-American experience.  This is an opportunity for all artists, art vendors, demonstrators, and workshop leaders, to exhibit and sell their art work and share their culture with the thousands of people who come to this event.  Doing this festival meant allot to me for the simple fact that there's a myriad of creativity that steam from my roots and this was an opportunity to present exactly what my ideas and two pair of hands can do!

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Spending two months prior preparing for the festival I had a checklist drawn up --and since my slogan is 'Your one stop, creative shop'-- I decided on a Boutique theme for my booth; props and signs were then created.  Simply Pure orange juice bottles were used to make lamps and old photo frames were used for signage/flyers.  While the date drew closer and certain obstacles’ were faced and averted, I then realized that this 'creatively random adventure' was going to need manpower; therefore I would seek assistance from my family - keeping in mind this would also add as experience in the long run, since they were High School students I recommended that they gather information from their counselor so that hopefully the work put in with NiC.NaC.DesignZ could possibly act as credited hours towards graduation. Since my NiC.NaC.s were going to be greeting patrons along with me, in keeping with the theme, I created head décor, accessories and fanny packs for the girls to wear.  

During our eventful two day's we had the pleasure of meeting Award-winning actor and activist Isaiah Washington who made a special appearance to sign copies of his new book, A Man From Another Land: How Finding My Roots Changed My Life. The Houston-born actor who starred in the ABC-TV drama Grey’s Anatomy traced his maternal roots to the Mende people of Sierra Leone and became the first African American to be granted citizenship based solely on DNA ancestry - and a photo was taken with one of the NiC.NaCs; Monica Lewis ...

The sound of J. Ivy, a hip-hop poet who fuses spoken word poems with hip-hop music and syncopation styles also performed. He is a three-time HBO Def Poet and has earned a Grammy Award for his performance on Kanye West’s debut album “College Dropout”. His full-length solo album, “Here I Am”, was released in late 2010 on his co-owned music label Ivyous Entertainment.

A line-up of award-winning entertainment was lined up for Sunday, July 10th; a special edition of the “Music Experience with Dedry Jones Featuring Soul Train Award and BET Award-nominated group, Kindred the Family Soul” took place.  This moment was 'picture perfect' for me, it was the last day of the festival and I let the girls take over for a while, I sat on the cement stairs and listened as Aja and Fatin reminisced of their relationship, struggles’ and lyrics the evening ended with them singing, Stars, a absolute favorite of my husband and I --- it's our wedding song. :0)

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In closing, I'll reflect on teamwork, diligence, warm memories and wonderful surprises - and I will never be able to express how grateful/appreciative I am to those who provided assistance, because I could'nt have done it without them, many hands make light work; and to my family and friends I would not've been able to make it this far if it wasn't for you ALL; I'm a corporation, and I couldn't progress without you!

"Teamwork divides the task and multiplies the success."