BY CYNTHIA MCCOMAS, ENERGIZING ENTREPRENEURIAL COMMUNITIES AMERICORPS VISTA, THE HUB

The Hub’s Lincoln County-based Energizing Entrepreneurial Communities team is working to help local artists sell and market their products online.

Katie Thacker, president of the Lincoln County Friends of the Arts, collaborates with her team to sell the work of local artists at the Friends of the Arts gallery in Hamlin, WV. The artists keep 80% of the commission and 20% is donated to the nonprofit.

Now, Katie and other volunteers hope to inspire locals to expand their reach by selling their products on Etsy.

With a mini-grant secured from The Hub, Katie and other community team members planned a series of Etsy workshops to teach locals best practices for selling artwork and other handmade goods on Etsy and other e-commerce platforms. The workshops covered Etsy basics, product photography, sales and pricing, and marketing and social media.

All workshops were hosted by West Virginian artists: Kelsi Boyd of Silver Market Co., Shayla Owens of Shayla Owens Photography, and Eddie Austin of Eddie Austin Woodworks. 

The Friends of the Arts will also manage their own Etsy page for any artists whose work is displayed in the gallery. Part of the grant funds will be used to provide Wifi to the gallery so they can maintain the Etsy page and their marketing efforts, locals can come to the gallery to work on their Etsy listings, and the gallery will be able to accept credit card payments.

In addition to Wifi, the mini-grant funds went toward the purchase of a light box so artists may use it to take high quality product photos. Not only can locals come to the gallery to use the light box themselves with techniques they learned from the product photography workshop, but photographer Shayla Owens has taken professional-grade photos for artists who came to the gallery’s Etsy Photo Sessions for those who aren’t quite ready to jump into taking their own photos.

Shayla, a Lincoln County native, wants to empower rural artists to see the value in their goods. By selling online, they’ll reach larger audiences, helping with making transitions to business owners than hobbyists. “The gallery’s strategy to unite and display local Lincoln County artists’ work in Hamlin is fantastic and puts those artists in conversation so that they can collaborate on how to best get their work out to the world,” said Shayla. “Having a central online presence is going to be a huge part of that. They say word spreads quick in small towns, but word travels even faster on social media.”

By encouraging entrepreneurism among artists, the Lincoln County E-Communities team is planting the seed of rural arts development in their community. “The more Lincoln County voices itself as a hub for rural artists, the more the arts community will grow and unveil itself not just to locals but to places throughout West Virginia and beyond,” said Shayla. 

Keep up with future workshops and all Friends of the Arts events on their Facebook page.

This past June in Boone County, Bobby Miller, instructor at the Boone County Career and Technical Center, and high school students hosted the first Rivers and Ridges float event on the Little Coal River.

The students, part of the Adventure Tourism class at the school, got first hand experience running an event and seeing what a recreation based business looks like, running rivers floats all day near Water Ways Parks and the Little Coal River Campground. This project was part of The Hub’s Energizing Entrepreneurial Communities program and received funding through an Entrepreneurial Investment Mini-Grant. Project partners included entrepreneurs Meghan Roberts of Mountain Surf Paddle Sports in Fayetteville, Evan Young of Appalachian Paddle Board Company in Teays Valley and Dain Bender from Little Coal River Camping and Kayaks in Boone Boone County, who provided boats and training support, as well as the Coal River Group in Tornado, WV.

Bobby Miller had this to say about their project:

“This gave our community a glimpse into how young entrepreneurs from Fayette and Teays Valley are making a business from paddle-sports. Dain Bender, from locally based business, Little Coal River Camping and Kayaks, also showcased a new startup river based tourism company. Meghan Roberts from Mountain Surf Paddlesports, Evan Young from Appalachian Boarding Company provided good models of how entrepreneurship can flourish at a relatively low startup cost. Forty-five boats or paddle boards made there way down the Little Coal, and not only were students allowed to job shadow these professionals, they also learned valuable skills and a low cost form of recreational for a lifetime.

The partners that came to Rivers and Ridges were inspirations to the future of outdoor education in our region. The Department of Environmental Protection, Forks of Coal and many other volunteers from Boone County Schools were on hand to educate the participants of the need for safety in flatwater river sports and how to negate these risks. The importance of good stewardship and citizenship were also topics of discussion. The laws of boating on the river were introduced. Everyone had a great time.

Many of our students come into the Adventure Tourism program at the Boone Career Center without ever having learned to swim, some have an instilled fear of the water. We want everyone to be able to self rescue or rescue someone else, if needed. Fear of water is passed down and can be a detriment, learning to swim and how to remain safe on the water are important lessons. Like many of the activities we do in our classroom, such as caving, and climbing, we are building confidence, overcoming fears, improving communication and learning how to operate as an effective member of a team. CPR and First Aid are the first two certifications our students gain, while working towards wilderness first aid mastery.”

We hope the students not only learned valuable entrepreneurship and life skills, as well as a love for river recreation, but that this event can continue on into the future!