For the Love of Local: Creative Economy

Join our guest Rona with Create Waunakee as she discussed her art and her travel plans. Most importantly we talk about Create Waunakee, who they are and what they do. The upcoming gala event "A Ball of Creativity" and so much more from Rona. We are thrilled to be a part of this event and cannot wait to see all the wonderful things Create Waunakee brings to our community.

Show links:
https://www.createwaunakee.com/ballofcreativity

https://schumacherfarmpark.org/

https://www.waunakeepubliclibrary.org/

Thank you for joining us on For the Love of Local! Connect with us on Facebook and Instagram @MainStreetMarketWisco

https://www.facebook.com/MainStreetMarketWisco

Transcript

We have four locations in Wisconsin. We have locations in Lodi, Waunakee, Belleville, and Poynette. Typically, we do these podcasts on all of our local vendors that you can catch in the stores. We're starting over. 

We're starting fresh. We had this podcast roll out in 2020, and we all know what happened in 2020, COVID hit. And it was just really, it was insanity for us. We were young, small business owners, and really had to just focus on what we could do to help our communities. 

So we had to put the podcast down for a minute. But here we are 2024, picking it right back up where we left off. And what a better way to kick this off. So we are not interviewing a small business this time or a local business this time. 

We were interviewing a local organization, Create Waunakee. So Create Waunakee was also created in 2020, and they had to make some twists and turns too. So this is just walking you through what that looked like and who they are. 

We're really excited to be a part of this vision and a part of this organization. There is a big event coming up called a ball of creativity. We will link all of the information at the end here in our show notes. 

If you guys have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us. We would love to answer anything. Please leave it in the comments and we'll get right back to you. Here we go. Let's roll on to Create Waunakee, episode number one of 2024. 

We are sitting here with our specialists from Create Waunakee. Would you like to introduce yourself here today? Sure. I'm Rona Neary. I'm a nature photographer and I'm vice president for Create Waunakee Inc. 

And when she says nature photographer, I mean her home is filled with these beautiful, beautiful pictures. I wish you could all see them, but you can because she's out and about in the community, including in our local library. 

Are there other places we can find your art? There's a permanent display up in the Center for Rural History at Schumacher Farm Park. And I helped create a series of videos about birds that's on the Pope Farm Conservancy website. 

Very cool. Look at that. See, I learned something new when we do these podcasts too. That's great. Thank you. Speaking of your photography, you are taking a trip very soon. Yes. Where are you going? Share that with us. 

What's the details? I am heading to Costa Rica on a photography trip with about 10 other photographers. I'm going to be in two locations. I'm going to be in the Osa Peninsula, which is where Corcovado National Park is. 

Costa Rica itself is one of the most biodiverse places in the world, and that part of Costa Rica is even richer. We're going to spend several days there. I'm very excited about that. We're going to be at an eco resort right by the park. 

I expect to see, like, they have, I think, 50 -plus species of hummingbirds in Costa Rica. They've got these incredible butterflies. They have all kinds of other birds and macaws. Oh, my gosh. Sounds like paradise. 

Yeah, it's incredible. And all kinds of odd animals, like tapirs and kawadamundi and crab -eating raccoons and all kinds of funky stuff. So I don't know what I'll see, but I'm excited about that. Then we're going to the Caribbean side in Puerto Viejo, and we will be spending three days with one of the world's leading sloth researchers, Dr. 

Rebecca Cliff. That sounds amazing. It's amazing. She has the Sloth Conservation Foundation. It's called SLOCO for short. And the place where we'll be is known to be the sloth capital of the world. So there are sloths everywhere. 

She has done all this incredible research on sloths, because they're sort of mysterious animals. They live way high in the canopy. They're creatures. Yeah, but they are all around in that area, and she knows where they live in the wild. 

So I'm hoping for a lot of opportunities to get photos of sloths in the wild and to learn about them, because they're really interesting. She's created these radio backpacks for sloths in order to research them. 

them. And one of the things that kills sloths a lot is if they try to cross roads because they are so slow. Makes sense. And so she's created these rope bridges across roads and highways so that the sloths don't get harmed. 

So that's just a bit of the work she's doing. That's amazing. Yeah, she's super cool. What a cute her. Yeah. So I'm excited. I hope to come home with lots of cool photos and I've got some new equipment to try out, the macro photography to do some frogs and little things too. 

So we'll see. Bringing community, bringing our community into the world and then bringing the world back to it. Oh, that's wonderful. I like that. Yeah, that's what I'm always trying to do. So that's good. 

Awesome. We want to talk about Create Wanna Key today. What is Create Wanna Key? Hmm. That's an excellent question. That's a great question. Really, our village administrator, Todd Schmidt, was the person, the visionary, who kind of came up with this concept that he wanted to expand the creative economy of Wanaki. 

And really what that means is that when you foster and grow the arts and innovators in a community, then that economy, every part of that economy, other businesses all benefit as well. So he was really ignited by this idea, and he also started to realize that there were a lot of sort of hidden creatives in the village. 

So there were all kinds of people who were doing amazing things of all different kinds, visual arts, music, performance, all these different things, but nobody really knew they were there. And so he came up with this idea that we really wanted to start thinking creatively about how to bring those people out into the open, to share them with the community, and then to bring the community together and bolster this creative economy in order to put Wanaki on the map in a new way. 

Right, and it's a big circle. That's how I like to think of all of our creative economy, small business, Todd, part of the village, all of us are in this big circle and we're all supporting each other. 

So what a wonderful creation. Right, yeah, yeah. And it's, I mean, collaboration is at the heart of it. Right. So then how did you guys kind of continue with that thought? Like what was the process? What did that look like for you guys? 

Well, I'm not maybe the best person to talk about that, but I know that Todd started working with a group, I believe at the UW, who was studying this with us and helping us create a task force. I was actually on that early task force, along with many other people from the community, from different sectors of the community who had different areas. 

of expertise and we started imagining what could come to Wanaki and what would make it a better place to live and be more exciting and more culturally vibrant. And so, yeah, and then from that, after that report came from the students working on that project, then he created this committee, the Create Wanaki Committee, which is a committee of the village originally. 

Awesome. What a great, like you said, what a great partnership. What have the biggest challenges been for Create Wanaki? Okay, well, one of the original challenges was that that committee got formed, I think it was January of 2020. 

And so they had maybe one meeting, maybe two, and then the whole world locked down. But they kept going and they had to think creatively again about, all right, how do we make a go of this in this... 

totally new environment that none of us know anything about or are comfortable in. So it was really interesting and it's funny that we're on a podcast because one of the things that they did was a program called Wanaki is Home, which had meant, I think it was meant to be kind of a live thing, but it became a podcast that they did interviewing members of the community and asking them about what their lives and experiences were like and then putting that people to listen to. 

So that was one of their creative workarounds early on. That's amazing and what a way to pivot. We all talked about pivot became the buzzword. How do we change what we're doing to survive COVID, not even just as humans, but as businesses, as organizations. 

So what a creative way. I mean, I don't know how to say that, but what else would you expect from a group of creatives? Yeah, well, they did some amazing stuff and there were some things that had already started like Art on Main was already a program. 

So that's a collaboration with Endress Manufacturing and each year they create a new kind of metal base in a different shape. So the first year it was goats and then artists of any kind can decorate the apply to decorate their goat. 

And then at the end, all these different amazing decorations are made of on metal so that they can survive outside. And then people can bid on them. They have an auction so you can have one of these pieces of art. 

I believe in 2020 it was butterflies and Natasha and I collaborated and combined her love and skill with Mosaic with my photography and we made this monarch butterfly. So lots of different, I mean, people do amazing things, wood and tile and paint and all kinds of cool stuff. 

So projects like that, which were largely outdoors, could still happen. And such an inspirational thing for a business to bring to the community too. That's really cool. Yeah, it's another fun, you know, alignment we have with a lot of the organizations here in town. 

So Create Wanna Key has done a lot to help local artists in the community and the community itself in the creative economy. What do the proceeds that Create Wanna Key brings in go to fulfill? Well, I mean, it hasn't mostly been a money -generating organization. 

Until about three years ago, we started the Wanna Key Artisan Market, which is held up at Schumacher Farm Park. And I don't want to say really, it's not a profit -making thing because we very consciously don't make a profit on Wanna Key Artisan Market. 

We set up the market as a way for artists to have an opportunity to earn what they're worth. which is a real problem in the art community a lot of times. And so we didn't want it to be an art and craft show because we wanted to attract people who really were looking to buy art and pay what art needs to be paid in order to continue to be generated. 

So we have a very low entrance fee for that program. In fact, it's like it's $100, but they get 60 back when they show up the day. Oh, wow. So really it's a $40 booth fee. And then we have free student booth fees. 

So 10 students from the Wanaki area, either high school or college if their families are still in the village, can apply for these. So we cover the cost of that for them. And we also do things like provide tents or tables or other things for them. 

Because a lot of times the problem with being an artist and wanting to do these shows is there's not just the cost of showing up. You have to be able to display your work and have a tent and all of these things and all of those are additional expenses. 

So one of our objectives is really to help student, young and emerging artists get a leg up and get going in the art world. But while we do that, we charge a $2 fee to our participants who come to the show. 

And we also take collection for student scholarships. And we also have a brought stand there and all the proceeds from the brought stand and that food is donated from places like the pig. That those proceeds also all go to our student scholarships. 

So the students who participate in the show can then apply for the scholarship. And that can be a pretty significant amount and very helpful for students who want to go on to secondary education. And what a good feeling. 

So if you go to this artesia market, which I highly recommend, if you have not been there, certainly go put it on the calendar for next year. Always the first weekend in October. It's beautiful, first of all. 

The setting is gorgeous at Schumacher Farms. There are so many local artists that you just, you're in awe of their art. It's beautiful. It's, I just don't know another word, stunning, I guess. That's nice. 

But not only that, so you're going to a beautiful place, a beautiful setting. You are shopping with a local artist that you know is right from the area. And then on top of that, you're supporting students. 

So I just don't know that there is a better way to support your local community than to come to the artesian market. And we really try to make that. Our mix of artists is also very intentionally diverse, both in the people themselves. 

So we're looking for people of all different kinds of racial, ethnic, gender, identity backgrounds, and also very different kinds of art. So you're not going to find that there are. 40 jewelry artists and two painters. 

We try to have potters and mosaic artists and glass artists. And so that there's a lot of variety. And so there's not a lot of competition within the artists, among the artists, because we really wanna foster this sense of community. 

That's another big part of Create Want a Key is we want our artists to feel fellowship with one another. So that's the first event for this year, right? And then we have new in 2024, a new event coming up. 

We do. For Create Want a Key. Yes. Can you tell us a little bit about that? We're all very excited to hear it. Well, we're really excited about this. So I mentioned before that Create Want a Key started as a village committee. 

In the last year, we've now moved into becoming a nonprofit. So we are now Create Want a Key Inc. And that has allowed us, we're working in tandem with the village still, but it's allowed us to start fundraising, which is really great because our, as I said, we're not really a money -making operation, but in order to grow and become what we really wanna be, which is this engine for creative economy, we need some staffing because right now we're entirely volunteer run and our volunteers are amazing, but we're asking a lot of them. 

And as it grows, we really need some paid staff. And then the other thing we really hope for within the next few years is to find a physical space, a physical space that could be a lot of things, like we hope for a stage, for studio spaces, for artists, because that's so expensive for them. 

A gallery space, potentially. A workshop space where we could teach classes in the community. So it would be incredible to have something like that here in the village of Want a Key. And I think this village would love and support something like that. 

Absolutely. So with that in mind, in mind, we decided we better hit it hard and do something exciting and fun in order to generate that excitement. And so we are having a first ever ball of creativity. 

So it's a big gala event and it's gonna be at the very beautiful Wanna Keep Public Library, which was one, all kinds of awards, as you know. Oh, it's gorgeous. Yeah, well, it's so beautiful. And they've never done anything like this there either. 

So it's gonna be a first on a lot of levels and our theme for this year, and we're gonna have a new theme every year, but this year it's whimsical and it's going to be. I've already started hearing some rumors about the decor and the performers and it's gonna be amazing. 

It's gonna be very fun. So we'll have a silent auction there. We're gonna have amazing food. We're gonna have fancy food made by us. They're doing like high -end catering and donating it all because they're so generous and kind. 

And we'll have DJ -led dancing and some cool lighting and we're going to have musical performances, dance performances, and lots of actual surprises. So I don't want to give it all away yet. So again, we're looking at this event and we're saying what a beautiful venue. 

Yes. We're saying what a fun night it's going to be. There is going to be dancing and I don't want to spill all the beans. But dancing and fantastic food and fantastic beverages. Yes. And it's just going to be a lot of fun with the community. 

So if you guys have not signed up to go to the Ball of Creativity, it is February 17th. Yep. Seven o 'clock, I think. I think so. Yes, when it starts. And if you go to createwantakey .com, you'll see all the information there right on the home page. 

It just shows a ball of creativity. Get your tickets. So and just look in the show notes, guys. I will link it right in the show notes. So it takes you right there. So you don't even have to look for it. 

Is there anything else about Create Wantakey that you want? Well, I guess the only thing I would say is, I mean, we really mean it when we say that this is collaborative, that this is a community thing. 

So if you have ideas, if you have talents that you feel are not being seen, that you could share, if you would be interested in volunteering, we need more minds and more skills. And, you know, when we say creatives, we really don't just mean art. 

We mean entrepreneurs. We mean inventors. You know, it can, it's a much broader description of creative than just somebody who can paint a beautiful picture. So come to the events. volunteer for the events, come be a part of it because that's what makes it worthwhile. 

And outside of supporting Create Wanaki, is there anything else we can do as citizens to help support the creative economy in Wanaki? Mm. Well, you can go shop the pig because they are selling work from our local artists, which is incredible. 

Yes, we are. We have a whole section and it's gonna be year round. You can find the Arthur. Yeah, it's so cool because they actually purchased outright from the artists. So Pigly Wiggly's not making any money from this. 

The artists are making 85% of the profits on that and then they donate back 15% to Create Wanaki. So it's a really cool situation. I know there's lots of different creative ventures happening in the village right now. 

It just seems like seems like a rich time for growth. One of our local churches has a gallery, which is incredible. Oh my gosh, that's amazing. It is amazing. And just pay attention and listen for events when they come up and come be part of them. 

We've got music in the park in the summertime. We have Make Music Day. So there's lots of things. And we're always looking for new ideas and new leaders to be a part of it. Amazing. Well, thank you so much. 

And I'm so glad to be a part of Create Wanaki. I was just lucky enough to catch Sylvia at the right time. And it kind of just started the creative ball going. So oh my gosh, look at that. You just said it. 

Thank you. So thank you guys so much for joining us today. We really appreciate you being here to listen. And if you have any questions, I will link again at the website in the bio and you can reach out to Create Wanaki at any time. 

Yeah, and we'll see you soon. Thank you. Yeah, well, thank you so much. We're so grateful for you. And thanks for sharing our story and for being such an amazing supporter of Create Wanaki Inc. Thank you. 

Well, there you have it, episode one of 2024 for the Love of Local podcast completed. We are so excited that you took your time to be with us today. Thank you for listening. Again, all of the notes will be there for you to go through and we'll link everything that we talked about today in those notes. 

I wanna thank Create Wanaki for getting on with us and I wanna wish them the best of luck with their Gala event. It's gonna be so exciting. I can't wait to see all the great things that come from it. 

Also wanna give you guys a heads up that with this reboot, we have some amazing new businesses coming. We've already done the recordings. We're gonna get those out to you. So please follow us. Make sure you're listening to us. 

All of this goes to support your local businesses and your local small businesses, which we could not have a bigger heart for. So thank you for joining us on this episode for the Love of Local and we'll see you soon.