Over the past few weeks, some very interesting things have happened in the community development and art intersection in Beaver County. These include the County Extensive Art Crawl, Spoken Word Event, Pop-up Art Gallery and Art and Business Conference.
The four events were organized by a Beaver County nonprofit called Genesis Collective. Collectively dubbed the “Art Madness”, this compilation of activities culminated in a year of planning, organizing, networking, fundraising, and more.
Each of the four events was created to engage in a slightly different group of creative participants and art lovers. Art Crawl temporarily installed community-created art in more than 20 local businesses across Beaver County. The spoken word event came to the creators from the surrounding area, each of whom performed in front of a live audience. The Pop-up Gallery publicly showcases all of Crawler’s (and other Beaver County pieces) works in one place. In the process, the pop-up gallery attracted more than 100 community art fans and featured a live view of the game by and about Beaver County residents that will be completed in August of this year. Finally, the business conference was aimed at local creators who are interested in developing their art-related business here in Beaver County.
In case you haven’t heard of them yet, Genesis Collection is a growing and diverse collaboration of local artists and community advocates working across Beaver County to “support artists and their work.” To increase people’s access to art and creativity, and to take the place of community development in and around Beaver County.
From its earliest stages, the organization has deliberately and tirelessly developed in the minds of the collective leadership. Right now, the overall core leadership is made up of nine Beaver County creators, all of whom are deeply committed to creating a more beautiful version of Beaver County. In its current iteration, the group includes photographers, illustrators, podcasters, art historians, screen printers, artists, and more. The group is deliberately expanding all the time, looking to add extra creativity and insight to this team of advocating artists who work tirelessly on behalf of Beaver County residents and organizations.
Over the past 12 months, members of Genesis Collective have been teaching art classes to local youth, creating public walls that illuminate a bright future for Beaver County, conceptualized and sponsored art that reflects the diverse story of Beaver County. Create that reflects on Beaver County. The challenges facing Beaver County are busy telling tireless stories about our area, and much more. Along the way, the group quickly emerged as a kind of public conscience and guide, reflecting our collective experience and helping to lead our region to a more beautiful, honest and prosperous future. Does.
As Beaver County continues to create its next version, we will need more organizations like Genesis Collective. For those interested in paying attention, this group of creative disruptors has modeled what looks like a privilege equation when creating an organization. They have deliberately worked to validate public health stories and confuse them with things that are no longer beneficial to our collective health.
The Genesis collection moves us beyond the tiring and ineffective ways of communicating our shared needs and goals and provides the tools that effectively move our partners towards a collaborative and united vision. This group of creators empowers community organizations to spread their story to a wider audience, helping them expand their influence and connect with the effective resources needed to grow the community. More importantly, Genesis Collective’s work reminds us that even though we have long believed in ourselves and our region, Beaver County and its people are beautiful, dignified and full of determination. .
The Genesis collection reminds us that creativity is great, that creators are eager to get out of the shadows, and that we can all benefit from encouraging and raising the voices of artists who live and work in Beaver County. Does.
In many cultures, countless cities, different contexts, and all sorts of historical settings, artists are regularly catalysts for the rebirth and revitalization of society. In fact, I would argue that in almost every order in which strong cultural growth has occurred, one would find a group of artists below the level of clear indicators of community change. Art has this kind of quality in it. It criticizes what exists, imagines something different, encourages others to elevate their humanity, and creates societies that are fueled by creative vision and productive dissatisfaction with the situation.
Whatever the future of Beaver County may be – and none of us can fully predict – the health of that future will undoubtedly depend on our eagerness to encourage, support and enhance the work of local creators and artists.
If the work of Genesis Collective to this day is a sign of what still remains, then we all have reason to hope and anticipate our shared creative future.
Daniel Rossi-Keen, Ph.D., co-owner of eQuip Books, a community bookstore in Aleppo and executive director of RiverWise, is a non-profit organization dedicated to creating a sustainable local identity around Beaver County rivers. Employs development practices. You can reach Daniel at daniel@getriverwise.com.