NEW ARTISTIC VENTURE - Community activist Lynn Susholtz to turn North Park’s Art Produce Gallery into a nonprofit
By James Chute Sept. 6, 2015
The way artist Lynn Susholtz sees it, she’s been “nonprofiting” for years. ■ Her North Park enterprise, Art Produce, has partnered with numerous community groups. She’s hosted art exhibits, performances, workshops, community forums, even fundraisers for other organizations in her quest to be a cultural force and an educational resource for the community.
She’s finally decided she might as well officially make Art Produce a nonprofit.
“You know when this really dawned on me? Last May (2014),” she said. “It was a busy month, and we were having our fourth fundraiser for other nonprofit organizations in the garden. And it kind of hit me like a ton of bricks: We should be doing a fundraiser for Art Produce.
“We’ll always support the community, other cultural institutions and individual artists, but at some point, we need to figure out a way to subsidize it that’s not out of our own pockets.”
While Susholtz’s art/design endeavor Stone Paper Scissors will continue as a for-profit business, she’s filed papers with the state for Art Produce to take over the nonprofit status of the inactive Green Scene Gallery, started by North Park architects Zagrodnik + Thomas. She’s assembling a board of directors, writing new bylaws, developing an organizational structure and creating what she hopes will be a model for private/public — or for-profit/nonprofit — cooperation.
“I’ve kind of taken this idea about as far as I can by myself,” she said. “I realize I don’t have the capacity to increase the programming here, and develop and sustain the partnerships by myself anymore. And the funding has to diversify. So I’m very excited about the possibilities.”
By James Chute Sept. 6, 2015
The way artist Lynn Susholtz sees it, she’s been “nonprofiting” for years. ■ Her North Park enterprise, Art Produce, has partnered with numerous community groups. She’s hosted art exhibits, performances, workshops, community forums, even fundraisers for other organizations in her quest to be a cultural force and an educational resource for the community.
She’s finally decided she might as well officially make Art Produce a nonprofit.
“You know when this really dawned on me? Last May (2014),” she said. “It was a busy month, and we were having our fourth fundraiser for other nonprofit organizations in the garden. And it kind of hit me like a ton of bricks: We should be doing a fundraiser for Art Produce.
“We’ll always support the community, other cultural institutions and individual artists, but at some point, we need to figure out a way to subsidize it that’s not out of our own pockets.”
While Susholtz’s art/design endeavor Stone Paper Scissors will continue as a for-profit business, she’s filed papers with the state for Art Produce to take over the nonprofit status of the inactive Green Scene Gallery, started by North Park architects Zagrodnik + Thomas. She’s assembling a board of directors, writing new bylaws, developing an organizational structure and creating what she hopes will be a model for private/public — or for-profit/nonprofit — cooperation.
“I’ve kind of taken this idea about as far as I can by myself,” she said. “I realize I don’t have the capacity to increase the programming here, and develop and sustain the partnerships by myself anymore. And the funding has to diversify. So I’m very excited about the possibilities.”
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