Building community offers each of us an opportunity to be heard, to be seen and to offer spaces to people, ideas and concepts that have powerful, important stories to be told, yet are not a main stream focus in this world. Building creative community offers the chance to create a space to share your work, to explore your potential talents, to curate your learning experience and to connect to other like-minded creatives both online and IRL.
The first things to do are to ask yourself some very important questions:
What, exactly does community look like to you?
Do you consider your neighborhood your community? Your friends? Your chosen family members? Your classmates? The other people in your Thrive Art Workshop Group? Who are the people who make up the most important community members for you?
What does the term community look like? Is it a physical space, like the ever changing Dollhouse Living Room? Or the open field filled with people and music at the park, during the summertime? Is it the back of a bookstore, filled with golden light and the smell of paper and glue? Do you go there to seek connection? Solace? Support? Encouragement? Is it all of the above?
Is community a feeling you get when you're part of something? How many communities are you a part of right now?
Get out your journal and write down brief answers to the above questions, before proceeding forward and really think about what community means to you before reading further.
When we go about building a creative community, there's quite a bit of talk about creating an online and offline presence and from my perspective as a creative entrepreneur and facilitator for Thrive Art Workshops, I believe that there is an importance of creating a gathering place. Where the place is, physical or online, or both, is less relevant than that it serve the needs of the community members. And membership to anything flexes. It grows, adapts, declines and metamorphosis as any living organism does.
We are so much more connected then we realizeand when our thoughts, passions, opinions and ideas are shared, reciprocated, received and engaged with in a positive way, people are encouraged to share themselves and their thoughts more readily. It feels incredibly good to be supported and understood by a community of like minded people.
So, now we know why community is important, now let's talk about how to build it together.
1. Build Others Up
Think quite a bit about how to elevate and build other people up to succeed. Create a space and a set of ideals that really allow you to see other people compassionately from a humane perspective. Tearing people down makes both parties feel yucky. Share positive opinions of one another, do not gossip about parties that are not there and compliment community members whenever you get the chance to do so. Remember: people remember how you make them feel, not really what you say or do, so make them feel good. Happy people are kinder to others.
Really focus on lifting other people up and helping them curate and showcase their best self. Create a way they can feel pride in their own qualities, achievement and abilities. Think long and hard about what you can do to help people shine and give them a space to show off their hard work! Share their pictures. Believe in them.
2. Focus on Early Believers
These are the people who have been with you from the beginning of your idea. They believe in your creativity and they see how imperfect and valuable it is to be a part of your community. Give them extra attention and credit. They are the ones who deserve the best deals and they are the ones who will naturally and organically spread the message of your creative community. Treat them incredibly, send them personalized message, products, notes and ideas and they will repay your efforts tenfold with new members and amazingly ideas.
3. Learn to Understand Motivations
Learn to figure out what other people are thinking. It's very important to find out what draws people to engaging with creative community. For some people it's going to be all about having other people see their art. They need the attention and to be seen. For others it will be about the inspiration, the chance to learn and connect with other cool people. Maybe they love prompts and homework they don't have to seek out. For still others it will be about accountability.
Let their reasons be and learn to curate and engage with their motivations. Feel free to ask the members of your community what draws them to your creative community. Ask them what they would change, and how they would adapt whatever it is you're doing. The people who are engaging with your creative community are the best people to ask questions of, because they find value in what you're doing. Profit from that knowledge and make your services and offers even better.
4. Offer Incentives
Early sign up coupons, positions of responsibilities, prizes, stickers, etc. We all want to know we're important and we want to be seen for our hard work. Show that working hard and showing up for the community matters to you and come up with fun and delightful incentives that the community members would enjoy. Remember, what other people want is different from what you want. Cater to them. You can make yourself whatever you want on your own time.
5. Define Your Values
Values are the driving force which makes people want to join your community. Do the members of your community value excitement over responsibility? Are they mostly introverts or extroverts? What makes their hearts pound and feel proud to stand beside you and your creative community? What do they believe in? What do you believe in is just as important for facilitating a creatively thriving community.
Our intention here at Create Play Thrive LLC is to provide support for curious artistic exploration, continued creative education based on a need for emotional resiliency using a curated selection of art therapy tools and techniques.
We want you to Create Play and Thrive!
6. Reciprocity
This is where most people, start up creative communities, brands and artists go wrong. Go to where the people are. Find them. Comment on their Instagram, their Facebook Posts, compliment them in person, attend their events and support their charities. It's a two way street, and often artists can get caught up in the one way look at me street that mostly just leaves them begging for crumbs of attention. One sure way to get the attention you need as a creative person, is to go out and give your attention away to things which interest you. Chat, engage, do the talking thing. People are people and they are more like you than they are different.