Author Archive for Lauren Stichter

Art Shop!

Published
by
Lauren Stichter
on November 17, 2008
in Community, Creative Arts, Dialogue and Resources
. 0 Comments

In 2005, Jenna Avellino and I decided to sell our art work (lanterns, handbags & home goods) at a craft show in Brooklyn. The cost; $150 for our spot plus gas, bridge tolls, and weekend stay expenses in NYC. Although we did pretty well as vendors, we talked about how it would be nice if we had a cheaper place to sell our goods, closer to home. We also knew that many of our friends were in the same predicament, and wouldn’t it be cool if there was a place for all of us to sell our work? Jenna and I knew that if we wanted this kind of thing to happen, we would have to do something about it. This is when we came up with the idea for Art Shop.

On our ride home from Brooklyn, Jenna and I brainstormed our ideas. Art Shop could be more than just a way for us and our closest friends to sell our work; it could be a part of Circle of Hope’s community development and a way for us to connect with our neighbors. Jenna and I also agreed that she and I should not make any money off of running Art Shop, and that we should instead find a need within our community to give to.

The first year we offered about 18 spots, in Circle of Hope Frankford & Norris’s tiny little upstairs PM space, for $15 per artist, and filled the room with 30 artists. We used the money from the vendors to pay for opening night food and beverages, decorations, and we were also able to purchase 3 new tables for Circle of Hope. It was amazing, and Jenna and I immediately planned to do it again the next year.

In 2006, we moved things down to COH Broad & Washington, as we were in need of more space for more vendors. We filled the place with 60 artists. That year we also raffled off one item from each vendor, to bring in money for Shalom House.

In 2007, we stayed at BW and used the hallways for more vendor space, filling it with 75 artists. The proceeds from the vendor fees and the raffle went to a family in need within our community.

This year, as Circle of Hope Frankford and Norris’s space has grown, we are moving Art Shop back up to the Kensington/Fishtown area. We’re anticipating over 70 artists. Something new this year, is that instead of using some of the vendor fees to pay for food, we have 15 wonderful friends and family members who will be baking our Friday night desserts for us, so that we can use that part of our budget to give even more back to our community.

So, come out, support your local artists, shop, and have fun. See you all at Art Shop!

music is not the only part of the PM

Published
by
Lauren Stichter
on February 21, 2008
in Community, Creative Arts, Dialogue and Planning
. 1 Comment

About a year ago, Joshua asked me if I’d like to “step-up” and become the Public Meeting Coordinator. As a PM Leader who loves to organize, teach and facilitate things, this offer made sense to me, and I easily accepted. Over the past year Joshua and I have been figuring out exactly what that role means. Currently Circle of Hope does not have this role defined yet. Because of this, I often bumble around trying to figure out what is mine to facilitate, and what is not. In an effort to begin to clarify this role, I have begun to think about exactly what I do as the PM Coordinator. I co-lead a team of musicians, organize love feast music, organize Evensong, recruit musicians, meet with the PM Leaders once a month, help create and maintain the PM team covenants, I got the L&A team rolling, etc. Nothing is in writing yet, and some of these responsibilities will change too, but I like that by thinking about these things and discussing them with Joshua, I get to figure out exactly what I’m supposed to be doing.

The one thing that became confusing about this new title of PM coordinator was that I often got emails from other teams (hosting, children’s, tech.) telling me that they couldn’t be in that Sunday, or asking me where to find someones email address from their own team. “That’s not really my job” I thought, and I often redirected these people to the coordinators of their own teams. I mentioned my annoyance about this issue to a friend recently and they said “but you’re the PM Coordinator, of course they think they should check in with you.” I responded by saying “well, I don’t actually coordinate the whole PM, I coordinate the PM teams.” To which they replied, “well I’m not a musician, but I think that my team IS a PM team. I help facilitate our Public Meetings too.” True! The music teams, aren’t THE PM Teams. We have lots of teams that help facilitate our Public Meetings- thank goodness! I wonder if my title should change, and if the title of our music teams should simply be that- Music Teams.

I assume Circle started the title PM Teams to steer away from calling our music teams, worship teams. Rightfully so, the music teams aren’t the only groups worshiping either. All of our teams, and basically we as a whole body and community, create an environment for us to worship in, and I love that music is not the only part of the PM at Circle of Hope.