The Creative Kick is about inspiring the creatively driven, in particular commercial and visual artists. They believe that artists flourish best in the company of others, so they run events that encourage social interactions. When people feel supported by a community, they are more likely to stay in Nova Scotia and pay that support forward.

a creative community
Our work is all about people. Students come to our events to learn from the more experienced. Experienced artists with creative block come to get unstuck. People new to Halifax come to belong to a creative community missing in their lives. Business owners and hobbyists alike challenge themselves to do more with their skills. Interdisciplinary concepts and removing the silos of what ‘being an artist’ means is critical to our approach.

people driving their creativity forward
A challenge we see with attendees is staying connected and motivated about their art in the age of social media. There’s more pressure to make art for followers instead of for the love of creating. People are becoming paralyzed to challenge themselves artistically because they’re constantly consuming the success of others. Attendees actively voice feeling lonely as artists, despite being ‘connected to the world’.

So, we measure success as seeing attendees blossom under the warmth of knowing other artists in real life. We’ve seen people who were once afraid to show their work proudly demo techniques to strangers. People who felt their talent was just a hobby turn it into their main income. Students turn into mentors, mentors turn into advocates, and people just driving their creativity… forward.

VANS ‘gets us’
VANS has been instrumental in helping the Creative Kick (formally the East Coast Creative Collect) refine how it wanted to participate in the creative community. Their blend of hard skills such as business and strategy and soft skills such as understanding the needs of Nova Scotian artists makes them a power asset for anyone. Their newsletter alone is a heavyweight resource to help support and develop Nova Scotian artists along their creative journey. As an interdisciplinary group of folk, we’re so glad VANS ‘gets us’ and that’s what prompted us to connect with them in the first place.

up next for The Creative Kick
We are currently running a Freelancer Business Panel on January 28^th – it is designed specifically for photographers, illustrators, etc. We’ve a dream team of panelists that’s rare to get in a room together, ready to answer pressing questions. We are also in the process of re-recording our 2018/19 artist talks for YouTube. That way people can enjoy the benefits of the Creative Kick, even if they can’t make it out to one of our meetups in person.

Learn more about The Creative Kick on their website: https://thecreativekick.ca
See their Artist Page: https://visualarts.ns.ca/artist-pages/the-creative-kick/

And follow them on social media: Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.