Creative Spotlights Interview With Raw Artists Miami Director, Melissa Hernandez
2 views
Skip to first unread message
Emily Correa
Jan 30, 2015, 1:21:20 PM1/30/15
to publish-the...@googlegroups.com
*****************************************************************
Message delivered directly to members of the group:
publish-the...@googlegroups.com
*****************************************************************
Please consider this free-reprint article written by:
Emily Correa
*****************************
IMPORTANT - Publication/Reprint Terms
- You have permission to publish this article electronically in free-only publications such as a website or an ezine as long as the bylines are included.
- You are not allowed to use this article for commercial purposes. The article should only be reprinted in a publicly accessible website and not in a members-only commercial site.
- You are not allowed to post/reprint this article in any sites/publications that contains or supports hate, violence, porn and warez or any indecent and illegal sites/publications.
- You are not allowed to use this article in UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email) or SPAM. This article MUST be distributed in an opt-in email list only.
- If you distribute this article in an ezine or newsletter, we ask that you send a copy of the newsletter or ezine that contains the article to http://www.isnare.com/eta.php?aid=1923133
- If you post this article in a website/forum/blog, ALL links MUST be set to hyperlinks and we ask that you send a copy of the URL where the article is posted to http://www.isnare.com/eta.php?aid=1923133
- We request that you ask permission from the author if you want to publish this article in print.
The role of iSnare.com is only to distribute this article as part of its Article Distribution feature ( http://www.isnare.com/distribution.php ). iSnare.com does NOT own this article, please respect the author's copyright and this publication/reprint terms. If you do not agree to any of these terms, please do not reprint or publish this article.
*****************************
Article Title: Creative Spotlights Interview With Raw Artists Miami Director, Melissa Hernandez
Author: Emily Correa
Word Count: 1944
Article URL: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=1923133&ca=Entertainment
Format: 64cpl
Contact The Author: http://www.isnare.com/eta.php?aid=1923133
Easy Publish Tool: http://www.isnare.com/html.php?aid=1923133
*********************** ARTICLE START ***********************
January 2015
Emily:Today on Creative Spotlights, I am with Melissa Hernandez, who is the director of Raw Artists Miami, which is an amazing national multi-city organization that supports a variety of artists, whether they’re in visual arts, fashion, photography, music and more. They are across 60 plus cities worldwide, including London, Australia, Canada etc.
I’m here to find out key information about Melissa’s creative journey as a director, as an artist, and for any advice that she has for our readers on how to pursue a career in the arts.
So Melissa, tell me about the Raw Artists Miami organization.
Melissa: As far as Raw Artists Miami goes, we’re one of the top shows in the whole entire country. And as far as our shows go, it’s not just our artists showcasing their work—which, by the way, most of them, probably 80% of them, it’s their first showcase ever—but as far as what sets us apart, we actually change our events into networking events as well.
So we’ll invite the press, the media and bloggers and such, but then also invite local businesses; art galleries, boutiques, theatres, venues, organizations, even other venues and restaurants to allow our artists not only to network with each other, but also with the local community.
Our events are very big. We typically have over 800 people that come to our shows at one night. It’s also very interactive. It’s not just having a regular event; we have our painters who do live paintings and we’ll have live hair and make-up sometimes. Our guests can walk up and watch them do their work.
We just started doing something where our hair and make-up artists actually set up a little prop, or I guess we want to say like a photo shoot type of setting. However, they have their models set up, and then, that way, their guests can walk up and look at their work as well. So it’s like a live installation, but with hair and make-up as well.
It’s very interactive. There are installations everywhere throughout the venue and some fun times.
Emily:Awesome! I am coming from New York City where I spent three years building my network with people in the arts whether they’re in visual arts, fashion or music and I loved it. RAW Artists NYC was definitely part of that experience. I was a frequent guest to the RAW NYC events, and I even hosted a booth for Creative Spotlights in 2014, and I’ll tell you, we got a lot of amazing connections and we met some cool people.
Now, I’m new to the Miami scene and I’m discovering how it is different from New York City. Well, for you, how would you describe the Miami art scene? Is it different now than it was in the past few years? What are the main industries here? How many events for Raw Artists Miami are held in the Miami area? Is it different per location?
Melissa:Yeah, I would definitely say Miami is like one of the capitals of the world when it comes to art, fashion, anything like that, because you know, we host Art Basel here and we have film festivals here, we have winter music conference here, we have a bunch of stuff. And so Miami is definitely blowing up. All of our locations host six events per year, every other month, starting in January.
Emily:That’s definitely a good pace, and keeps the artists engaged and with good momentum. As a coach with my own business for Vida Linda Coaching, a number of my clients praised RAW events and would either host their own booth, compete for votes or visit the events themselves. Now, tell us about this competition that you guys have for the RAW artists, where they get nominated and they submit their material. How does that work?
Melissa:Yeah, it’s the RAW Awards, hence the name. It’s actually the largest indie awards ceremony in the country. We’ll take all of our artists nationwide. This is over 15,000 artists.
Each RAW city will host a semi-finals where we’ll have the public alumni and vote for their favorite artist for the season. And then we’ll have local judges, and local artists compete for the top three out of the five. And then there will be one winner per category. So there will be like one Miami filmmaker for the year, one Miami performing artist for the year, and so on and so forth.
And then, all the winners, nationwide and from each category, will move on to national where we have three celebrity judges per category and we’ll pick one ultimate winner. So there’ll be one filmmaker of the year, one performing artist of the year, for example, and then, they win all these prize packages and consultations from our sponsors. So you get an extra career boosting kit since we work with emerging artists.
Emily:Okay, awesome! The artists I have come across really like the accolades they get from being a nominated artist, and they highly promoted the events themselves and the voting process via their social medias.
And how did you get with the Raw Artists Miami organization? Did you have your own creative journey as an artist? What inspired you to work in supporting the artist?
Melissa:Yeah, actually, my background is fashion. We’re doing everything from retail to merchandising. I’m actually a wardrobe stylist on the side, as well. I’ve done fashion show production, charity events, everything that you do with fashion designers.
That was my background, but I wanted to branch out into the arts because I’ve always had the love for music and arts and everything like that. I just came across the job posting on Craigslist, actually! And because I had so much experience with fashion show production and just putting on events in general, organizing and things like that, I just got the job.
Emily: I love that story. I don’t know if you know this, but I did my own thing in fashion too, some modeling, some make up artistry, I even was a lead modeling instructor in Boston for a number of years.
I want to ask you what advice you might have for someone who is aspiring to be an artist? What advice do you have based on what you’ve seen as being a director of Raw Artists Miami?
Melissa:Yeah, as far as an artist, whether a fashion designer, a hair stylist, a visual artist, a musician, or whatever, my advice to those artists who are just starting out would definitely be to network like crazy and do as many events as possible. The reason being is because your business is yourself.
You kind of have to break yourself out there. You can’t wait for people to come to you. You just have to network, network, network, whether it’s just going to a simple networking event in your local area or, like I mentioned, participating in an event.
Whatever it may be, it’s just all about networking because you never know who you’re going to meet.
There are times when—even at my show—when I’m talking to people, sometimes I don’t even know who they are, and then, I find out they’re a blogger, and then, they write about us or what-not. You just never know who you’re talking to.
And always have professionalism, for sure, just because you yourself are your business. So it’s all about just representing your business, 24/7.
Emily:Yeah! From a coaching perspective, what would you say are some more internal things that kind of hold artists back that they can work to improve? Whether it’s something that is spiritual, mental, something with confidence, or something within the artist, what mindset do you feel an artist would need to really get to those higher levels of success that you’ve seen in artists who, you know, really go up the ladder?
Melissa:Yeah, I will definitely have to say just being a go-getter and being motivated. I think in any type of business, no matter what you are, or what industry you’re in, it always comes down to motivation. So I would definitely have to say that one thing that can hold an artist back is not being a go-getter and not being motivated to go to the networking events or participating in a show or anything like that.
And definitely like having a business side knowledge, I guess business knowledge. That can really set them back as well.
A lot of my artists, they have managers and stuff like that, but sometimes, if you’re just starting out, obviously, it’s really hard to get a manager right off the bat, because you haven’t even been in gallery or they haven’t performed in your area or anything like that. So whether they just pick up a business book or just read a little bit or even a marketing a book, I would definitely say not only just being creative, but having just a little sense of business. That can help them as well.
Emily:Okay, great! Thank you for that. Last question, what is the future of Raw Artists Miami? What is the vision moving forward in 2015, so we can get all excited about it?
Melissa:Oh, wow! Okay. Well, as far as Miami goes – you know, I have Orlando and Miami as well, so I run both markets. And actually, my assistant got promoted to be the Orlando director. So now, I’m just starting Miami because it just blew up within the last two or three events.
I would say within the 2015 season, there’s definitely going to be more networking opportunities outside of RAW, as well. We got approached by other businesses and other organizations and things like that, just locally. So it’s not just nationally, but here, locally, there’s going to be a lot of projects that we’re going to do with other organizations and things like that.
If they are RAW artists, they should be checking their emails quite frequently, because there’s going to be a lot of emails from me with other projects and things like that.
And probably, we’re probably going to do little mini-events, not like our showcases, but I would say, like mixers and that sort of thing, where all of our RAW artists and the public just come.
Sometimes, with our shows, our artists are debuting their work for the first time. So they’re focused on that and they’re not able to really network with the guests. So we might start doing the mixers just at a local restaurant or something like that where we can just all be like a little RAW family and it’s open to the public and that sort of thing.
So it’ll just be like outside projects that we’re going to do outside of our showcases to definitely look for in 2015.
*********************** ARTICLE END ***********************
- To distribute your articles go to http://www.isnare.com/distribution.php
- For more free-reprint articles go to http://www.isnare.com
Message delivered directly to members of the group:
publish-the...@googlegroups.com
*****************************************************************
Please consider this free-reprint article written by:
Emily Correa
*****************************
IMPORTANT - Publication/Reprint Terms
- You have permission to publish this article electronically in free-only publications such as a website or an ezine as long as the bylines are included.
- You are not allowed to use this article for commercial purposes. The article should only be reprinted in a publicly accessible website and not in a members-only commercial site.
- You are not allowed to post/reprint this article in any sites/publications that contains or supports hate, violence, porn and warez or any indecent and illegal sites/publications.
- You are not allowed to use this article in UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email) or SPAM. This article MUST be distributed in an opt-in email list only.
- If you distribute this article in an ezine or newsletter, we ask that you send a copy of the newsletter or ezine that contains the article to http://www.isnare.com/eta.php?aid=1923133
- If you post this article in a website/forum/blog, ALL links MUST be set to hyperlinks and we ask that you send a copy of the URL where the article is posted to http://www.isnare.com/eta.php?aid=1923133
- We request that you ask permission from the author if you want to publish this article in print.
The role of iSnare.com is only to distribute this article as part of its Article Distribution feature ( http://www.isnare.com/distribution.php ). iSnare.com does NOT own this article, please respect the author's copyright and this publication/reprint terms. If you do not agree to any of these terms, please do not reprint or publish this article.
*****************************
Article Title: Creative Spotlights Interview With Raw Artists Miami Director, Melissa Hernandez
Author: Emily Correa
Word Count: 1944
Article URL: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=1923133&ca=Entertainment
Format: 64cpl
Contact The Author: http://www.isnare.com/eta.php?aid=1923133
Easy Publish Tool: http://www.isnare.com/html.php?aid=1923133
*********************** ARTICLE START ***********************
January 2015
Emily:Today on Creative Spotlights, I am with Melissa Hernandez, who is the director of Raw Artists Miami, which is an amazing national multi-city organization that supports a variety of artists, whether they’re in visual arts, fashion, photography, music and more. They are across 60 plus cities worldwide, including London, Australia, Canada etc.
I’m here to find out key information about Melissa’s creative journey as a director, as an artist, and for any advice that she has for our readers on how to pursue a career in the arts.
So Melissa, tell me about the Raw Artists Miami organization.
Melissa: As far as Raw Artists Miami goes, we’re one of the top shows in the whole entire country. And as far as our shows go, it’s not just our artists showcasing their work—which, by the way, most of them, probably 80% of them, it’s their first showcase ever—but as far as what sets us apart, we actually change our events into networking events as well.
So we’ll invite the press, the media and bloggers and such, but then also invite local businesses; art galleries, boutiques, theatres, venues, organizations, even other venues and restaurants to allow our artists not only to network with each other, but also with the local community.
Our events are very big. We typically have over 800 people that come to our shows at one night. It’s also very interactive. It’s not just having a regular event; we have our painters who do live paintings and we’ll have live hair and make-up sometimes. Our guests can walk up and watch them do their work.
We just started doing something where our hair and make-up artists actually set up a little prop, or I guess we want to say like a photo shoot type of setting. However, they have their models set up, and then, that way, their guests can walk up and look at their work as well. So it’s like a live installation, but with hair and make-up as well.
It’s very interactive. There are installations everywhere throughout the venue and some fun times.
Emily:Awesome! I am coming from New York City where I spent three years building my network with people in the arts whether they’re in visual arts, fashion or music and I loved it. RAW Artists NYC was definitely part of that experience. I was a frequent guest to the RAW NYC events, and I even hosted a booth for Creative Spotlights in 2014, and I’ll tell you, we got a lot of amazing connections and we met some cool people.
Now, I’m new to the Miami scene and I’m discovering how it is different from New York City. Well, for you, how would you describe the Miami art scene? Is it different now than it was in the past few years? What are the main industries here? How many events for Raw Artists Miami are held in the Miami area? Is it different per location?
Melissa:Yeah, I would definitely say Miami is like one of the capitals of the world when it comes to art, fashion, anything like that, because you know, we host Art Basel here and we have film festivals here, we have winter music conference here, we have a bunch of stuff. And so Miami is definitely blowing up. All of our locations host six events per year, every other month, starting in January.
Emily:That’s definitely a good pace, and keeps the artists engaged and with good momentum. As a coach with my own business for Vida Linda Coaching, a number of my clients praised RAW events and would either host their own booth, compete for votes or visit the events themselves. Now, tell us about this competition that you guys have for the RAW artists, where they get nominated and they submit their material. How does that work?
Melissa:Yeah, it’s the RAW Awards, hence the name. It’s actually the largest indie awards ceremony in the country. We’ll take all of our artists nationwide. This is over 15,000 artists.
Each RAW city will host a semi-finals where we’ll have the public alumni and vote for their favorite artist for the season. And then we’ll have local judges, and local artists compete for the top three out of the five. And then there will be one winner per category. So there will be like one Miami filmmaker for the year, one Miami performing artist for the year, and so on and so forth.
And then, all the winners, nationwide and from each category, will move on to national where we have three celebrity judges per category and we’ll pick one ultimate winner. So there’ll be one filmmaker of the year, one performing artist of the year, for example, and then, they win all these prize packages and consultations from our sponsors. So you get an extra career boosting kit since we work with emerging artists.
Emily:Okay, awesome! The artists I have come across really like the accolades they get from being a nominated artist, and they highly promoted the events themselves and the voting process via their social medias.
And how did you get with the Raw Artists Miami organization? Did you have your own creative journey as an artist? What inspired you to work in supporting the artist?
Melissa:Yeah, actually, my background is fashion. We’re doing everything from retail to merchandising. I’m actually a wardrobe stylist on the side, as well. I’ve done fashion show production, charity events, everything that you do with fashion designers.
That was my background, but I wanted to branch out into the arts because I’ve always had the love for music and arts and everything like that. I just came across the job posting on Craigslist, actually! And because I had so much experience with fashion show production and just putting on events in general, organizing and things like that, I just got the job.
Emily: I love that story. I don’t know if you know this, but I did my own thing in fashion too, some modeling, some make up artistry, I even was a lead modeling instructor in Boston for a number of years.
I want to ask you what advice you might have for someone who is aspiring to be an artist? What advice do you have based on what you’ve seen as being a director of Raw Artists Miami?
Melissa:Yeah, as far as an artist, whether a fashion designer, a hair stylist, a visual artist, a musician, or whatever, my advice to those artists who are just starting out would definitely be to network like crazy and do as many events as possible. The reason being is because your business is yourself.
You kind of have to break yourself out there. You can’t wait for people to come to you. You just have to network, network, network, whether it’s just going to a simple networking event in your local area or, like I mentioned, participating in an event.
Whatever it may be, it’s just all about networking because you never know who you’re going to meet.
There are times when—even at my show—when I’m talking to people, sometimes I don’t even know who they are, and then, I find out they’re a blogger, and then, they write about us or what-not. You just never know who you’re talking to.
And always have professionalism, for sure, just because you yourself are your business. So it’s all about just representing your business, 24/7.
Emily:Yeah! From a coaching perspective, what would you say are some more internal things that kind of hold artists back that they can work to improve? Whether it’s something that is spiritual, mental, something with confidence, or something within the artist, what mindset do you feel an artist would need to really get to those higher levels of success that you’ve seen in artists who, you know, really go up the ladder?
Melissa:Yeah, I will definitely have to say just being a go-getter and being motivated. I think in any type of business, no matter what you are, or what industry you’re in, it always comes down to motivation. So I would definitely have to say that one thing that can hold an artist back is not being a go-getter and not being motivated to go to the networking events or participating in a show or anything like that.
And definitely like having a business side knowledge, I guess business knowledge. That can really set them back as well.
A lot of my artists, they have managers and stuff like that, but sometimes, if you’re just starting out, obviously, it’s really hard to get a manager right off the bat, because you haven’t even been in gallery or they haven’t performed in your area or anything like that. So whether they just pick up a business book or just read a little bit or even a marketing a book, I would definitely say not only just being creative, but having just a little sense of business. That can help them as well.
Emily:Okay, great! Thank you for that. Last question, what is the future of Raw Artists Miami? What is the vision moving forward in 2015, so we can get all excited about it?
Melissa:Oh, wow! Okay. Well, as far as Miami goes – you know, I have Orlando and Miami as well, so I run both markets. And actually, my assistant got promoted to be the Orlando director. So now, I’m just starting Miami because it just blew up within the last two or three events.
I would say within the 2015 season, there’s definitely going to be more networking opportunities outside of RAW, as well. We got approached by other businesses and other organizations and things like that, just locally. So it’s not just nationally, but here, locally, there’s going to be a lot of projects that we’re going to do with other organizations and things like that.
If they are RAW artists, they should be checking their emails quite frequently, because there’s going to be a lot of emails from me with other projects and things like that.
And probably, we’re probably going to do little mini-events, not like our showcases, but I would say, like mixers and that sort of thing, where all of our RAW artists and the public just come.
Sometimes, with our shows, our artists are debuting their work for the first time. So they’re focused on that and they’re not able to really network with the guests. So we might start doing the mixers just at a local restaurant or something like that where we can just all be like a little RAW family and it’s open to the public and that sort of thing.
So it’ll just be like outside projects that we’re going to do outside of our showcases to definitely look for in 2015.
*********************** ARTICLE END ***********************
- To distribute your articles go to http://www.isnare.com/distribution.php
- For more free-reprint articles go to http://www.isnare.com
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages