Flying Cloud Collective: February 2012

In October of 2010 I had a dream in which my grandfather asked me "Don't you want to live your dream?"

After his prompting I quickly entered my self into the Self Employed Business program provided through the government.

I had decided to follow my 10 year dream of opening an arts based drop-in centre. After months of preparation I found that jumping full on into my "dream" was going to be expensive and I wasn't ready to go into debt just yet, so I broke down my plan into pieces and I decided o start with what I thought would be the logical first step, a Nova Scotian Art & Artisan Boutique!

Next came the hunt for a space, which was also met with some defeat... but not to worry because on January 11th of 2011, on what would have been my grandfather's 84th birthday, I had a truly epic dream where I conversed with a wise native Chief who showed me the layers of time and went I woke I rushed to open Kijiji to search for trailers as an affordable solution for a storefront. The first thing that came up was Sylvia and the rest is what you would call history.

From 2011 to 2012 Sylvia housed a very funky hand made boutique, Flying Cloud Boutique, but I'm afraid I was once again ahead of my time so after the Christmas craft season of 2012 I decided to put Sylvia into hibernation while I ook another look at my master plan.I

n the spring of 2013 I was fortunate to be asked to take over the Planters Sea Chest Gift Shoppe in Newport Landing in the Avon River Heritage Society Museum. This proved to be a great move for not only myself but also for our local artists. After working for the ARHS board of directors for several months they asked if the Hants County Arts Council would like to make the museum it's permanent home. So here we are now, by some wonderful twist of fate, getting ready to finally start building that creative community centre.

As for Sylvia, well she is now my own personal museum where I story my collectibles, and Flying Cloud Boutique has morphed into Flying Cloud Collective; a small group of Nova Scotian Artists and Artisans who travel to the odd show and sale.

Friday, February 24, 2012