Networking

Back in October I emailed Art is the Cure's founder, Rich Simmons asking if there were any opportunities available, as I thought it would be very fulfilling helping out people with the use of art. So I emailed him with my intent to get some work experience and obviously just in general help out. He emailed me back saying there wasn't any positions open as of yet, but that I should keep a look out. So in some ways I kind of lost a bit of hope. However, he emailed me a month later saying this:

Hey, 

Hope you're okay!

I'm dropping you an email because I've got on record that you've been interested in being part of the Art Is The Cure* street team and I just wanted to let you know whats been going on and ways you can get involved and help if you're still up for it...

The has been a lot of changes and developments recently with this movement. I've been joined by my best friend and fellow artist Kim-Leng Hills who I'm proud to have on board, mostly because she is the most inspirational person I've ever met and I can't wait for you to all see why! I've also started to put a really strong team around me with experienced individuals from the fashion, music and business worlds to help me grow AITC* in new ways. 

We have started giving talks and workshops in schools and this is a huge area i want to focus on and push in 2011 so if you know a school that you think would benefit from a visit from AITC* then please let me know.

A big goal for next year is a coast to coast trip across America to bring this message and movement to the other side of the world and begin establishing ourselves as a global movement. This is going to take A LOT of work and planning so if you want to help organise any events for us in america (october sort of time i think) then that would be amazing. 

We also want to get as many events on the go as we can for a couple of reasons. Firstly, so we can raise awareness about this movement for new people to check out and get involved in and secondly, so we can raise money to do more workshops and fund the trip to america. If you would like to put on a gig or event to raise awareness and money for AITC* then get in touch!

Online we have a lot going on that all needs help promoting and growing...

http://www.youtube.com/user/artisthecureofficial - we have a new youtube channel for videos from events and 'vlogs' etc which will help to get the word out a lot. We need as many people checking out the videos, subscribing and commenting the videos as possible to push us up the rankings on there so please sign up, put the videos on your blogs and profiles and get people to check it out! We also want to get a video together of hundreds of supporters saying who they are and what their cure is or that they support art is the cure. If you want to be involved, film a short clip and email it in!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Art-Is-The-Cure/35369487479 - this is the AITC* fan page on facebook which is growing really well. We would love to start getting a really strong following on here and having a place where people can see updates, interact with each other, add fan photos etc. Please check it out, join, and do the 'suggest friends' thing on the left and spend 5-10 minutes just clicking all of your friends so they can all join too. The more people that sign up, the more people will hear about it and check it out too and this is an amazing way to grow AITC* online.

http://www.twitter.com/artisthecure - please check out and follow us on twitter for news, thoughts, ideas and photos from events we go to. Please drop us a mention @artisthecure and ask friends and fellow followers to check us out too!

I've also attached the new press pack for you to read up on about this movement. If you know any local press, please forward it on to them and see if they could do a story or feature on it. If you want to organise an event in your school or get me to come and give a talk, please forward it on to the teachers. If you have any other ideas of who to pass it on to, please do. If it helps AITC* in any small way then it's worth doing.

We have a brand new website in development at the moment so when 2011 rolls by, we will have a really strong platform to grow from and hopefully, a really strong street team to help promote us and grow this movement into something that can rival the likes of To Write Love On Her Arms and Skate 4 Cancer!

Please get in touch and look forward to hearing from you and what you're doing to help!

Rich

www.facebook.com/artisthecure

In general I think he wants help promoting AITC as obviously it's word of mouth and can't be done on it's own.

I have been thinking about where I would like to get some work experience the most, and that is a travel magazine like Lonely Planet (which I'm subscribed to) or National Geographic. I had a look on their website and unfortunately there doesn't seem to be much space as apparantly they get a lot of people asking for work experience, but I will give them an email anyway. Lonely Planet's office is based in Melbourne, and they have a small office in London, which would be probably the most likely. National Geographic's office is based in Washington D.C which unfortunately I won't be able to get to. Ever since I can remember National Geographic has fascinated me and I always said to myself that one day I will be a photographer for them. I can still dream, as I never know what will happen! I just need to get some experience in the bag, and persuade them I am good enough....haha we'll see...