Limited Membership Opening

Megan: 00:00

Hello, and welcome to cowgirl artists of America's podcast. I'm your host, Megan Wimberley. In today's episode, I wanna tell you a little bit more about cowgirl artists of America, what we're doing and where we're going. Cowgirl artists of America is founded in order to bridge the gap of representation of women in the Western art world. This lack of representation is a isn't something new and it's not something confined to the Western art world. But as a Western artist, this is where I wanted to work to solve this problem. Lack of representation isn't necessarily due to malicious intent or even thoughtful consideration. In fact, oftentimes it is because organizations have not been thoughtful in the way that they've approached shows and their artists represe. It's easy to replicate what has happened in the past simply by doing things the way that they've always been done. And calling on connections that you've had from past shows, cowgirl artists of America is working to bridge this gap of representation.

We are led by our core beliefs. The first of these core beliefs is community. We believe that a supportive of community can be one of the most life and career altering resources. We believe in a mindset of abundance that breaks down barriers of competition and grows a supportive sisterhood. We believe that collaboration not conflict is the fastest route to change. And we want to do our best to try to collaborate with industry leaders, but always speak the truth about lack of represe. Also believe that education can help provide a foundation for Western artists to grow their business and improve their craft, helping them to be helping them to become leaders in the Western art world. We believe in promotion, we currently have a free call for our every month for cowgirl artists to promote their work on our platform. In the future. We will also host your shows.

In fact, I'm not giving you a clue, win wink, but we might have something to tell you along these lines pretty soon up until now, we have been living into our beliefs mostly by focusing on the community and promotion aspect of cowgirl artists of America. But that's all changing on may for through the 15th. And we're super excited that we're actually going to be opening up cowgirl artists of America to official members. The special thing about May 1st through the 15th is because it is our first open enrollment for membership. These members are going to get some extra bonuses and perks, including the fact that they will be called a founding member for the life of the organization. They will be recognized on a founding member's page because we really, really want to honor the people who jump in with us on the ground level and help propel this organization forward. Founding members will receive a discount on their yearly membership due for this first year. Normally ship is $120, but they get their membership for only 65. And they also get a bonus 25% off on their membership discount for courses, um, workshops, digital downloads, and coaching. So normally

Membership gives you 25% off of those things, but founding members get an entire 50% off of courses, workshops, digital downloads, and coaching that comes up throughout the year. We also have a second tier membership, which is basically an add on to your member, your basic membership. So you can also apply to become a signature member. Signature members are members that demonstrate a history of professionalism based on their exhibit history, not limited to galleries and their online presence and their caliber of work. So signature members will actually be juried in. They will need to submit work. They'll submit their statement and bio in a few other things. Those members will also be on our founding member page for life, but they get the bonus of having their, a headshot and three of their pieces on display, along with their website and link to their social media platforms.

Signature membership is something that people can apply for every time that we open membership. But if you wanna be on the founding member page, you have to apply for the, a founding membership on May 1st through the 15th and apply for your signature membership. Then you can find out more information about becoming a member and all the perks of membership@cowgirlartistsofamerica.org under the about and become a member tab. But a few of the things that I do wanna make sure to point out is one of the cool things that membership comes with is a call for art calendar. And this calendar features major shows, exhibit sales that you can apply for. It includes links and deadlines and reminders for the application. And then when the event itself is this is a really great resource for kind of keeping track with things throughout the year. So we really excited to offer that.

And then also members are going to get access to members only meetups, not the public meetups, which may change to members only meetups in the future, but there are members only meetups in addition to the public meetups that you can join as a member, it's focused on your career growth, where you are, where you wanna get an and how you're gonna get there and growing that community of support within our organization. So again, go check out the other membership perks and make sure you put on your calendar. If you wanna join us as a founding member, you have to get your application and all your stuff in May 1st through the 15th membership will not open again until all August. So make sure if you wanna become a member and especially if you wanna be a founding member that you put that on your calendar and don't forget, follow our social media pages, sign up for our newsletter.

Those things will remind you too. Also just an announcement. Google has updated and maybe other mail servers to have updated their spam filter. For some reason, our newsletter is frequently going into the spams promotion or social tab. So make sure you go find our newsletter and that you tell Google or your mail server that you want that to go to your inbox because we include so much valuable information in there and we don't want you to miss it. It's not spammy. So just make sure you let Google know that you do want our newsletter coming to your inbox so you can actually see it. If you have more questions, a lot of them might be answered on our fax page on our website, but I did wanna go over a few common questions here. I've had from several people from Canada, wanting to know if they can join.

Yes, you can join. If you're from Canada, we've also had people asking us if they can qualify. If they are not an actual cowgirl, you do not have to be an actual cowgirl to join cowgirl artists of America. Um, but what we say is that cowgirl artists come, then he forms some cowgirl. Artists are born into the lifestyle, riding horses and doctoring cattle from an early age and some come into the lifestyle later on. And so others are artists who represent the cowgirl lifestyle and the places and animals she knows and love. And that cowgirl artist of America supports them. All. Some people wonder if there are, is Western enough. And I wanna clarify that the genre is really vast and it includes all fine art mediums and many styles, both traditional and contemporary. The Western genre has continued to expand further and further into contemporary and expressionistic work.

And many artists representing rural landscapes and animals are included in the genre. Another common question comes from acres and not fine artists wondering if they can join. And the answer is absolutely you certainly can. CAA is primarily geared towards the fine arts, but most of the resources that we provide will be helpful for makers in those, in performing arts as well, especially our business and marketing resources will be helpful to you. Um, and you can be a great part of the community, but just be aware, there may be some resources that don't benefit you to the same degree as they would, if you were a fine artist, but you are certainly welcome to join our wonderful community and we'd love to have you. So I think that about sums it up for the date, make sure that you sign up for our newsletter at cowgirl artists of America org, in that you follow us on Instagram at cowgirl artists of America, we are so looking forward to building this organization and making change with you.