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Tired of spending endless hours of searching for events, artist Kathleen Johnson and volunteer Shay Raphael have compiled a comprehensive list of virtually every market, festival and art show within 250 miles of Biloxi.
- Story by Lisa Monti
- Story by Lisa Monti
Artist Kathleen Johnson
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Artists, crafters and anyone else who is part of the creative economy now can have access to a spreadsheet listing virtually every market, festival and art show within 250 miles of Biloxi. That covers Louisiana to North Mississippi and east to the Florida Panhandle. Local artist Kathleen Johnson, who gathered all the information, said having access to the new Southern Event List will save many hours tracking down events, dates, locations and application fees. She should know. She used to spend hours a week looking for places to sell her art and called the process “a nightmare.” “Now all the artists will have access to the same information. They don’t have to dig for it at all.” The Southern Event List will also help organizers plan dates so they don’t overlap with other events, she said. |
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Johnson came up with the idea about five years ago and began collecting information in earnest a year ago. She figures she spent about 800 hours gathering details on some 400 events featuring arts and crafts including farmers’ markets.
Shay Raffael working with Kathleen Johnson on the Southern Events List Data Base. Shay, not an artist herself, recognized the enormous impact this list could make to the art community and stepped up to offer her expertise to incorporate the data into an Excel spread sheet - an enormous task as the list is 100 pages at this point.
Shay Raphael signed on to help with the project and has input all the information into a 100-page spreadsheet. The list can be sorted by event name, date, miles from Biloxi, cost to participate, contact information and any deadlines that may apply.
Johnson said the smaller Beta version is available for $15 and the final version will be available Oct. 1 at no charge. Updates to the Excel Spreadsheet 2013 version built for Windows 10 will be available for $5.
The beta release is just in time for the holidays, the most lucrative season of all for artists and crafters. “We pulled everything we could together to meet the Christmas rush,” she said. “I don’t care as long as it’s a market serving the creative economy. It goes on the list.”
To make the list as accessible as possible, Johnson said she’ll meet with anyone who needs help for a lesson in how to use the spreadsheet. She’ll even print out the list for anyone who needs a paper copy.
For more information, go to the Southern Event List Facebook page.
To make the list as accessible as possible, Johnson said she’ll meet with anyone who needs help for a lesson in how to use the spreadsheet. She’ll even print out the list for anyone who needs a paper copy.
For more information, go to the Southern Event List Facebook page.
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