Background

The Creative Drive began in 2004 and is an annual spring event in western Wisconsin held on the Saturday and Sunday before Mother’s Day weekend. We are dedicated to promoting local and regional art of all kinds and do not make a profit. Over the years we have grown from just a handful of visual artists to over 60 artists at 4 sites in 2011. Besides the visual arts, we have at times also included music, dance and film. When the budget allows we have contributed money back into the local arts community.

The Creative Drive is a great name for this event. It is easy to remember and captures the essence of what we as artists are trying to do along with what we are asking of the public.

Participation

The Creative Drive has no entry process; once you are in you determine when you want to quit. It is always the weekend before Mother’s Day weekend so you could mark your calendars 3 years in advance if you wanted to because you are in control of your participation. There is no slide fee or wait list where your money is held for months before being returned. The Creative Drive is very open to artists and has always tried to include all ages and all levels of professionalism, beginner to seasoned pro. Most importantly the Creative Drive is a community of artists that you will get to know and appreciate as you see familiar faces each year.

Organizational Principals

The Creative Drive is an art tour organized around 3 basic principles:

Many Artists @ Few Sites:

We want to have a lot of artists involved at very few sites. This decreases the driving time of the public and increases their looking time. Having lots of artists at each site also means we get to sit around and talk with each other

Low Costs = Low Entry Fee:

We try to keep promotional costs as low as possible so artists begin covering expenses and making money sooner.

Friends & Family Promotion:

We expect the artists to help promote and spread the word about the event. This is a very important and necessary part of the artist’s involvement in the Creative Drive.

Promotion by the Organization

The Creative Drive will create and supply all of the promotional materials to artists. This includes:

• Maintain website.
• Create and print 9,000 color brochures, which double as posters.
• Facebook fan page maintained at facebook.com/thecreativedrive.
• Creation of an e-invite for use by artists.
• Some business cards are available.

In 2011 we bought our first print advertisements and believe we had a great response. We have also had great support from local and regional outlets that place press releases. The Eau Claire Leader newspaper and the Spectrum West art show on Wisconsin Public Radio have both been very good promotions for us. You can see these in the “Press” section of the website.

Promotion by the Artists

We need your help getting the brochures to your favorite coffee shops and into the hands of your mailing list and friends & family. The only additional cost to you is the postage if you mail them.

We are on Facebook and encourage you to take advantage of its amazing ability to make connections.

Please use our e-invite with your email list.

Organizational Structure

John Onkka is the principal organizer and can be reached by email at john.onkka@gmail.com.

Al Onkka manages the website and print media and can be reached at alonkka@gmail.com