What can you accomplish in four months? If you’re Carly Smith, a lot.
She built a small studio in the basement of her Mashpee home; designed a website with an online store (seasmithstudio.com) featuring her art; started a monthly service in which she mails her original artwork to subscribers; created an LLC for her business; launched her social media presence on Instagram and TikTok (@seasmithstudio); and applied to and was accepted for three separate weekends to sell and showcase her work at the HyArts Artist Shanties in Hyannis.
If ever there was a poster child for the Arts Foundation’s Capacity-Building Program, it would be Carly.
She was part of the fourth cohort of artists that embarked on a journey to strengthen their creative practice in January, concluding with a graduation in May at the John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum.
An elementary school art teacher, Carly has always been creative. “I was into the arts since I was a small child, but I never considered my art good enough to sell or turn into a business,” she admitted. “Even in college, I was an art major because I loved art, but I always wanted to be a teacher. I knew I was going to be a teacher and not a professional artist.”
Earlier this year, Carly Smith launched a Happy Mail Monthly Subscription. For a nominal fee, subscribers receive a variety of Carly’s artwork in the mail on a monthly basis. It’s one of several steps she’s taken to grow her business as a result of the Arts Foundation’s Capacity-Building Program
Carly, who has spent the past 16 years teaching art at the same school she attended as a child, Oak Ridge School in Sandwich, had long tinkered in a variety of mediums, from metals to ceramics to glass to illustration to painting.
In her circle, Carly is often asked to make pieces that showcase her creative talents for family and friends.
When her parents and brothers, Dan and Pat, opened Neptune’s Cape Cod on Main Street in Hyannis, she was responsible for creating the ocean-inspired murals on the walls; it features an octopus, an old nautical map of the Cape, a sea monster that resembles Scotland’s Nessie, a pirate ship, a whale eating a ship, and a mermaid resting on an anchor.
Despite being artistic, Carly never really considered herself an artist until this year.
It’s why, she said, “it felt like a Hail Mary pass to even apply to the cohort. I didn’t feel like I was a real enough artist or my work was good enough to be in the program.”
Through all that Carly accomplished in the program, perhaps the biggest thing it did for her was something that can’t be quantified. It gave her the confidence to realize that her work mattered and that she is an artist.
“The Arts Foundation looked at me and saw what I was doing and welcomed me and made me feel so valued,” she said. “A lot of artists have impostor syndrome. I think the arts community on Cape Cod is wonderful, but there are so many great artists here it can feel a little intimidating to break in. The Arts Foundation is encouraging of all people, and they make it a real community which has made a huge change in my life.”
Carly Smith was one of 15 artists to graduate from the Arts Foundation’s Capacity-Building Program in May. The program allowed her to not only strengthen her creative practice, but build her confidence to the point that she knows she is an artist.
As part of the Capacity-Building Program, each artist creates a business plan with goals they want to achieve for their creative practice.
Among the ones Carly set was selling $1,000 worth of artwork over the course of the year. She more than doubled that during her first weekend at the HyArts Artist Shanties in May.
As for what’s next, she plans to sell her work at holiday markets on the Cape. Beyond that, she lists working with writers on children’s books – she recently illustrated one for her school district – and having her art, which includes a recently completed full deck of oracle cards with illustrations and writings inspired by the spirit of the Cape, available in local shops.
“I like bringing joy and playfulness into people’s lives,” she said of art. “Now that I have been told, ‘No, you are an artist, go and do this,’ I will never go back to not being a working artist.” ■
Applications are currently open for the Arts Foundation’s Capacity-Building Program. Click the button below and apply to receive a $1,000 grant; one-on-one and small group coaching; participate in professional development workshops; and be connected to a cohort of other creatives.
Want to support more artists like Carly?
Contact Director of Development Amy Tuttle at atuttle@artsfoundation.org to learn how your giving, as an individual, a business, or a foundation, can help to strengthen the Arts Foundation’s programs which empower creatives to take the next steps on their professional journeys.