Sunday, September 11, 2011

The Little Buddha Arts Story


Over the summer, I received a promotional card from Google Adwords for $100.  I allowed it to expire and kicked myself for wasting it.  Then at the end of August, I lucked out and received another $100 promo that would expire at the end of September 2011.  Google was basically challenging me to find a way to use $100 of advertising dollars to make something happen.  I decided to accept the challenge.

One morning about a week after I received the $100, my son Jackson and I were working on an art project.  “Too bad we can’t sell our artwork,” I thought.  But what if we could?  What if there was another way to give value to our art?  Maybe if we sold our paintings to raise money for a purpose, people would be excited to own a piece of the story.

The best part would be that I would be teaching my son a wonderful lesson.  We could do something that we love together, and raise money to help other kids.  I spoke to some friends, artists, special needs therapists, teachers, and others who I thought would be interested, and the response was overwhelming.  Kevin J. Kelly of Get Broken Record (www.getbrokenrecord.com) immediately jumped on board along with Daytime Moon Creations (www.daytimemooncreations.org), The Peoples Improv Theater (www.ThePIT-NYC.com) and other artists, volunteers and sponsors.  The Little Buddha Arts Project had the support of accomplished artists as well as lots of kids who love to create and give.  This further defined the project and we knew our mission:

To promote the artwork of children and accomplished artists in a gallery that donates 50% of all proceeds to art, music, and theater programs for children with special needs.  

We accomplish our mission through the support of sponsors, volunteers and art donations.  We also host Art Days where children come together to create artwork from donated materials.

Please help us create something beautiful from our “Google Adwords $100 Challenge” and join us for our first Art Day at The Peoples Improv Theater (123 East 24th Street, NYC) on October 2nd from 10am-noon.  The following link takes you to our registration page: http://littlebuddha.eventbrite.com/

The proceeds of our kick-off Art Day will be used to assist the Daytime Moon Creations Fall program, which can be found at the following link: http://www.daytimemooncreations.org/current-programs


My Little Buddha