abrasiveMedia is home to artists of many kinds. We’re a veritable box of 96 crayons at the kindergarten art table. We prefer coloring outside of the lines, and when someone tells us “you can’t do that there,” our answer is, “says who?” We don’t believe in fences or boxes or anything else that limits the creative process. Give us an obstacle, and we’ll hang 30 yards of fabric from it and climb it, as the saying goes.
We believe that a community of artists can be built, and should be built, and specifically, must be built in Nashville. We believe that such a community should belong to the community it calls home instead of just killing time at the coffee shop for the next big break to take us elsewhere. Though we do really love our coffee.
Yes, we’re dreamers. In this town we’re a dime a dozen, but when you mix dreamers with some old-fashioned gumption, stuff gets done. And if a bunch of us can join forces, and are willing to share our crayons and deal with those who color outside of the lines and won’t stop climbing on the furniture, we believe we can make something really beautiful for the city we love.
abrasiveMedia is composed of painters and poets and ninjas and dancers, actors and acrobats and sculptors and singers, aerialists and non-fiction writers and designers and sewers and stained glass makers and multi-instrumentalists and… well, you get the idea. We’re kind of like a circus you don’t have to run away to join.
If you are an artist or a group of artists who would like to know more about how you can join our community, there’s a few things you need to know first:
1. We don’t want to steal your ideas, we want to participate in them. “Participate” can mean networking, working with you to develop resources, offering honest and hopefully helpful critique, help with the practical parts of being an artist like “planning” and “organization,” or even just mutual enjoyment of art. It also usually involves a caffeinated beverage.
2. We are willing to try most things at least once, so even if what you’ve always wanted to do is a bit out there, feel free to share. However, many of us are deathly afraid of spiders. So if your project involves spiders, you might want to go here.
3. We specialize in multi-genre art that invests in our community. If people that make other kinds of art frighten you, then you might want to stay away. And we, like most of you, are nomads – so though we might run into you in a variety of places throughout the world, we don’t want our community so focused on making it “out there” that we forget to take care of right here, where we all live and work and play.
4. We are always up for talking about art, so if this sounds really interesting but you’d like to know how you can be sure we aren’t like every other company in town that’s screwed you over, or would just like more information on what we are currently doing, just let us know.
