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Celebrating Art, Creativity, and Business for three years

In this blog, we have talked about Art & Business and the way they are connected. We tried to look at it through different perspectives, investigating what it would be like if we distinguished one from another. We tried and we failed. People may have different opinions but what I believe is that art, which may be abstract and subjective at times; and business which may be very objective and even boring at times, indeed, share a beautiful bond together. The reason I can be this certain is because I have lived and actually experienced this bond grow over the past three years through my experience with my own startup Penned Peeps. Penned Peeps utilizes its business acumen of over 40 people, to organize open mics, fests, and other events and provide a platform to people of varying talents. Efficient financial and operational management right from the start has helped Penned Peeps maintain itself and grow further. The creative artistic touch provided by team members as well as the participants has led to many successful events, creating a happy community of artists and performers. Penned Peeps reflect how the combination of business and art works for mutual benefit.

Before I proceed further, there are a few people that I want to talk about in this post.

Shubham Kohli

Shubham has been with the team since September 2018. He works in a reputed airline during the day, and writes wonderful poems and shayris, by night. He didn’t want to lose out on his passion in the race of the corporate world. We needed someone to anchor our flagship event. We connected, it was his first attempt at anchoring and boy did he lit the stage on fire. He never looked back since that day. Two years later, he’s still carrying on with his professional life. But he also doubles as the Anchor’s Head at Penned Peeps, teaching what he knows to other novice anchors, helping them grow. He has managed to keep his passion alive.

Nancy Goyal

After class twelfth, Nancy wanted to pursue CA and we all already know about the life of CA students but to add a little spark to hers, and not let her writing talent go to waste, she made her way from Panipat to Delhi, in heavy rains, in August of 2019, to participate in her first-ever open mic event. She was a natural performer and her poetries made their way to the hearts of thousands. With over 21k followers on Instagram right now, she is already a star, finding her way through the world, trying to do justice to both her talents and professional life. 

Raghav Joshi

Raghav is a ten-year-old kid, currently studying in Delhi. But that is not the only thing he’s good at. Raghav is also an aspiring theatre artist. I met Raghav when we went to his school to conduct open auditions for Hunar-e-Dilli 3.0. So many talented kids like Raghav from different schools participated in the event and realized the importance of exploring themselves, their art and creativity, from acting to painting and from poetry to singing and dancing. If we can help them understand that their talents matter as much as the academics, their creativity matters as much as their professional life, then, I’ll know that my organization has succeeded. 

Ditto Joy 

Mr. Joy came and participated in one of our events in 2018. He practised and kept improving himself. Less than a year later, we had organized an event for him, to attempt an India Book of Records. He did and he succeeded. Another year down, and he now has two records accredited to his name, the second one made jointly by him and Mrs. Joy. The satisfaction that we got from providing a platform to such an amazing artist was more than any profits that we could have made. 

This is what happens when we combine Creativity with Business. We find people who are not limited just by their profession. Mr. Gupta is not just the branch manager at ICICI bank, he’s also fond of playing the flute in his free time. Samarth from my school is not just an analyst at E&Y, he’s a storyteller too. And someone you know, maybe you yourself, have aspects of their life that have been left unexplored, untouched, under the pressure of society. At the beginning of this post, I talked about how certain I am about the beautiful bond of art and business. These people are real-life examples who prove this bond. Business is a noble pursuit, necessary to sustain life, and art, art is our creative pursuit necessary for our joy and happiness.  

We had started our journey today, precisely three years ago. It has been a hell of a ride. Just the thought that somewhere someone is practising his singing right now, perfecting her canvas, rehearsing their dance moves, writing not just a story or a poem, but their career, and that this organization can play a part in it too, can provide them with the exposure that they need, can give their art the boost that it deserves, just the thought of providing an appreciative stage and a loving audience, fills me with joy. The team members who work hard day and night make all of this possible. The business aspect of Penned Peeps makes it all possible, without which, there would be no Penned Peeps. Art is an integral part of Business and so is Business of Art. This relationship has brought the world this far and will continue to do so in future. I’m looking forward to discovering more talents and providing a platform to even more people, in my journey of Penned Peeps. But today, it’s the day of celebrating art, creativity, business, and Penned Peeps! 

Cheers team!
Happy anniversary!

Ankita Jain

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ART IS MY SANCTUARY

Art is what saves us from the horror of existence. The sole purpose of it is to calm the confused and confuse the calm.

This is what art means to me, the art of any type, theatre, writing, music, dance, painting, there is an art in every place, every nook and each corner. A child playing in the park giving his brightest smile is art, a tree shedding its leaves for the fall season is art, an old woman distributing her antique jewellery to the young ladies of the family is art, the way the wind moves and the sun shines on a peaceful Sunday morning is art, your mother leaving you an extra piece of cake because she knows you like it, is art. If we look for it, there is art truly everywhere, inspirations ready to be taken, sights ready to be admired, moments ready to be captured and peace ready to be felt.

Art is my truth and art is my honesty.

The world is not just earth, fire, water, and air but so much more than that, the world is my sanctuary. An artist does everything (s)he can to feel close to their art in every possible way, and suffers everything, doing anything to achieve the level of satisfaction and peace, in his art.

But, like all things good and pure must endure the negativity, so does art, there comes a point when the art does not matter and the honesty, truth, satisfaction, peace of the performance, everything, goes down the drain when there is just a force hell-bent on crushing the very foundation that an artist stands on. We have been taught that an artist remains true and honest; an artist respects every single person, no matter what; an artist strives for the rush, pleasure and satisfaction of the performance; an artist bows down to the stage; this is what students have learned from their teachers, but what comes like a wrecking ball to our teachings and mental peace, are people who seem to shun the very basis of what we stand on.

The society still remains rigid in their beliefs and opinions, and many artists still suffer due to the harsh criticisms and insults. A tad bit of support and care can become the water and nourishment for a seed already in the process of growth. The society has never been appreciative of art or artists because the sole purpose of it is to expose the society to its own emotions. Only the truly vulnerable can accept art, as it is.

It is important for artists to feel supported and appreciated. Art is not meant to be sold and commercialised but the artist needs to live and fend for himself. If a doctor wouldn’t treat for free if a shopkeeper wouldn’t sell for free if a worker wouldn’t work for free; why should an artist work for simply exposure? An artist deserves to be paid, they deserve appreciation and support in any way that the society can provide them. Spreading art is a peaceful experience but money is needed to sustain in the material world. Not heavy and outrageous commerce and business but subtle reimbursement for the efforts of the artists. This is what the artists need to work and survive in this race of society.

It hurts to know that there are so many students who have been working, putting their efforts, sacrificing so many things, have to face rejection from their own families and hardships. It is not just disheartening but a dark truth of society nowadays. There will always be people to wreck your purity, your principles, your truth, your honesty, your peace, your creativity, and your ART. However, what will always matter is that a true artist, a good person will always stand with their head held high remembering all that has been taught to him, all that he does and strive for. The society will turn around for pure souls like those of the artist’s striving for perfection and their soul’s satisfaction.

Be the light and guide others, and never creep into the darkness.

Because a true artist lives for the art and art lives for the true artist.

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Business & Art: A Symbiotic Relationship

In the last post, we talked about why creativity should not be pitted against the numbers, but to be pursued just for the sake of art. Having said that, there is nothing wrong with pursuing your passion and making money out of it at the same time, for as long as your primary objective remains striving for perfection in your art, worldly success will follow you on its own. Let’s delve more into the intricacies of art and business.

Ah, the beauty that is art; and the skill that is business. Beauty and skill aren’t words one would use to describe the same thing, unless they’re talking about a suitor, in which case I say, pursue!

However, what if I told you, Business is Art? Appalling, isn’t it? To have something so technical and ‘boring’ essentially, to be compared with the most passionate thing to ever exist? Let me break it down for you. What would one make a business out of? Something they’re passionate about. Business may be necessary to sustain life, but art is what we stay alive for. And once you turn that art into your business, you have found your golden goose. Isn’t this what we are, anyway? A business consisting of art? An artful business? And boy have we never had a boring day in our lives. Art and business have blended themselves together to form the perfect Goldilocks combination.

Now that we have looked over the approach of turning your art into your business, how about we go over it in a literal manner? What if business is your passion? Then isn’t business, quite literally, your art? The boring aspect is completely out. It’s just passion and nothing. Isn’t that the dream job?

The entire process of business is just so dynamic and intricate that it is no less than artfulness. It’s beauty. The smooth running of an empire is nothing less than splendid, marvelous, beautiful. So isn’t it safe to say, passionate or not, business is art, by itself? Art can be found anywhere. The functioning of a business is art itself, the promotion of art is business itself. Both compliment each other.

Then why do we call one boring, and the other beautiful? Why is one a skill, and the other
beauty? Why is one passion, and the other apathy?
When they are both, the same thing?

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The Art-Business Entanglement

What I believe is – everything with a flavor of art becomes a masterpiece. By seeing, reading, or hearing the word art, somehow our minds think about paintings. We begin to imagine a canvas, a paintbrush, and some colors. But, is it always the same scenario? I guess no. We don’t have the criteria to choose the canvas. If the world is a canvas, we are the arts. Everything, where the underlying idea is creative expression, that’s art. Art encircles painting, dancing, singing, writing, photography and so much more. Of course, it’s a never ending list. But have you ever thought about the art of business? It’s a question I think about a lot. If our society is a canvas, business is an artistic medium for how to build the kinds of communities we want to live in. Business depends on creativity for its survival, just like art does.

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