H.E.ART Gallery Bellevue

Overview

H.E.ART Gallery Bellevue, standing for High-Schoolers Expressing ART, was originally a 501(c)(3) nonprofit art gallery, started by four high school seniors: Bella Burckhardt, Victoria Helmer, Anjali Skilton, and Joey DaSilva. Their goal with this nonprofit was to raise money for art programs within the Bellevue School District by collecting art from high schoolers across the Bellevue School District, then selling them at pop-up art galleries. 

The founders, who had a successful first year, wanted to pass down this opportunity to underclassmen at our school and selected some sophomores they were familiar with: Kyla Kowalchuk, Jacob Coffler, and myself. After they had graduated, we were to take on the direction of their nonprofit in our junior year. 

Our project was to run a successful fundraiser in the form of a pop-up art gallery in order to raise money for Bellevue schools. 

Problem

The original founders of the H.E.ART Gallery noticed the lack of funding towards arts programs throughout not only Bellevue School District, but many other districts and campuses across the country. Considering how art is such an important part of society, they aimed to create a platform for young artists to showcase their artwork while also raising money art programs. 

After a very successful first year, the original H.E.ART Team was going to graduate, but wanted to pass down this opportunity to some underclassmen to keep it going, and thus two of my friends and I were selected to run the H.E.ART Gallery for the following year. 

Our main goals were: 

• Getting funding and space use documents approved from the district so we could purchase or rent art gallery supplies as needed, in order to have places to display the art. 

• To market to both interested high school artists and potential buyers, to both receive art donations from students willing to give their work for a good cause, and to also attract customers who are willing to support the cause. 

• Successfully raise funds for art programs​ at the final art gallery event(s). 

Preliminary Work

While H.E.ART Gallery was a 501(c)(3) registered nonprofit, we still had to operate under Bellevue Schools Foundation (BSF), and they were willing to lend us use of an often unoccupied office space. After getting our space sorted out, we needed to figure out funding for a variety of things, including website hosting, poster printing, purchasing storage bins, folding display boards, and much more.

I was in charge of writing the fundraising request document and securing signatures from all necessary parties. I did research into the average prices for all materials we needed, and listed them in an itemized table for ease of view for the board of directors. We managed to receive $250 in funding from Bellevue School Foundation, which was just enough to pay for 8 large plastic bins for each of the high schools as well as posters. I also wrote funding requests to our own high school Parent Teacher Association (PTA) to cover further funds relating to print and digital advertising and presence. 

We also needed a space to host our art gallery, and immediately we began looking into the spaces that the original H.E.ART Gallery hosted the pop-up galleries, which were at Crossroads mall in the spring, and the annual Spring for Schools Luncheon event hosted by the Bellevue Schools Foundation in May. The second event would be particularly important because as the largest schools fundraising event in Bellevue, it would serve as a great venue to attract potential buyers who are already interested in funding or supporting Bellevue schools. 

As such, we connected with Lynn Juniel who was the present Executive Program Director of Bellevue Schools Foundation to locate a table at the Spring for Schools Event. We also received contact with ​Roz Liming, the director of marketing and outreach at Crossroads, and was able to secure a space for us to showcase our gallery there too.  

Marketing

​While we originally requested for extra funds to advertise on Facebook and Instagram to potential high school artists as well as people interested in buying art, our grant did not cover it and we had to prioritize other things over digital advertisements. Instead, we reached out to different high school art teachers individually through email and asked them if they could relay the message to their students. Most of the art teachers were very receptive to this, especially with the possibility of getting more funding.

We then dropped off a large plastic bin at each of these art classrooms, in hopes some students could drop some art off there, and planned to pick it up in a few weeks following. 

The H.E.ART team also wanted to update our website to be mobile-responsive and more modern in style, so I designed an updated style guide with a Sans Serif font as well as updated our business cards. In lieu of that, I was also the sole web editor and built our website using Weebly, illustrated social media posts for Instagram using Photoshop, 

While our primary goal was to successfully raise funds for art programs, and as we made progress towards both art gallery events in the spring, my team felt as though we were losing out on the winter holidays gift rush and wanted to raise some money in advance.

I took initiative and designed holiday cards then printed them using my own funds in hopes to raise enough money to cover printing costs as well as raise extra money.

Following the holiday card sales, as our spring events dates approached quickly, I designed numerous posters to promote both art donations in high schools and gallery events at the Crossroads Mall. While some posters were entirely my own work, others featured artwork provided to us by the high school artists we were featuring.

Challenges

Because this internship was largely self-lead, as a group of friends while we were able to work and communicate well, we often got distracted and did not always use our time efficiently. In addition, we constantly struggled with funding, which was ironic considering the scope of our project. 

I was also the marketing and design lead, and as such there was a lot of pressure on me to make sure all outward facing visual content looked good, could be easily processed, and would encourage sales. Paired with the fact that all three of us were busy with our junior year and SAT/ACT exams, we were unable to completely devote our time and energy to this internship.

Results

We were able to raise a profit of approximately $60 from the holiday card sales. On our opening night at our popup gallery event at Crossroads Mall, we made the largest portion of our sales of approx. $400 with support from many members of the community. Throughout the two weeks our gallery was present, we left business cards and contact information for people to reach out to us if they were interested, and we sold around $100 more worth of art through that method. 

​​Later at the Spring for Schools luncheon at the Hyatt Regency in Bellevue, we were also able to sell more artworks to people attending, though we raised less money than initially expected. Perhaps because the more popular pieces had already sold at our opening event in Crossroads, or the fact that not everyone attending the luncheon was looking to spend even more money (even if it was for continuing to support Bellevue schools), we only raised around $200.  

In total, we raised approximately $800 for Bellevue Schools Foundation, and all money was specifically put into the art grants money pool. 

Reflection

This is perhaps both the internship where I had the most freedom, but also the one I have the most regrets with. Without clear supervision and structure, and needing to self-direct many parts, I did not perform to what I believe was the best of my ability. 

A major regret I also had was the fact that we overlooked reaching out to art teachers that had worked with us to inform them of how to access the funds that were raised. Due to BSF policy, teachers were not allotted the money by default and still had to apply for funds- The money we raised was just added to the funds pool. This significantly impacted the H.E.ART Gallery team we passed it down to, and afterwards H.E.ART Gallery was largely abandoned.

Some key skills or takeaways were:

• Creating and enforcing structure when there is none. While my team made a schedule at the beginning of the year, we quickly deviated from it as certain tasks took much more time than initially anticipated. But instead of restructuring our schedule, we ended up not using our time as effectively as we could have.  

• Despite my personal shortcomings, I also learned a lot about the importance of community outreach. During the internship, reaching out to so many teachers, schools, and even a local mall, was key to having a successful event and raising the money we needed for art programs in our district. 

• Use of Square for easy card transactions for events- I had never used Square before, and adding all the products and the photos took quite some time. Despite that, it was certainly a worthy investment as many of the people purchasing art from our gallery would choose to use card over cash.

​If I were to have done anything differently, I would definitely have restructured our schedule and been more strict with myself, especially when it came to clearly communicating with the people we were working with.