Capital is more than money. Capital is also ideas, creativity, and people. For small business ventures like artstream, it has been all of those things. It had to be. We felt strongly about holding all control of our business in our three way partnership and not getting into too deep of a hole at the outset.

A big part of our working capital is diversity. Each arm of our business is related to the other within the field of art. With the established art school we brought a strong client base to our emerging gallery and design studios. Existing capital was a large contact list grown over the previous nine years of my private art school. This was very helpful in introducing our new business and first exhibition when the gallery opened four years ago. My prior studio housed a small alternative gallery which I ran for four years before opening artstream. I have many contacts built through those first years and they helped build artstream’s gallery from the start. I also had done quite a bit of artist in residence work in the greater Seacoast region of NH so I had met a lot of other artists, art educators, and patrons who were interested in our new venture.

Our first exhibition was a solo show of work from a local artist whose work was established in the area. She is also an art instructor at a local college and high school, and had quite a few fans, which added to the new faces in at the grand opening reception. This ‘people based capital’ was significant for us in the early months as the work of my husband and partner, Rainer, who runs the design portion of our studio, was virtually unknown. At the grand opening and other early occasions to follow, we were able to use the opportunities to show a portfolio slide show of his past work, hand out brochures and emphasize our collateral materials were all designed in-house. Creative capital in one way - also falls under the public relations category.

Having clients already in one segment of our business allowed for growth with the same clients in other facets of our business. We have donated design work to local arts non-profits with whom we share common overall goals. In time, they have hired us for design work, as they were pleased with our company and our willingness to help them. Our community is not overly rich in the arts at the moment, but is experiencing a renaissance of the downtown which we and other arts organizations are part of. This growth excites everyone, art lovers and art newbies alike. We are always thankful to be a bit of a newsworthy “oddity” still in our community, one that is growing with us. We look forward to the day when there is enough happening downtown to support an art walk or art evening with multiple galleries participating. Until that time, we have to create our own excitement.

When we plan an event we strive to offer enough variety and other cultural tie-ins to create new audiences for our business. We have coupled with our local opera house on a few events; we have created exhibits with the Poetry Society of New Hampshire, local movement arts groups and national organizations like the Women’s Caucus for Art. We encourage local schools to bring classes to tour the gallery for different exhibitions and in turn they recognize us as an educational resource. Some of our instructors teach in the local schools. We have had a host of wonderful college interns working for us in the past four years. Many came from those tours or recommendations from teachers who have visited, pointing them in our direction for on the job experience.

Housing your business can be a huge drain on your capital. Luckily our other partner Mary-Jo was able to purchase the antique building which artstream calls home and rent it back to us for a fair market price. This was similar in some ways to the “blood money” story from David from Bluehouse. Mary Jo is our partner and our landlord. Something we would not change for the world. Her investment is the building and her capital she brings to our business is her accounting and savvy business knowledge. She is also one great schmoozer at the local business cocktail parties and through non-profit work that she has done for the community everyone she meets – meets artstream.

Raising capital can mean raising awareness for the dormant creative resources, nurturing of relationships with mutual benefits, investigate synergies and making the most of any diversity that you can champion. Discover the hidden treasures in your company, your organization and in yourself – it’s the creative capital you can’t buy.