Opening a Community Center | Bronwyn Arundel | Episode 491

Bronwyn Arundel | Episode 491

Bronwyn Arundel studied and graduated with a major in Ceramics and Art History at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University. Bronwyn now sells her work in over 20 Galleries and Gift Stores. In 2014 and 2015 ACTS awarded Bronyn’s work with Best New Product. Bronwyn also exhibited at the ACTS Fine Art Juried show.  In July 2015 Bronwyn moved from Halifax to Nanaimo, BC where she is continuing her production studio practice with wholesale and local juried craft shows. In March of 2018 Bronwyn expanded her business to include Nanaimo Ceramic Arts Studio and Gallery (NCEA. This location has an 800 square foot class room, tech rooms allowing her to teach pottery and to host other professional ceramic artist workshops. NCA has a 300 square foot gallery space to where Bronwyn features ceramic artists from Vancouver Island and across Canada. Over the last year she has developed an Artist in Residency program that focuses on the business development of visiting artists. Bronwyn is creating a community for the education of the ceramic arts in Nanaimo BC.

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How are you marketing? How are you bringing customers through the door?

Facebook is my friend right now. Less so Instagram for the studio itself. Instagram is wonderful for production pottery to get your stuff out farther. But learning how to get your information close to home is sort of a different tactic. I did a lot of posters at the beginning. I haven’t done posters in a while. I have no idea if they worked.  We have ads in the newspaper and the island art magazine. And we try and be in the news. That is the best one if you can make a story.

How are you working Facebook? Are you using ads?

I am doing ads.

How do you do the ads?

It is a pay per click. So the best ones are the ones that cost more. So if it comes back and costs me more that we thought it would that means that we got more clicks and it brings people to the website and then they register their name and then I can send them the email blasts which I do less than I probably should. But I send an email for all registrations and we get a lot of response from that because it is people who knew they already wanted information. We had a google ad for awhile and that has helped tremendously.

How do you get in the news?

Well the first couple of times were really just events. We did an open house opening. I called it a tea party. So we had cake and tea and people could paint tiles and stuff like that. There is an arts reporter in town for our local newspaper and he’s pretty good and he goes everywhere and connects with artists all the time. So I have spoken to him a couple of times and then you can send in your own information and write your own article and send it into your own local paper. And most of them are like, oh, thanks for the work.  As long as you have a human interest to it and it’s not just an ad.  We had a bowl-a-thon at the studio over the fall and it wasn’t even us, the local high school was putting it on but we hosted it and paid for the clay. It was a soup bowl event and all the proceeds went to the food bank.

Tell me about how you go about organizing your time.

Not as well as I could. When I am really busy with my own work I am way more organized. Once again, deadlines are my friend. There is always work. I could spend my entire day on the computer fiddling with the website or promoting this or that. When I am in a good groove I do two hours in the morning of studio gallery stuff and then I switch to my own practice and then I go home.

What time do you typically go home each day?

Five o’clock.  I am in the studio 8;30-9 every morning and I leave at 5. If I am really busy I might do paper work at home every night. On Tuesday nights I am the drop-in host, which I kind of enjoy. I like doing that. We have a membership program where people come in to use the studio and make their own work.

How do you balance your time as a working entrepreneur and being a mom?

Well it really came down to child care. I don’t put her in extra child care, so we do the nine to five day and so does she. She is in school now, she’s seven. She goes to before school care and after school care. Which for some kids is a lot. She is very social so she likes it. And I don’t work a lot in the evening, so we have family time in the evening. Right now I am working more week-ends than I have in the past, I work most Saturdays but she is often there.

How do you do the automation for your bookkeeping?

The automation is through online banking. You can have all of your bills paid automatically as long as you are comfortable with having money in the bank. You definitely have to have a cushion. I would feel incredibly uncomfortable if I ever went under four grand. It give me wiggle room. The cushion for my teaching studio is much higher. The studio and my personal income is  all completely separate and I have an automated amount that is transferred every month into my own personal checking account. So I have a salary, basically.

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Contact:

arundelstudios.com

nanaimoceramicarts.com

Instagram: @bronwynarundel

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