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Kameron Robinson | Episode 417
Kameron Robinson is the Director of East Side Studios, an art studio in Anderson, Indiana that focuses on workshops, studio spaces, and community engagement. Through his work at East Side Studios, Kameron develops original artwork, teaches ceramic workshops, invests in the studios artists at the space, and works on community initiatives.
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How much courage does it take to follow a philosophy instead of a paycheck?
All the courage you have. Everything else can wait, but the pursuit or the seeking out of a higher being and Creator of a bigger purpose, that can’t wait. That has to be now. I think the biggest fault in our society is distraction. So it takes a ton of courage. I mean you have to get out there and you have to say, I don’t know if this is going to work, I don’t know if people are going to believe me or trust me. But yeah, you kind of just have to jump in. Luckily I married extremely well and my wife is extremely supportive of me and she encourages me to get out there and do it. Living by values in one of the hardest things to do.
Why is the idea of making a difference so important to you?
Making a difference is important to me because I am able to see my life change because someone made a difference in my life and I want to share that now. I don’t want to wait to share until I am good enough or when my artwork is exactly where I want it to be. I want to share it now. Making a difference in someone’s life can change their trajectory for good. It can make someone see something they never saw before in themselves.
Why do you value your city so much?
Well since I was seven years old the city raised me. I am from here and this is my home and I want to see my home succeed. I want to see it become a wonderful place. I have fallen in love with it. It has that Midwestern charm, where 15 minutes outside of downtown you are in the middle of cornfields. You have cool history, Mountain State Park, so we have some really cool stuff and to be honest it is a city that has been hurt by capitalistic endeavors ( not to get on my soapbox) but when you get mass production and factories and things like that people will buy into it and work for it and all of a sudden they are gone because they can get cheaper labor somewhere else. They were not shown that their true value is not what you do but who you are.
How do you center yourself?
Oh man, that’s a great question,that’s a daily struggle. Like I said earlier, I think the biggest problems we have is distractions so how I center myself is, well obviously because I work for a church, I am a man of Christian faith, but I really intrigued by Taoism, by Hinduism, and even Buddhism, and I spend a lot of time centering in meditation and quiet time. I draw a lot of my inspiration for my work from the outdoors and the natural world. You can learn so much from the natural world you just have to learn to listen to it. Part of my centering process is learning when to shut up because the best way to have a conversation you have to be quiet and listen. And that bleeds as my practice as an artist and having some sort of structure and routine to my days.
For many people money is their motive for working hard. How have you been able to avoid money being your motive?
It is kind of like a roller coaster. I want to be motivated but gosh I would like to sell this piece. My wife and I actually own a 120 year old Victorian home, very gaudy with high ceilings, but we love it. So I think, I wish I had more money so I could do this, this and this. But it is kind of learning to value yourself as you are without money.
If someone wanted to start a non-profit community center what is the best way to go about it?
One is to identify if there is already an organization in your city doing it. If you have mission alignment with something that already exists working together is way better than competing against each other. That is kind of how I bridged myself with the church. If you are seeking to do it on your own I would definitely say you need the support and guidance of other people.
What does the day in the life of a non-profit manager look like?
For me, I do breakfast meetings with people, we do planning our classes out. A lot of it is just prep. You feel like you are constantly prepping for stuff. Then all of a sudden it’s here. All the markets we are doing in the summer and a lot of classes we are doing this next month in April. So yeah, a day in the life is definitely trying to, some times you feel like you are banging your head against the wall because I feel like we have an awesome opportunity here for people to take classes and we do everything at low cost or no cost if we can, so just getting the word out is probably the biggest hurdle we have. And for me on a daily basis making sure people know we exist and what our mission statement is and why we are here. Also sitting down at the wheel and making and designing and filling orders . It is kind of a mixture of everything.
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Contact:
Instagram: @kam.rob.art