This Saturday June 20th, RAW Artists presents the National Arts Drive – a three-hour community experience spanning across Canada, the United States and Mexico. Thousands of artists and performers will showcase their work while respecting social distancing – from windows, balconies, driveways, front lawns, workspaces, or appropriate commercial spaces. Attendees are invited to visit participating local artists, performers, musicians, and designers living in their community from a safe distance.
Michelle Bylow and David Pattee are leading the charge in bringing the drive to Canada, shining a light on an employment sector that has suffered devastating losses. 44% of Canadian households report having lost employment or income and 64% of artists are unemployed because of COVID-19.
“Artists are signing up by the minute and thousands of artists have already joined. Canadian artistic communities need this positivity and light right now. The drive is bringing hope and financial support to Canadian artistic communities”, said Bylow, Executive Director of RAW Artists Canada. “Canada has approximately 160,000 artists and 95% report losing income due to the pandemic”.
The Drive is open to all Canadian creatives and communities.
“We need to help preserve our creative culture. Lockdown measures and isolation has shown how important art is to all of us. The entertainment and event industries are in shambles and we will not likely hold events until 2021. This is a chance for artists to safely showcase and for their communities to support them”, said Bylow.
The driving tour will be paired with a mobile website designed and built by RAW Artists. Artists will be identified on a map within the site, enabling drivers to curate and plan their routes. Visitors can support artists by liking, following and/or sharing artists’ work via social media, tipping artists through a touch free pay app (i.e. Venmo, PayPal), and/or making future purchases from the artists online. All donations and proceeds from sales go directly to the artists.
Bylow and her team are aiming to register 5,000 Canadian artists for the event. RAW supports 10 different verticals within the arts community – film, fashion, music, visual art, performing art, beauty, accessories, photography, craft and technology. There is no charge for artists to participate, and they do not have to be members of RAW.
For more information on RAW Artists’ National Arts Drive, visit www.NationalArtsDrive.com or www.RAWartists.com
About RAW Artists:
Founded in 2009, RAW is the largest independent, international arts organization in the world. RAW’s mission is to serve independent artists with the tools, resources, education and exposure needed to thrive and succeed in their creative careers. RAW is an online and offline platform that has showcased over 200k artists in 70 cities across the globe in multi-faceted arts events that draw crowds of 1,000+ attendees.
Due to the “Stay at Home” orders issued by the Canadian government; RAW Artists Canada has halted regular operations since March 15, 2020.
