Mississippi has even before Katrina, suffered it’s share of economic disasters.
I want to use this post to talk about some of the stuff I learned while at a recent conference in Mobile AL.
Mobile was temperate and - downtown at least since I didn’t really go anywhere else - was clean and friendly.
The restaurants on Dauphin street were excellent.
But to the west resides Mississippi. I’ve had friends take a week’s vacation and pay to go down to the Pascagoula area (the eastern border of the storm damaged area), live in a church sponsored “barracks” and work rebuilding homes.
Oceans Springs, MS was one devastated community… a large number of the residents were artists.
The Mississippi Department of Labor wondered how they could help.
So in conjunction with the Twin Districts Workforce Area and Mississippi Arts Commission, they have tried to help people who derived their primary income from some form of visual, performing or literary arts get back on their feet. (Say, does that include bloggers? But I digress!)
After receiving a waiver from the federal government which normally disallows these costs, they classified these artists and craftsmen as small businesses.
Self-employed artists were allowed to apply for up to $5000 in financial assistance to restart their business as long as the money did not go for inventory for resale but otherwise needed in business. Tools, equipment, supplies and other tangible items were covered as long as they were for the creation and/or sale of art. No direct cash payments were made. Vendors were paid directly or original receipts reimbursed.
Prior to application, the artists had to participate in a 2 hour orientation and then submit a Business Recovery Grant Application ot the Mississippi Arts Commission.
Grantees also had to attend a 6 hours workshop in Entrepreneurship, Marketing and Business Planning.
Only “full time” artists whose primary source of income was the creation and sale of art were allowed to receive grants.
One of the lingering problems still seems to be marketing.
Though Craigslist put up a regional site to serve the area, it’s likely the community is not well briefed by the grant source on how to use the internet for marketing or to how to access Craigslists’ other sites for marketing purposes. The suggestion to use ebay was met with as if it were an option not previously explored.
From the tone of the presentation, it seems that good progress has been made, but that a talented Ebay assistant in the area could stand to have a steady business helping these artists market their products more effectively for a share of the profits. It’d be worth checking out!
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