Tag Archives: Art

Beer and Napkins Kicks Off Creative with their New Year V Sessions

Artist and Designer John Digney will inspire with his creative journey

One of Beer and Napkin’s goals for the New Year is to nurture the creative soul of the community. Initially, the V Sessions or VUCA Sessions aimed to support a small group with connections and knowledge sharing around change. This has expanded to a larger audience and will serve a greater purpose of brewing creative inspiration.

Our initial Beer and Napkins V Session Creative Kickstart to 2023 will feature Artist and Designer John Digney. John will share some of his journey from Director of Industrial Design with American Greetings to his post-career passion for his Irish heritage, ancient stone craft, and design. His latest work is with the Dry Stone Wall Association of Ireland, www.DSWAI.ie. You can read more about some of his adventures here. https://iirish.us/2022/12/01/stone-mad-the-making-of-a-wall/

You can sign up for our Jan 3rd, 2023 Creative Kickstart on our Beer and Napkin’s Meetup Page https://www.meetup.com/beer-and-napkins-community-of-growth/events/290546244?utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=share-btn_savedevents_share_modal&utm_source=link

About our Speaker
John Digney is an Artist /Designer who received his BFA in Industrial Design from the Cleveland Institute of Art. He was raised in the Cleveland neighborhood of Westpark near Kamm’s Corner, and he and his wife, Kathleen, now reside in Greenville, SC.

About Beer and Napkins V Sessions
Beer and Napkins V Sessions are designed to build a community around knowledge sharing with the specific purpose of creatively nurturing resilience in the face of change.

Mauldin: An Emerging Community

For the past year it has been a pleasure for us to learn more about the city of Mauldin. Given that Mauldin has never had an actual main street or “downtown” area, it has an extraordinary 61% population growth since 2000! One of the challenges is how can Mauldin provide the growing residents and visitors a thriving environment of culture, business, and activities.
One of the things we’ve learned is George Patrick, Administrator, Office of Cultural Affairs has been diligently working to promote provide artistic and cultural activities to continually develop a more energetic community. As we spoke with George, it was evident that all the avenues were explored including bench-marking other municipalities and their growth plans. You can read more about Mauldin’s Downtown Master Plan here: Master Plan. However, he wanted an additional component, a grassroots community driven ideas for input into their strategic plans.

Beer and Napkins provided the platform where both residents and visitors delivered their input at the July 21st and August 5th idea events. George shared with the group about the underdeveloped spaces behind Chicora Alley and the Cultural Center ripe for ideas. He also shared with the group about plans for connecting with the Swamp Rabbit.

Many ideas ranging from open air cafes, interactive art displays, to pubs, breweries, and high end shopping were mentioned. Additionally, the #MauldinEdge was born representing both the spirit of progress of Mauldin and where the hub sits on the edge of the crossroads formed by 107 [East Butler Road] intersecting with 276 & the railroad.

You can review, add, and vote on these ideas here: https://beerandnapkins.imaginethat.io/mauldinedge

Through these community idea generation events two key themes emerged: a center hub where guests can interact with each other and art and a walkable, connected city.

At our September 1st Event we will developing short-term and long-term recommendations to support these two key themes. Join us at the Turtle Shell, September 1st at 6:30pm for a fun and engaging community event! RSVP Meetup Here: #MauldinEdge: The Final Session

George, Tony, and I look forward to seeing you Tuesday!

Phil McCreight, Founder Beer and Napkins

#MauldinEdge : The Final Session

Date: September 1st, 6:30 pm Location: The Turtle Shell

RSVP here: #MauldinEdge Meetup

We have explored a number of ideas in our last few sessions and we are on our way to establishing a number of vitalizing game plans!

At our last event at the Turtle Shell, we will be narrowing down the collective input into from our last session into 2-3 “Themes / Goals” for the community (e.g. “walkability”, “local flavor”, etc) and establish 1-3 short term and long term recommendations for each of them.

Even though you may have not attended the earlier sessions your input is still desired!

We are continuing to collect ideas so please vote, add to our#MauldinEdge idea stream!

https://beerandnapkins.imaginethat.io/mauldinedge

Appetizers will be served. Food and drinks available for purchase.

For questions please contact [email protected]m or [email protected]

Challenge of the Week: Melinda Hoffman-Afghan Book Collection

Our Beer and Napkins Challenge and Sketch Art comes from local artist and social entrepreneur Melinda Hoffman. Melinda Hoffman, artist and lifelong learner, was inspired by her beautiful granddaughter and her own Afghan art project to create Afghan Book Collection. Melinda “stumbled” upon this need of the Afghan people. We believe it was a calling and thankfully she listened. ABC has become her passion.

The Director of Public Libraries in Afghanistan communicated to Melinda Hoffman that there are no children’s books in Afghan libraries. The idea of a children’s book collection is a new concept to the Afghan people. To make matters more difficult, in Afghanistan the print industry is basically nonexistent. ABC knows that there is a need for children’s literature in Afghanistan, so they are starting at the very beginning. ABC has been offered library space in the Kabul Public Library with a librarian to oversee the books that are sent. ABC will begin with this first collection of books as their initial project. The collection will comprise 100 books for the first shipment. Additional funds will allow even more titles and more translations. ABC is a lean, mean machine with every dollar going into books and their translations.

To learn more about Melinda’s art, passion, and story visit the following sites :

http://www.melindahoffman.com
http://www.afghanbookcollection.com

Challenge: Keep your eyes, ears, and mind open to “stumble” upon needs your talents can fulfill!