Recently, #thesavageway, a social media, marketing, branding, and Clean Graffiti company based in NoDa, was the winner of an art grant from Queen City Soup, a regional micro-grant program for artists and community activists in the Charlotte metro.
Project Art Aid and its Queen City Soup initiative were started by NoDa artist and art advocate Rosalia Torres-Weiner. This event, which takes place quarterly, accepts proposals from local artists in the range of $1500 to $2500 to be put toward projects that have some tangible benefit to the local community. The artists then pitch their idea in a public forum where event attendees help select the winners.
Torrie Savage and Paula Barlett, the ladies of #thesavageway, went up against three other presenters in hopes of winning money to sponsor their Clean Graffiti project. Clean Graffiti takes a specialized stencil, a dirty sidewalk, and a pressure washer, then leaves a message behind where the pressure washer has cleaned.
During their 5-minute pitch, #thesavageway ladies explained how their Clean Graffiti project would use the money: they will go into 12 lower income neighborhoods around Charlotte and clean positive, inspiring messages, in both English and Spanish, on the sidewalks. The goal of these messages is bettering the community and spreading hope where things can often be tough for residents.
Soon, #savageway will receive the grant funds, execute their project, and update the folks attending the spring 2015 Queen City Soup.
Congratulations, ladies, on your awesome work! Glad you’re a part of the NoDa community!
Image: #TheSavageWay’s Google+ Page