This month, we are at Fuzion Design Building in Pawtucket for our April Clambake. And Fuzion Design is also our sponsor for the month. Thank you Fuzion for the support!
While living in Italy in the early 2000s, Laura Burkett was struck by how hard it was to find fashionable, business-appropriate bags among the many fashion-oriented leather bags in Italy. Inspired by her struggles, she started a business that creates exquisitely crafted leather backpacks and business accessories, Laura Burkett Designs. While balancing her corporate marketing career and her business for many years, she finally decided in 2015 to focus solely on Laura Burkett Designs. Opting to be a full-time entrepreneur required her to utilize her skills to sell her designs at stores and shows, including high-end, juried craft shows. Those experiences made her realize the importance of marketing in the art and craft world and the deeply meaningful impact it can have on helping the creatives.
When RISD canceled their long-running, highly successful holiday sale in 2017, she saw an opportunity to both continue the legacy of the event and help other artists market and sell their work. She founded and now leads ArtSmart Productions, a team of experienced marketers that produces the Art Providence Show and offers integrated, low-cost marketing services to artists and art-based businesses.
Burkett grew up in Kentucky and lived in Europe for nine years before moving to Pawtucket in 2009. She loves Rhode Island’s diversity, its obsession with food and the opportunities it affords to speak her favorite language - Italian.
Mel Rainsberger has been a digital designer and consultant since 2004. With over fourteen years of experience in web, video, animation as well as new technologies, and interactive media, she has tackled just about every technology you can imagine. Her client list includes AARP, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, RISD, CVS, Amazon, and Liberty Mutual. Crazy as it sounds, she honestly loves researching and sharing industry trends, competitors, and comparable experiences; planning and driving design standards across all channels.
Her recent work includes modernizing the consumer insurance experience and designing the Responsible Communication Style Guide—a guide for talking about our users and audience in a way they find inclusive and understanding.
Free and Open to all; Cash bar.