Three dynamic women working in Scotland’s PR business – Michelle Mangan, the eponymous Director of her Communications and PR company; Miriam Attwood, Director of Storytelling PR Ltd, and Sharon McHendry Director of SM Publicity – have come up with a idea to highlight the plight of artists during the pandemic.
The idea, that goes by the name of Thou Art Viable, is the sale of packs of festive charity cards designed by artist and designer Kat Radeva; graphic designer Ross Napier; Jazz singer and painter Ali McGregor, singer-songwriter Ela Orleans and comedian and illustrator Danny Clives.
With theatres, concert halls and comedy venues across having now been closed for eight months, and with the season of goodwill rapidly approaching, now is a good time to have this idea launched. Available for sale from Wednesday 11th November 2020 from the Thou Art Viable website will be two different packs of 6 charity cards priced at £10 with any two packs purchased having postage and packing included.
The limited run of cards, that will be posted out by the end of each week through November and December, will cover politics and theatre as well as the nativity and have designs that include graphics, collages and paintings.
Thou Art Viable’s Miriam, Sharon and Michelle said, “We quite simply saw this as a chance to put our story back out there – to talk up the number of specialists in our industry who have had 9 months without the joy, hustle and madness of their day jobs. Looking around we came full circle – we have time to stuff envelopes and we know artists who we know would have time to contribute artworks. This is not us diversifying, this is us saying ‘Thou Art Viable’.
“We must not be forgotten, we don’t want to be forgotten and we don’t want our incredible artists to be forgotten. By buying a pack of cards you are paying an artist for their work and you are handing a loved one a wee reminder of the arts and the mischief and magic we create as one of the country’s most loved and misunderstood industries.”
All the artists are paid and any profits will go to culture support funds including Eclipse Theatre and Black Womxn in Theatre’s #allofus campaign and the fund for thousands of artists who have fallen through funding cracks known as #excludeduk.
The Thou Art Viable team welcome any artists, musicians, dancers, comedians or theatre makers who want to contribute a design to get in touch. Please contact miriam@storytellingpr.com or michelle.mangan@talk21.com for information.
Should the project be successful, the team will seek further information on funds supporting those whose 2020 has been financially derailed.
Irene Brown
Radio Summerhall Arts 