Today we’d like to introduce you to Stacy Handler.
Hi Stacy, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I am originally from Miami, Florida, and I grew up singing and dancing, so I had a deep love for the arts instilled in me from a very young age. I went to college at Emory University in Atlanta, and I did a work study program in the school’s performing arts center, which is where I first learned about Arts Administration as a potential career path. That led me to pursue a Master’s Degree in Performing Arts Administration at NYU, and from there, I began working with music and dance organizations in New York, including The New York Pops and Gibney Dance, primarily doing fundraising. I then moved to Boston and served as Managing Director for a local dance organization, Urbanity Dance. I moved to Baltimore in 2020 and continued working remotely with Urbanity until 2022 where I joined the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts as the Director of Development. A year later, I decided to take the leap to start my own company, and launched Bloom Arts Strategy in May 2023. Since then, we’ve worked with arts organizations, community development organizations, and artists in Baltimore, New York, and Boston supporting them with their fundraising, strategy, and project management goals.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I had been toying with the idea of starting my own company for a long time, but was scared to take that leap. I eventually decided to work with an executive coach who helped me examine those fears and realize that they were largely unfounded and self-imposed – and once that big mental roadblock was removed and I firmly made the decision to go out on my own, I felt an incredible sense of freedom. However, being a small business owner can be a lonely (and exhausting!) road, so I have found it’s really important to find community and find those people who are going through a similar journey to help provide support, whether that be through validating my experiences or helping to provide additional insight into challenges I might be experiencing. I think it’s also important to recognize that there are always going to be professional challenges and it’s the way that you manage those difficult moments that allow for growth. The ability to be resilient and resourceful is very important.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Bloom Arts Strategy?
Bloom Arts Strategy is a consulting firm that supports arts organizations and artists by providing them with foundational resources. The way that we do that is by providing fundraising, project management, and strategy support. We bring a systems-focused approach to our work, so where we really stand out is by supporting those organizations and individuals who have visionary ideas, but just need help putting those ideas into action. We have implemented numerous fundraising campaigns, conducted many strategic visioning sessions, written (and been awarded) millions of dollars of grants, worked with creatives to bring their artistic projects to life, managed large-scale galas and small-scale events, and more. As a colleague once said about us, we connect artists to opportunities, and I think that’s a great way to explain our approach. We like to make things make sense – connecting people to opportunities, weaving together common threads within the work to then implement them with a strategic eye. We all have limited time and resources, so we make sure that those resources are used intentionally and in a way that will increase impact, however that’s defined by our clients.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
The pandemic taught me a lot of things, but most importantly, it put things into perspective. Things that I was stressing about at any given moment were perhaps not really worthy of that energy. It taught me to better prioritize how I’m spending my time, which includes spending time with my family and friends and pouring into my own individual hobbies. Work can be a fulfilling aspect of one’s life, but it’s not everything. I think it also showed that our lives can change on a dime, and that further solidified the need to make sure I’m using my time intentionally. It also demonstrated to me the importance of communal care. We are individuals, yes, but we are individuals who make up a community and a society, and we have a responsibility to take care of ourselves by taking care of each other.
Contact Info:
- Website: bloomartsstrategy.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bloomartsstrategy
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bloom-arts-strategy/
