Growing Community through Creativity

WHAT'S MINNI?

A community creative space focused on early education, Minni hosts proprietary art and design classes, workshops and events on-site, and extends programs off-site through strategic partnerships with neighborhood organizations. Minni’s class curriculum and offerings are coordinated and taught by professional artists, designers, and educators. Minni responds to a decade-long decline in arts education funding, a noted shortage of creative spaces for children, and a dearth of design courses for preschool and elementary students.

THE PROBLEM

Three distinct pain points, one Minni. 

Urban areas—and the Boston area in particular—suffer from a lack of local creative spaces; a decline in arts education funding, and a scarcity of design courses aimed at the preschool, elementary, or upper-school aged student. The shortage of available creative spaces also limits community event options for local families.

THE SOLUTION

Minni’s answer to these challenges is two-fold. First, Minni hosts a broad spectrum of classes uniquely programmed to early childhood students, all under the tutelage of professional artists, designers, and educators. The tried-and-tested curriculum is process and technique driven and is novel in its 360-degree integration of design principles and vocabulary. Additionally, Minni offers a beautiful community space that is accessible to the neighborhood through open studio drop-in time and a suite of special events: parties, workshops, corporate events, exhibitions, and pop-ups.

Minni intends to increase the outreach of early art and design education annually to reach the estimated 35,000 children (pre-K to grade 5) in both public and independent schools in Boston. Our short-term goal is to grow enrollment in our physical studios by 20 percent annually. In the long-term, we hope to add locations and partnerships in other cities. Through a percentage of retail sales and foundation grants—and crowdfunding campaign like this—we are working to grow a scholarship fund to support programming to hundreds of children annually in underserved local communities.

OUR STORY

Hi! I’m Kelly. I’m the founder and creative director of Minni. 

As a kid, I had creative tendencies, but most of my extra time was focused on sports. I went to college as “undecided,” played on the Division 1 soccer team, but was always attracted to arts and design. This interest led me to explore my options and I majored and graduated in architecture. I worked as a designer in an architecture office for a few years before starting a small textile and accessory business. This led me to co-found a sustainable textile company, and then to furniture design and the world of interior design. This circuitous route gave me an informal education, and I can honestly say I didn’t hear the term “industrial design” until I was several years out of school. If I had known about the many different possibilities in the design world in my youth, I may have chosen a different school or taken another path. But then I wouldn’t be here!

From the beginning, my vision for Minni has been to make arts education accessible to my former self and others who may have lesser access to art and design education. Part of this vision was to open multiple locations around Boston and ultimately expand into other communities, offering art and design programming to young children. 

In the fall of 2019, I was meeting with developers and looking at spaces for our second location. At the time, nothing felt like the right fit, which was timely, as a few months later the onset of Covid-19 abruptly halted our operations. We closed our physical studio twice for a total of 8 months and pivoted to online classes and developed a creative curriculum-in-a-box that we delivered by mail (and by hand on occasion). I did what I could to stay positive and afloat during that time of widespread uncertainty. Through the support of our amazing community, and the resilience of our team, Minni survived, and even with the uncertainty of an ongoing pandemic, we’ve begun to thrive! 

My goal for 2022 was to maintain this new stability and steadily increase the enrollment in our art and design programs. I also aimed to reignite and expand our partnerships with local schools and educational institutions, many of which are serving lower income families. Earlier this year, I pursued an out-of-the-studio idea to create a “Mobile Minni” (think food truck, but instead of food, we’d dish out project materials) to reach some of our communities outside during the upcoming warmer months. 

After speaking with my team and some business advisors, I realized this partnership expansion could potentially happen without a physical truck—but it can’t happen without some major funding (our fees for these programs are about a third of what we charge in our studio, and we will be doing some of these events as free events). 

In the middle of this activity, a customer reached out to say that a space was available for lease right next to a popular bakery in the old meeting house on Charles Street. This wasn’t in the plan for 2022, but upon seeing the space, I felt I had to jump on the opportunity, closing a circle that I had started in 2019. This location is ideal, being within walking distance to several schools and only a few blocks from the nearby Charles MGH T stop.

I realized that seizing this business opportunity could also help me bring my vision of expanding into underserved communities to fruition. 

OUR TEAM

Our team is comprised of art educators, artists, and designers.

Kelly is our founder and creative director. Alexandra is our program manager. Jill is our studio and marketing manager. Nora is our education director. Somer is our social media manager. Our amazing instructors + assistants are Lydia, Amy, Eugene, Aubrey, Sarah, and Eda.

Each specializing in different areas and mediums, they bring this knowledge and enthusiasm from their respective crafts—be it illustration, fiber arts, woodworking, or painting—to Minni each time they teach. We love being able to offer a place for individuals to share their backgrounds and experiences while encouraging students to explore their own creative expression.

HELP US GROW!

Why are we asking for funding? 

• Partnership funding: this includes hiring a mobile team and offering subsidized or free programs, materials and supplies 
• Build out costs for second location: covering furniture, cabinets, paint, supplies, plumbing, electrical, retail fixtures
• Employees: increasing hours, salary and benefits for our current team as inflation and cost of living is at its highest 

WITH GRATITUDE

Thank you, thank you, thank you! 

We are eternally grateful for your support of Minni in our first four years in business, for spreading the word about this project, and for helping bring this vision to life. By contributing to this campaign and sharing the campaign with your friends and family, you are bringing the joy of making art and design to children (and adults) in our community.