October 11, 2016 (Hyannis, MA) – Next month’s Creative Exchange will feature Jason Talbot, co-founder and alumnus of the South Boston nonprofit Artists For Humanity (AFH), as the event’s keynote speaker.
Art has served as a life-changing outlet for the Cambridge resident who now uses it as a way to reach inner-city teens in Boston. “Art changed my trajectory and how I see the world,” he said. “It became like a vessel for a lot of life lessons and great experiences.”
Talbot, who currently serves as AFH’s Special Projects Director and a member of its Board of Directors, grew up in Roxbury, where he credited his parents for passing along a passion for the arts. He considers himself a community artist with a foundation in drawing that has extended to illustration, paint, oil, acrylics, graffiti art, origami, clay, stone, found objects, film, and video game apps. “In my early teen years, my neighborhood got tough and I got into some trouble,” he admitted. “So I was stuck in my house because I couldn’t be out on the streets and I took refuge in my sketchbook. I did a lot of drawings and spent a lot of time admiring illustrations and cartoons and the graffiti I saw on the way to school and tried to emulate that.”
These days at AFH, Talbot serves as a model for those who come from the same type of environment he did . “We kind of use art as a framework around ways for teens to speak about personal identity, emotions, economics, science, technology, engineering and math,” he said. “Art permeates every part of our life.”
Julie Wake, Executive Director of the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod (AFCC), said Talbot is the ideal person to address attendees at the Creative Exchange which takes place on Tuesday, November 1 at the Doubletree in Hyannis. “We selected Jason because he has a powerful story to tell,” she said. “ Not only is he a working artist, but he is using his talents for the good of the community.”
The AFCC’s Creative Exchange runs from 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Talbot is set to give his keynote speech at 11:30 a.m. during lunch. The day includes panels focused on a variety of topics that include starting a business within the arts, the importance of arts in education, and how to fund your artistic enterprise. There will also be a Test Tube Lounge that will allow attendees to meet one-on-one with social media experts to assess and improve their marketing efforts.
Tickets for the Creative Exchange can be purchased at www.artsfoundation.org. Along with the AFCC, the event is being supported by Cape Cod Broadcasting & Media, Cape Cod Technology Council and the Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank Charitable Foundation Trust.
Founded in 1988, the AFCC is a Hyannis-based nonprofit that serves as the regional arts agency for Barnstable County. Its mission is to support, promote and celebrate the arts and culture of Cape Cod in order to sustain a vibrant, diverse and strong arts community.
# # #