'People are still talking about it': This startup gets artists paid gigs at team-building events

Before the pandemic, Care/Of — which brings artists together with businesses for team-building programs with a cultural flavor — was a struggling startup with just one client and few prospects. As COVID swept through the city and restaurants, galleries and music venues shut their doors, and company employees shifted to an online life of Zoom meetings and FaceTime meetups, founder and Toronto arts community veteran Bridget Love pivoted Care/Of to an online model and gave herself a four-month timeline to make it work.

One year later, the company has secured over 90 paying gigs for local artists with 27 companies including Procter & Gamble, Scotiabank, Kinross Gold, Magna, Equitable Bank, University of Toronto, and KPMB Architects, and has contributed $7000 to FoodShare's community food programs.

"I would have never gone virtual or digital if the pandemic hadn't hit because I'm so inclined to being in the same space as people and sharing a room," says founder Bridget Love. "It's just fascinating to me because now I think this digital model is where we'll stay."

As counterintuitive as it might be to enjoy a Zoom performance with colleagues from your couch after a long day of seeing the same faces on screen, it works, says Pearl Chiu of Chisel AI, a new startup which booked two events with Care/Of. Most of the staff had been with the company less than two years when the pandemic shut down the office, and creating a team bond online was a challenge, says Chiu. "One surprising thing that came out of this event for me was a far greater lasting effect than any other event I've arranged at this company or others. People are still talking about it."

In the Before Times, comedian Nour Hadidi — who performed at a Chisel AI event and five other shows through Care/Of — was a regular onstage at Toronto staple Comedy Bar and thrived on the adrenaline rush of live shows. But taking the stage on Zoom has some unexpected advantages, she says, especially when sussing out an audience. "I get to see their full names [on screen], I get to see their background, if they have a partner, what kind of setup they have, and I try to use that to my advantage," she says. It's not the club, but "it's still a nice way to feel like I'm a member of society. To do my job and to be paid for it was really nice."

Amanda Wyman, founder of Mud Makers Studio, is a ceramic artist who had to close the doors to her burgeoning business during the pandemic. The loss of income and the loss of connection through the workshops and classes she offered was challenging, she says. "It has been quite a blow to lose that professional side of my life. So to do a two-hour workshop where I'm seeing people and hearing about what they do and getting to share some of what I do, it was kind of exhilarating."

And it's not just good vibes for the artists. Joyce Wallace of Uncharted Software booked an online watercolour workshop for Uncharted's employees through Care/Of. "A lot of people told me they felt it was very therapeutic and calming for an hour just to be able to do that," she says. And they were excited to support the local arts community as well. "[We had] lots of really positive feedback on the use of local artists and also delivering cultural experience that they might not have otherwise had."

Care/Of is building out a roster of arts and culture events that includes a communication workshop with spoken word poets Shelly Grace and David Delisca, a block printing workshop with Blank Canvases leader Hemangi Jasnani and printmaker Maureen Da Silva, virtual live music concerts, and weaving workshops with Loom Studio.

One of Love's main motivations in building Care/Of is providing artists with an income so they can continue to practice art, she says — a goal that pivoting to an online model has supported. Logistically, says Love, an online event is much easier to arrange than a live show, and the lack of travel time to a venue and setup makes the show more profitable for artists. "They can be working in their studio and then they can take that hour or two hours to teach people and then go back to what they're doing, and I think that's huge."

For Chiu, the workshop sparked a renewed interest in the Toronto arts and culture scene. She and her husband both grew up in downtown Toronto and were used to taking advantage of the cultural offerings around town. "We used to go to places like Yuk Yuk's, local restaurants [and] Second City two or three times a month," she says. But life got in the way and going out took a back seat to a house in the suburbs and raising a family. The Care/Of event gave them a taste of what they had been missing, she says. Post-pandemic, they are looking forward to attending live shows and events "to get out of the rut we were in pre-pandemic and go back to appreciating what's there," she says. "It's incredibly important to support your local community. We miss [these things] and we want them to be here. We don't want them to go away."