JT Gunn

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I have worn many hats in my work life. They include marketing consultant, job developer, career coach, executive director of a nonprofit and CEO of a management consulting company. However, none of these roles is as fulfilling as being an artist. Yet, I believe, that I am and will continue to be a better artist because of my background. A good friend of mine gave me a quote, by Rachel Naomi Remen, that I keep close by to remind me about what it means to be an artist: “At the deepest level, the creative process and the healing process arise from a single source. When you are an artist, you are a healer; a wordless trust of the same mystery is the foundation of your work and its integrity.” At this stage in my career as an artist, I am formulating a plan to combine all of my skills to become more successful as an artist, to promote public art for the enjoyment and healing of as many people as possible as well as to facilitate the success of other artists of all ages. The projects that I am considering, in addition to developing my own art, include: Project #1: Take an active role in getting more positive art into public places. I do have some ideas of public sculpture that I want to create. However, I want to think far beyond my own art. Many communities do not consider the importance of public art in the process of designing and developing their infrastructure. I believe that this is a mistake from both an artistic and an economic point of view. Using my perspective as a marketing consultant, your town or city is a product that needs to be effectively positioned in the marketplace to be viable. If you have a beautiful setting, but allow unplanned development without regard to aesthetics, eventually, that strategy, or lack thereof, is going to backfire. Whatever your location, you want to entice people to live and work in and visit your community; thereby increasing the your community’s vitality and tax base. To accomplish this goal, you need to have incentives. Public art, environmental design, and effectively planned architectural design are among those enticements that encourage people to visit a new place. When they come, whether to relocate or to visit; they will spend money. Then, friends tell friends. Have you ever walked down a street in a town or city and just felt good being in that place? It is difficult to measure the impact of the public art, public gardens, and well-planned architecture. Yet, many European cities understand the importance of this draw and visually demonstrate the pride that they have in their communities. More U.S. cities could benefit from employing this approach. Project #2: Establish a foundation that focuses on promoting art education, art careers and art businesses. I have often heard, to my chagrin, that “art is no way to make a living”. This attitude is more pervasive than I would like. Many children are not exposed to art in their education, much less as a career option. We all have an inalienable right to pursue happiness in our careers as well as our lives.

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