Braintree Artist Shares Group's Story as They Ramp up for Awards Ceremony

How does a stay-at-home-mom manage to get her artwork and self-published book into the hands of celebrities like Aidan Quinn, Penny Marshall, Nia Peeples, Jeff Probst and more? It’s surprisingly easy.

I am Kerry Rockwood White and I’m a Braintree resident and native. I’m also a member of The indiExhibit, an online, non-profit group of artisans and crafters from around the world who have come together to support and promote one another via celebrity gifting. What is celebrity gifting? Well, it’s pretty much what it sounds like. We appear at events in LA and present the celebrities that attend the events with swag bags full of products created by our members.

The indiExhibit has appeared at gift lounges for events such as the Golden Globes, the Prime Time Emmy Awards and will be at the upcoming American Music Awards. This article will be the first in a series of four that describes the journey our group takes for the 2011 AMAs.

Our group, founded by Ohio resident Shannon Rene Justice, is open to all artists and crafters who wish to join. Shannon and I met five years ago on a site called Zazzle.com. It’s a print-on-demand site where artists can upload their designs onto products and earn royalties on the sales.

Shannon and I, along with a few other mutual friends had been doing celebrity gift lounges with another woman who had her own company. Regrettably, for personal reasons, she was unable to continue and left a great many people with nowhere to turn at the last moment before a show in 2010. Seeing a need
and wanting to help her fellow artists, Shannon decided to pick up the pieces and found a way to make the event work out for everyone. Needless to say, we were all grateful.

Since that first show, we have come a long way. We have gone through name changes, logo changes and some personnel changes. We’ve found out about things that work and some things that don’t. Unfortunately, what works or doesn’t work can change from show to show or season to season, but that
challenge is part of the thrill.

Celebrity gifting is a very expensive enterprise. Just to walk in the door at one of these events costs thousands of dollars. Needless to say this is not something that a starving artist could do alone, nor your average stay-at-home-mom. But because we have come together as a community we not only share the expense of the registration fee but also the cost of the swag bags, the shipping, the travel and hotel expense for the representatives and other costs associated with an event.

Our group offers support in other ways as well. We inspire and encourage one another. We give each other much needed feedback and understanding. Many of our members don’t have family and friends in their daily lives who understand their need to create or who see their business as nothing more than a "cute little hobby." IE is a refuge; an online grouping of individuals who appreciate creativity and not just the desire, but the need to create.

I have made many wonderful friends via this group and have even been fortunate enough to meet some of them face to face. In just a few weeks I will be travelling to Los Angeles again to see Shannon and two of our other members for the AMAs. There’s still an awful lot of work to be done and we will be working
furiously down to the wire, but it will be worth it. It always is.

In my next article I will give you a glimpse of what goes into getting a group of artists from all around the world together and organized for an event of such magnitude.

of the Fair Hero Series of vampire fiction as well as the owner of KRW Designs apparel and gifts. You can visit her at www.fairheroseries.com and www.zazzle.com/krwdesigns. Find out more about The indiExhibit at www.theindiexhibit.org.