Carrie Chavers, owner of The Chickasha Art Center, spoke to Rotary about how she started her business, how it has grown and evolved, and its future.The Rotary Club of Chickasha met December 28, 2023. The club sang "God Bless America".
Rotarian Gerron Smith announced that the annual Rotary Run 5K has been set for May 4th, 2024. Because of the timing, the event will bring back the Star Wars theme ("May the Fourth be with you").
As Rotarian of the Day, Steve LaForge introduced the meeting's speaker, Carrie Chavers. Chavers is the owner of The Chickasha Art Center. Through this business, she holds painting workshops for all ages, as well as pursuing her own creative career through commissions and murals.
Chavers has many years experience as an art teacher, teaching both in Chickasha Public Schools and at the University of Science & Arts of Oklahoma at various times. She studied at the Chicago Art Institute and the Kansas City Art Institute. She began doing paint workshops in 2016. In 2021, she retired from teaching and now focuses solely on her business.
Chavers explained that she started teaching workshops "because I wanted an iPad." At the time, paint & wine parties were gaining popularity, and she decided to give it a try and make some money off of it. Her first workshop went better than anticipated, she says, and attendees were quick to ask, "When is the next one?"
Out of this venture came the Paint on Canvas and Paint on Pottery classes, the best known services at the Art Center. The Art Center itself came about as Chavers remodeled the front of the Auto Works building on Chickasha Avenue. Today, she contracts several students from USAO to help with operations and with mural projects.
Chavers described how she was forced to adapt during the COVID-19 pandemic. With in-person classes out of the question, she created and sold art kits that families could pick up and use at home. During this time she also spent more time doing personal art commissions, particularly pet portraits.
Additionally, she persuaded the late Bert Seabourne to take her on as a student. Under Seabourne's tutelage, Chavers says she greatly improved her ability to create human portraits. She prefers to use a vibrant palette in her work, and says she likes to create portraits of people who express themselves creatively through their appearance.
Recently, Chavers has worked with several local businesses, creating murals of all sizes and sorts. These include the portraits of music artists at Legends Pubhouse, the murals inside the Flower Shop Winery, and a "Nehi" mural for Town's End.
Looking to the future, Chavers is looking to continue growing and adapting her business. She hopes to be able to pivot to a less labor-intensive business model where she has more freedom to delegate work. She also shared that she has been selected for The Blox, an entrepeneur bootcamp and reality series, where she will have the opportunity to further develop her business skills and to pitch to angel investors. The season will begin filming in 2024.
Lunch was provided by Interurban.