Today we’d like to introduce you to Candice Blansett-Cummins.
Candice, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My career journey has been what some call “episodic”, which is a fitting name in that I did work in television. Following roles with Gap, Inc. and The Walt Disney Company, I was appointed Vice President and Divisional CIO of Sony Pictures Television International. In 2007 we relocated our family from Los Angeles to Chicago in support of my husband’s graduate education. I gave myself a year to settle in and then it happened. I got mad. Then I got busy.
Both Wishcraft Workshop and The Yellow Canoe are a result of my own temper tantrums.
As a parent, I became frustrated with traditional arts education and the culture of polarity that inhibits creativity and can rob the process of joy or worse, inflict a creative scar that can last a lifetime. I opened The Wishcraft Workshop in 2008 with a mission of building creative capability, of growing artists unafraid to experiment, growing thinkers unafraid to approach a challenge and take a risk, growing citizens unafraid to self-advocate and to support one another. Approximately five weeks elapsed between my first explosive encounter with my new mission and opening the doors for the first customer. Embraced by our neighbors, we had customers on the books before we officially opened.
7 years later, while the impact The Wishcraft Workshop adventure had made on the community was clear, I was intrigued with the dichotomy of beautiful gestures of hope and kindness juxtaposed against such injustice and erosion in the world. I wanted to put the tools to grow curious and confident creative problem-solvers in anyone’s hands, to empower others to identify opportunity and take positive action on the issues they care about, to use the creative activities children naturally enjoy to activate curiosity, character and confidence, to inspire activism while reinforcing integral learning in a joyful way. Really, I was trying to figure out how to make the broadest and deepest impact in our world– we live in a complicated time and I was compelled to do something about it. We are all in the same boat on this planet and need to paddle together with direction. We need to start ripples of change– concentric circles that grow and overlap and multiply and spread with exponential force for good. And so I designed a monthly subscription for kids and families that integrates fun art activities, social-emotional practice and academic learning in a planet-friendly digital package: The Yellow Canoe.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
This is Chicago– pothole is our middle name. The road has been gratifying and filled with color, smiles, student a-ha’s, new friends and amazing community. We’ve encountered the dangerous curve of opening a boot-strapped business at the onset of the Great Recession. We’ve navigated the changing landscape of licensing of children’s businesses. We’ve had to move locations in the middle of our summer camp season because the vintage storefront in which we opened suddenly became too vintage. And both of my children have spent some time getting to know the children’s hospital more than once, including within 8 weeks of opening the business– not easy when you start as a team of one. Some years have been better than others but what has remained constant is the FANTASTIC team we have in place such that the steering wheel can be shared or handed over when circumstances require.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Wishcraft Workshop, The Yellow Canoe story. Tell us more about the business.
We grow artists and thinkers of character, confidence and curiosity with adventurous creative experiences including summer camps, art classes (and crafting-building-making classes!), sewing lessons, tutoring, birthday parties and after-school programs. We operate with a culture of non-judgment and believe in the capabilities of all students, however wonderfully different we all are. Our focus on self-awareness builds confidence and respect, develops self-regulation and self-advocacy and strengthens conflict-resolution and communication skills. Students learn technique and about the arts while practicing problem-solving, critical-thinking and other important life skills, applying literacy, math, science, technology and engineering to the creative activities they enjoy.
We created something that just didn’t exist before it and did it at one of the riskiest times in our economic history. We recognized that caring about the planet and caring about one another was as important as any skill we would teach or practice. We’ve built a network of local businesses who enrich our programming with their expertise while giving them an opportunity to further connect with our youthful community.
I am proud as pie to be in our 9th year doing mission-driven business of my own design. And I am grateful to have met and grow alongside so many children and families for some, most or even all of those years.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I used to think it was luck. Or karma. Now I understand that nothing is really a coincidence and circumstances collide, for better or worse, when they are supposed to. None of us are in control of all things and I’ve made a commitment to be authentic in all things, to set an example that happiness is important and to demonstrate that that significance is sometimes, even if only temporarily, more valuable than success. Hard work done with passion and purpose for the greater good must be a good-things magnet.
Contact Info:
- Address: 3907 N Damen Avenue
Chicago, IL 60618 - Website: http://growartists.com
- Phone: 773-348-WISH (9474)
- Email: hello@wishcraftworkshop.com
- Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/wishcraftworkshop/
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/wishcraftworkshop/
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/wishcrafttweets
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-wishcraft-workshop-chicago
- Other: http://theyellowcanoe.org
Image Credit:
Candice Blansett-Cummins, Lynn Renee Persin
Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
