Four artists have been selected to develop new Pennsylvania Wilds branded designs as part of the inaugural PA Wilds Artisan Collaborative initiative this fall.
Ellen Paquette, Julie Mader, Rhianna Speck at Maitri Design Co., and Kelsey Kleiner at OneTen The Studio were chosen through a competitive application process to help kick off the pilot initiative.
They each have been paired with a rural manufacturer or producer that is also based in the 13-county Pennsylvania Wilds region. The artist and manufacturer pairs will collaborate together in partnership with the nonprofit PA Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship, Inc. (PA Wilds Center), to develop and bring to market new consumer products that align with the PA Wilds brand values.
“We are so excited to be partnering with these four creative designers and the identified manufacturers on this innovative new initiative,” said Abbi Peters, PA Wilds Center COO. “Each has unique skills, specialties and visions that will set the benchmark for the future of this program. During the introductory call when the artists and manufacturing representatives met, you could feel the electricity and excitement from all sides, and we can’t wait to see what comes out of this pilot!”
Paquette, of Warren, has been paired with Organic Climbing/Nittany MountainWorks in Centre County. Paquette has created original and custom artwork for over 30 years. Though her focus in recent years has been Renaissance-style portraits of endangered species and plush animals made from vintage fabrics, Paquette has many years of experience creating pen and ink artwork for a variety of uses. Her artwork has been featured on items ranging from playbill covers and production posters to t-shirts, bandanas and more. She is excited to team up with the Philipsburg-based manufacturing company – which produces climbing and outdoor gear that is handmade to be functional, durable, and unique – to develop inspired soft goods for PA Wilds enthusiasts and visitors.
Mader, of Smethport, has been partnered with Laughing Owl Press Co. in McKean County. Mader works in a variety of mediums with a range including watercolor, acrylic and painting on silk. She is drawn to the timeless appeal of the aesthetic of classic ink drawings and now has 40 years of experience rendering people, places and animals with pen and ink. Mader has been a teaching artist with the PA Council on the Arts for a decade, providing art experiences to seniors. Combining her art-making and teaching experiences, Mader launched a collection of nature-themed watercolor kits in 2023 to share art-making with more people. She also won third place in the PA Wilds Big Idea Contest for her subscription art education and curricula service, Caregiver’s Artbox. She is eager to see how a partnership with Laughing Owl Press – a local letterpress printing company that prioritizes outstanding quality – can help her expand products in line with her existing offerings while continuing to celebrate the PA Wilds place and way of life.
Speck, of Linden, will be working with St. Marys Box Co. in Elk County. Speck has over 15 years of experience providing graphic design and marketing services to small business owners so that they can leverage consistent, dynamic branded materials while focusing on running their day-to-day operations. She will work with St. Mary Box Co. to develop Pennsylvania Wilds branded boxes that will then be available wholesale to businesses in the region. Speck has designed shipping boxes in the past and is excited to be able to work with an in-region manufacturer to create an inspired box design that will create a memorable package-receiving experience for consumers, especially since she also hopes to use them for her soap business, Side Door Soaps & Sundry.
Kleiner, of Smethport, has been matched with XtremeWear of Clearfield County. Kleiner is the owner of OneTen The Studio, LLC, a digital branding and type design studio that primarily works with female-founded businesses with clients ranging from wedding photographers, and architects to fashion designers and local authors, with many others in between. She has been matched with XtremeWear, a screen printing and embroidery shop with over 25 years of industry experience, and is looking forward to developing a PA Wilds font through a type design method known as a revival, which is based on a typeface from the early 1900’s from the Keystone Type Foundry. This PA Wilds font designed by Kleiner will be used on the products that reflect the region’s unique assets, character and traditions.
ARTISAN COLLABORATIVE DETAILS
The designers recently convened at the PA Wilds Conservation Shop at Kinzua Bridge State Park to learn more about shop needs and product gaps.
The new PA Wilds Artisan Collaborative program, which was launched by PA Wilds Center in July and runs through winter, will invest in these rural artists to help them develop and bring to market new PA Wilds branded products to meet growing consumer demand. Products to be developed may include branded shipping boxes, stationary sets, coasters, cards, shirts, hats, hoodies, totes and bags, and more.
Through the program, the artists will be paid for their designs, and have professional development opportunities, including marketing, expanding their business-to-business network, access to new markets, and referrals to resources to help them continue to scale their businesses beyond the scope of the project.
Participating artists will be paid $5,000 each for their designs, and receive $1,000 in professional development support. The Center will also cover $10,000 in start-up inventory from each manufacturer for the new product lines, support third-party distribution logistics, and invest $6,000 in marketing the products and partnerships behind them. All told, each artisan-manufacturer partnership will see a $22,000 investment.
“Building a rural supply chain to support our tourism industry has long been a cornerstone of the PA Wilds strategy,” Peters said. “Investing in local businesses to meet product demand has a huge return on investment, especially over the long term, as these dollars stay in our rural economy longer, supporting local jobs and families.”
The opportunity was open to Professional Juried Artists in the Wilds Cooperative of PA (WCO) network who specialize in visual arts and graphic design.
The Artisan Collaborative is one of several social impact investment offerings that has spun out of the Center’s growing entrepreneurial ecosystem, which supports rural small businesses involved in the region’s tourism and outdoor recreation sectors through professional development, referrals to other service providers, commerce platforms to reach new markets, marketing and branding, and other tools and networks. The ecosystem is tied to a 20-year collaborative effort to grow the region’s nature tourism industry as a way to diversify rural economies, attract investment, inspire stewardship, improve quality of life and retain population. Local, state and federal partners from the public and private sectors are involved in the regional strategy.
As part of its ecosystem, the Center operates three physical mission-driven PA Wilds Conservation Shop gift stores in the region, which focus on selling locally made products from rural PA, and an online marketplace, ShopthePAwilds.com, that does the same. Through just this commerce platform, the Center says, it can see there is consumer demand for more locally made, PA Wilds branded products. The Artisan Collaborative will begin to help address this market gap. Artists accepted into the program will also be able to sell their products through their own channels.
Peters noted that this program could be a model for how larger and more established manufacturing companies can collaborate with cultural artists and newer entrepreneurs, creating benefits for both sides as new product lines are developed, production is scaled, and experience on both sides is gained. Peters said the hope is to expand the pilot in coming years and to include other types of artisans, manufacturers and products.
The Artisan Collaborative is being launched with funding support from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Richard King Mellon Foundation, the U.S. Economic Development Administration and the Appalachian Regional Commission.
More information can be found at WildsCoPA.org/artisan-collaborative.
ABOUT THE PA WILDS CENTER
The PA Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship, Inc., is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to integrate conservation and economic development in a way that inspires the communities of the Pennsylvania Wilds. The Pennsylvania Wilds is a 13-county region that includes the counties of Cameron, Clarion, Clearfield, Clinton, Elk, Forest, Jefferson, Lycoming, McKean, Potter, Tioga, Warren, and northern Centre. The PA Wilds Center promotes the region and its 2+ million acres of public lands as a premier outdoor recreation destination as a way to diversify local economies, inspire stewardship, attract investment, retain population and improve quality of life. The PA Wilds Center’s core programs seek to help businesses leverage the PA Wilds brand and connect with new market opportunities, including: the Wilds Cooperative of PA, a network of more than 575 place-based businesses and organizations, and the PA Wilds Conservation Shop, a retail outlet primarily featuring products sourced from the WCO. For more information on the PA Wilds Center, visit www.PAWildsCenter.org. To learn more about the WCO, visit www.WildsCoPA.org. Explore the PA Wilds at www.PAWilds.com. Find regionally made products at www.ShopThePAWilds.com.
Media Contact
Britt Madera | Communications Manager
PA Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship, Inc.
bmadera@pawildscenter.org | 570-948-1051
