Today we’d like to introduce you to Adrianna Touch.
Hi Adrianna , please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
We started talking about Easyside in the summer of 2022, when three of our four co-founders (Adrianna, Fernando, and Corrie) graduated from the MFA program where we had become friends. We wanted to find a way to continue our artistic practice and share resources with the local art community. Our fourth cofounder, John Paul, had noticed families in his neighborhood on the East side of Fort Worth struggling to put food on the table during the pandemic. He read a 2019 UT Southwestern study that found that the 76104 zip code of Fort Worth had the shortest life expectancy in the state of Texas, which really motivated us to do our part in feeding the neighborhood – both nutritionally and creatively. The four of us started to form a vision of having an art space that could also function as a community center for East Fort Worth. We wanted to enrich the lives of artists by providing studio space and a gallery for contemporary experimental work and also opening up a small pantry to help nourish neighbors.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We are a young organization, so we are still finding our footing in a lot of ways. Funding has been a constant challenge for us. We do not yet qualify for a lot of grants, since our organization is barely three years old. Regular funding comes from our studio fees, fundraisers, and donations from our small but mighty donor base. We also don’t have prior experience with nonprofit management, so every new event and season requires a lot of learning. This makes us more dependent on our network, asking for advice and practical help to get things done. As a result, we work very scrappy and with a low budget to fund our studios, curatorial projects, food pantry, and educational workshops. This mode of working strengthens our creative problem solving, but can limit the vision we set for ourselves.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Easyside is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit nurturing artists and their neighbors through food, workspaces, exhibitions, and education.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Being in community is the core value we hold. One of our main goals at Easyside is to support artists, and we believe that being in community is the best way to do that. Art is not created in a vacuum; it’s how we connect with the world and how we are influenced by one another. We are trying to overcome a scarcity mindset in terms of artists’ opportunities, focusing instead on sharing resources and ideas. In a similar way, we are trying to create a sense of abundance in terms of practical needs, by providing access to fresh food and other resources as we can find them, here on the east side of town. We think art and food are two kinds of nourishment that people need to live a full and complete life, and we are working to enrich our community through access to both of them.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://easyside.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/easysidefw/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/easysidefw
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/easyside/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@easysidefw
Image Credits
John Paul Thompson, Cedars Union, Evie Marie Bishop
