Art Party's Ashley Misener (Image: submitted)
If you’re looking to try your hand at painting, you’ll be able to put brush to canvas at an Art Party next month.
The inspiration for Art Party grew from the Canvas & Cocktail nights, where Ashley Misener worked, and Paint Nite events uptown.
“I had never been able to get up in front of people before and I hadn’t really painted in front of anyone publicly,” she said. “This was really outside the box for me so I applied and I wound up getting the job and I loved it. I never expected it to be as exciting as it was.”
Misener started the business in 2017, focusing on doing events in the West Side and Grand Bay-Westfield area as well as hosting private art parties and even children’s birthday parties.
Art Party painting supplies (Image: submitted)
“I walked into the Buccaneer’s Pub one day and was looking for a place to host them and Pat, the owner of the Buccaneer’s Pub who just passed away recently, was in there,” she said. “I asked him about it and he got really excited,” she recalled. “He was as excited about it as I was.”
Prior to COVID-19, Art Party was held at the Oh My Soul and Journey Wellness Centre and the Grassroots Grill, in addition to Buccaneer’s Pub & Eatery. Misener shared she will host parties at Buccaneer’s Hampton location in the future.
During the lockdown she shifted to doing live-streamed parties to fend off stir-craziness and continue to socialize with people.
“We had some pretty big numbers on those, so that was kind of cool; I didn’t expect that to happen,” Misener said. “You’re having conversations with like fifty different people at a time, so it was nice to stay connected everybody during all that.”
Misener says it’s interesting to see how different people interpret the same instructions when painting. “Their pictures are completely unique when it’s done, but all the same at the same time. I think that part is kind of the fun part of it all,” said Misener.
Paintings done by children during a lockdown livestream party (Image: submitted)
She plans to keep up with and follow all the essential COVID-19 rules when booking private art parties next month, including symptom questions, contact tracing and safety inspections. “I’m assuming it’s probably going to mostly be family bubbles that would want to partake in it,” said Misener. “All my stuff will have to be sterilized and I’ll have the face shield and I have a microphone so you’ll still be able to hear me.”
“I won’t be able to come in and help people and get close up and show them things like I used to be able to, but I’m sure there’s going to be certain ways that we can work out certain things,” she said.
This story was originally published on Huddle.Today – an Acadia Broadcasting Limited content partner.
