The moment we've been waiting for has both come and went. We heard back about the final grant awarding and we were not one of the chosen projects. We want to take the time to congratulate the groups that did make it through to the last round of funding and thank Art is PHL for awarding us with a total of $2,500 toward the Supply Library circuit! So what now? As the driving force behind this project, I have had a few backup plans in motion to kick start if we did not receive funding through this very hopeful grant. Our next steps will involve setting up a Kickstarter campaign, moving into a physical space that will allow us to host paid workshops, and continue with supply swap meetings around Philly.
Our Kickstarter campaign will hopefully crowdfund the costs we will need to reach our base goal of installing 5 supply library bins around Philadelphia. The campaign will be launched in Febraury or early March, so we have time to put together the information to best represent the project for our community. A silver lining to not receiving the grant we proposed is that we did get accepted to run the Craft Coven events out of our very own studio space at Cherry Street Pier! We will be moving into the pier on February 1st and are taking the first 2 weeks to move all our donated tools and supplies into the space while creating a comfortable crafting atmosphere for you all! The Craft Coven will be located on the second floor in studio 14, and we already have events on our calendar for February in printmaking, yarn spinning, and mushroom crafting with the Mycology Club of Philadelphia. More specific info to come on these upcoming events set to go live February 1st. Lastly we are not abandoning the goal of spreading free supplies around Philly! They started with our quarterly Supply Swaps at Black Cat Tavern and they will continue as such. The next date for our supply swap is to be announced, but will for sure be early this Spring. Thank you everyone for your commitment to staying involved with this community endeavor. I'm confident that we can find the funds to move forward, we'll just have to be a bit more patient!