Member & Partner Stories

“Creative Collective makes it easy to meet other business owners through networking that feels authentic, not forced. Its connection to the creative and artistic community has been a perfect fit for our organization.”

Beyond Walls has been a member of the Creative Collective since shortly after our inception. Given their knowledge and tools, ‘The Collective’ was a no-brainer to raise awareness of our mission, projects, and events. Based on the strength and track record of the Creative Collective we plan to continue our membership.

In addition to our membership, for the 2018 Beyond Walls Street Art Festival we contracted with John and his team to take on an expanded role in running the festival’s social media strategy; no small feat given our growth objectives and our need to not only promote participating artists and Beyond Walls signature events, but also the events of our festival partners. In total, the 14-day festival included 7 signature events and 41 partner events. The Collective put the right channels, tactics, and tools in motion with relevant messages and the right voice going out throughout.

With art, culture, creativity, and community being central to Beyond Walls work and with The Creative Collective sharing a vision that thriving culture and creative sectors support the sustainability of communities (and frankly, make the world a better place), we are excited to continue to work and partner with The Creative Collective. I give them my highest recommendation.

Creative Collective has been essential for my business tool kit since the start. Their support and resources have guided me in making effective decisions for my company. My business membership has provided exposure to other amazing local businesses, organizations and audiences, creating opportunities for connections and collaborations that have resulted in creative partnerships, with art, culture, creativity and community as a central and shared purpose.

What is there not to love about working with Creative Collective!? I recently partnered with them on our second block party event at PEM in July. Last year we got about 1,000 people and knew that attendees would be looking for even more this year. Creative Collective put together an incredible vendor fair, featuring a large number of their business members and businesses local to the North Shore. The fair started three hours before the event and drew a crowd right away! It was the perfect addition to the block party and really emphasized the community feel we were going for. I’m pretty sure there were a good number of people who came just for the vendor fair and ended up sticking around for the block party. We had over 4,000 people attend the event and it was great to see so many happy faces, vendors included. Creative Collective did a fantastic job of recruiting the vendors, helping them set up, and making sure the vendors had a positive experience. I can always trust the Creative Collective team with any task or project, because they always deliver. Thank you John, Roby, and Kati!

Our work with Creative Collective has been a valuable resource during the 350th anniversary of The House of the Seven Gables. Our membership with the Collective has helped us with classic events like Taste of The Gables, but has also supported us with making new community connections such as the seaside yoga events with Rebel Yell Yoga. The Gables also hired the Collective as consultants to support our first-ever Gables Fest event. Without Creative Collective, we never would have been able to make connections with the unique talents that made the celebration a success. As a community we are fortunate to have a talented group of creatives working for the greater cultural good of Salem and beyond.

When developing our company, Intramersive, we were faced with the issue of finding a way to describe our work in an emerging market unfamiliar to Salem, the North Shore, and even Boston. We immediately looked to the Creative Collective for advice, and got far more than we had ever anticipated. When it came to marketing our first show, Daemonologie, Creative Collective worked tirelessly to help us get our show information out to potentially interested attendees. From attending our rehearsals to have photo shoots with our actors, to promoting us on websites, blogs, and social media to boost our credibility online – Creative Collective gave us the boost most new companies could only wish for.

With their resources, connections, creative spirit, and unwavering support, Creative Collective has been invaluable to the growth and development of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival in Salem. Their outreach is phenomenal. Poets and writers typically work alone, so the festival brings together this community for a glorious weekend of words in Salem. John Andrews and his team know the landscape—digitally and locally. They have the strategies and skills to build and maintain a diverse and inclusive following, and to help a grassroots org like ours achieve national prominence. We wouldn’t be where we are today without the innovation and creative vision that Creative Collective brings to the table. Every. Single. Time.

I am over the moon to be a part of the Creative Collective with both my small businesses: Rebel Yell Yoga, and The Chaos Factor. My business partner, Lauren Recchia and I cannot say enough good things about the staff and the mission! We put together our first event with Creative Collective for April and the event sold out in less than 24 hours. Its so amazing to be part of a creative and supportive community!