Linked Up
February 2025
Greetings!
The team is ecstatic to share all of the good things happening here in our community with you, our NoCo family. We pray you have been thriving this winter & looking ahead to the future with hope & great expectation. We understand it has been a difficult season for many. God has recently been bringing me back to this scripture, & I pray it resonates with you in the same way.
“Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints & seek to show hospitality.
Bless those who persecute you; bless & do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.”
– Romans 12:10-18
To live like the apostle Paul suggests can become quite challenging when we are face to face with the reality of our ever-changing circumstances & the diversity of thought we encounter daily. While humility & empathy may appear as weakness to some, the truth is that we have the strength & the power to push back the darkness around us & awaken people to hope & truth when we respond like Jesus. So far as it depends on you, choose to be a peacemaker; you will start to reshape your environment & bring heaven to earth.
Open Studios
A Visual Voice
Amanda Wicker, aka Panda’s Palette, is a highly-gifted professional artist & longtime member of the NoCo community. It was a huge honor to host her as this month’s workshop instructor for Open Studios! From basic line work to choosing a complementary color palette, Amanda’s class focused on how to study & apply different techniques to develop a unique art style or “visual voice.”
"Your artistic style is what makes your work feel like you. It's what makes a Picasso feel like a Picasso, & a Hitchcock feel like a Hitchcock.”
– Christine Nishiyama, How to Develop Your Unique Artistic Style
We deeply appreciate the insights Amanda brought to the class! Please take a moment to follow Amanda on social media & check out her work! Let’s support & promote the amazing artists in our community together.
March & More
Open Studios is The Novelty Collective’s art program for adults every fourth Saturday of the month. The next one will be held on March 22. You are free to drop in on your own time & work on whatever you choose. Workshops are always free, & participation is optional. To learn more & add our program schedule to your preferred digital calendar, visit the link below:
Open Studios is the perfect opportunity to try something new—whether you are interested in expanding your artistic horizons, teaching a workshop, or volunteering with the NoCo team! We are always looking for coordinators to help run Open Studios & artists to teach workshops. If you are interested in either of these roles, please tap the link below to apply!
NoCo Fest 2024
There is no end to all the good things we have to say about The Novelty Collective Music & Arts Festival 2024. It was a distinctly special experience, even among the other festivals NoCo has hosted in the past. It is with great pleasure we now present to you the epic highlight video produced by our friend & colleague Oluwatosin Adebayo of Good Sabbath Studios & all the amazing photos captured by Jacob Kyriazis on the NoCo Fest 2024 Photo Gallery page:
Mother’s Day Art Market
If you read our January newsletter, you might recall that we are making Mother’s Day Art Market an annual event! Mother’s Day Art Market is a one-day festival celebrating the creative moms in the NoCo community. It’s a great opportunity for mothers to share their artwork & for others to buy some beautiful handmade gifts for the mothers in their lives. There will also be mother-led creative workshops open for anyone interested to hop in & learn a new skill. We hope to see you there!
Mother’s Day Art Market will be at The COVE Art Center on Saturday, May 3, 2025.
Applications for Mother’s Day Art Market are now open. If you are a mother & an artist, we encourage you to apply, either as a vendor or a workshop instructor—or both!
Audiofeed Festival
This summer during Independence Day weekend, The Novelty Collective will once again be partnering with another arts community to host a four-day festival in Urbana, Illinois. Audiofeed Festival is a massive gathering of DIY performers, speakers, & artisans from all across the nation. We personally love the support they bring to the arts & the family-oriented atmosphere of the event. It is a huge privilege for us to bring what we do to this awesome fest! Our team will be running The Novelty Collective Art Market, where visual artists will display & sell their original artwork in a cozy space central to the festival fairgrounds. We highly recommend you visit the Audiofeed website & poke around their Instagram account.
If you would like to apply to the NoCo Art Market at Audiofeed, tap the link below!
Compelling “In-sites”
Since we introduced The Novelty Collective website in 2021, we have been adding more & more content, updating our language, & making incremental changes to improve the user experience. It has been a slow & steady process, but all of the elements are really coming together in a big way after the big push we made to clean it up over the past two months.
*I am not a professional web designer, but I am super proud of what I’ve been able to accomplish for the organization!
Volunteer Portal
Up & Running! Under “Partner With Us” in the main navigation bar on the NoCo website, you will find our new Volunteer Portal with a link to apply for any available position within our organization. Our core team is small, & we can always use more help. With so many areas of ministry to choose from with such a wide range of commitment levels, we believe there is something here for everyone.
Volunteering for The Novelty Collective is an opportunity to work, to play, & to grow alongside a team of passionate creatives who are dedicated to making a positive impact on the beautiful community God has entrusted to us. That community starts here in the North Boroughs of Pittsburgh & extends far beyond the State of Pennsylvania. In the nine years since our organization was established, we have served hundreds of middle school & high school students, young families, starting artists, & other individuals who have benefited from seeing & experiencing the love of God through our programs & events. But it all hinges on the folks who are willing to say “yes” when the call goes out to take a leap of faith & give this thing a try. We believe God equips those whom He has called, & He can do a lot more with your “yes” than you might ever imagine!
If you feel a nudge to apply, here is the link to our volunteer portal:
Explore, Save, & Share!
As we continue to post blog entires, announce upcoming events, & upload more visual content to our website, we hope you will keep checking back to see what’s new! Bookmark our home page & help spread the word about what we are doing here in Pittsburgh by sharing with friends & family so we can keep caring for our young people, supporting artists, & sharing the love of Christ!
In Conclusion
The Novelty Collective has been going through some changes recently. In some ways, we are starting fresh with new systems & infrastructure that will strengthen our organization for long-term sustainability. In other ways, we are reestablishing methods & programs that produced wonderful fruit & tremendous success in the past. As we continue to operate in faith to move these things forward, we hope you will be praying for us.
Thank you for your support & for being a part of the NoCo family. We would love to see you at one of our programs or events this year! Don’t hesitate to reach out to us with questions, pray requests, or practical needs.
Blessings,
The NoCo Team
Article written by Jordan A. King
