Members of the Arts Enterprise student organization are, as the name suggests, an enterprising lot.
Devoted to connecting the arts and business worlds to promote social growth, they can also unite the two
for their own entrepreneurial efforts.
"Because Arts Enterprise is grass-roots in nature, we want students to engage in all aspects of
creative entrepreneurship," said AE co-founder Dr. Nathaniel Zeisler, a Bowling Green State
University bassoon faculty member. "In our rapidly changing economy, there is a real opportunity
for artists to have a seat at the table in a true business setting."
This summer has seen activity on a number of fronts. BGSU senior Molly Swope, a music major and
bassoonist from Dayton, is preparing to launch an online business called Bravo Bassoon Reeds. She and
Zeisler will make reeds to sell. The plan is for Swope to take over the business and eventually employ
other students.
BGSU alumni Kyle Chandler and Wesley Parsell are handling the design and function of the business’s Web
site. The group met in a creativity and innovation class Zeisler taught in the College of Business
Administration’s entrepreneurship program. Chandler and Parsell are the owners of Twistup Media, a
full-service media studio.
Arts Enterprise has also been involved in the launch of what is hoped to become an annual community arts
event. Last month, bassoonist and AE member Chelsea Schumann produced, directed and performed at the
Northern Ohio Music Festival in her native North Olmsted.
"Here at the College of Musical Arts, we’re kind of spoiled in having so many quality performers to
hear. We don’t have that in my hometown, and especially not on the west side of Cleveland,"
Schumann said. The BGSU junior recruited her fellow music students as performers and rounded out the day
with activities sponsored by other community groups.
The festival experience, along with an AE trip to New Orleans last summer, "affirmed my feelings
about arts education and how important that is," she said. "It’s often downplayed in our
country. I’d like to work in arts advocacy, maybe on the national level."
Kristen Hoverman, a BGSU senior and original member of the AE chapter, has spent the summer researching
the "conceptual economy."
"We’re moving into an economy that’s based on ideas instead of marketing or even services," she
explained. Her survey has revealed a discontinuity in university programming between the arts and
entrepreneurship nationally. "The AE model, which is based in noncurricular learning, might provide
some continuity between the two," said the Van Wert native, a music performance major in flute and,
like Swope, an entrepreneurship minor.
Her study is funded through a grant from BGSU’s Center for Undergraduate Research and Scholarship. She
will present the results in October at the University research conference.
This weekend, the organization will hold its first summit, designed to prepare cross-disciplinary teams
of students, faculty and staff from other college campuses to start their own AE chapters. Six BGSU
students representing three colleges will attend the conference, to be held at the University of
Michigan.
