Today we’d like to introduce you to Evan Snow.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
Sure, at the end of the day, I’m just a regular guy whose extremely passionate about pursuing my passions and making my community a better place to live. I’m a Native South Floridian hailing from Coral Springs in Broward County and the long and short end of it is, I was tired of always having to go to Miami and West Palm for cool stuff to do. After moving to Downtown FTL, I immersed myself into community and became somewhat of a “Culture Crusader” after discovering a passion for exploring art, food and music culture in the form of events. These experiences instantly became extremely more enjoyable for me in my late 20’s than watching sports was for me growing up and I couldn’t go to enough events. I also knew this feeling couldn’t be exclusive to me and there were others yearning for these experiences.
This lead to friends urging me to start an event calendar, something that I initially scoffed at but eventually, realized it was a good idea as I was following all of the platforms out there and consolidating the information to determine which I felt was worth attending for me and my friends. After attending an inspiring talk by a noteworthy local speaker who urged the audience to “be genuine, be authentic and pursue your passions”, I started a food blog called “Snows Stops”. In the year leading up to this, I had begun taking pictures of food from the restaurants I was stopping at and posting a few on Facebook, but I wasn’t really “doing anything with it”. So, at the suggestion of a friend who had been blogging, I started “Snows Stops” food blog to document the places that “Snow Stops At”.
Fast forward, food blogging got me invited to go to events, going to events got me connected with marketing and PR folks, connecting with these marketing and PR folks made me realize “I could do these events too”. Being an I.T. recruiter, I would attend a lot of networking events and I feel that meeting/speaking to tons of people daily, helped me become a better net-worker, which ultimately helped me get the word out about what we’re doing now with Choose954.
As I’m in the midst of food blogging, I traveled to Memphis where my roommates are from for the “World Championship BBQ Festival” during their “Memphis in May” festival and witnessed first-hand the effects of their Choose901 campaign. Memphis has real problems being home to some of the roughest neighborhoods in the country, and I learned Choose901 was a platform used to help recruit teachers/paramedics/firefighters to live & work in Memphis. Having seen the effects, the campaign had on the community, I came back super charged and motivated from listening extensively to Gary Vaynerchuck (aka Gary Vee) and decided to launch Choose954 as a social movement to Cultivate Culture & Community in Broward County where I’m proud to be from.
Initially I was primarily doing social media, curating culture and trying to figure out how to get the event piece off the ground when I met my future business partner, Andrew Martineau at a Tower Club event. He overheard what I was describing about Choose954 after the event and we started meeting at the Tower Club to explore synergies further. Little did I know this chance interaction would change my life, our community, and inevitably the art fair world as a result.
Long story short, Andrew was me 10 years before me, though before social media and he was way more involved with sitting on multiple boards and contributing to government organizations/initiatives as the local American Advertising Federation chapter president. So, when we got to the point in the conversation where I said, “I want to do a big event for the community, I want to do a ‘Basel in Broward’ type of event” he was already there mentally and waiting for someone to collaborate with him on an idea he had in mind, which ended up being Art Fort Lauderdale – “The Art Fair on The Water”.
Fast forward two years later, we are partners on all of our initiatives, and having met most of the folks I needed to meet around town I can honestly say I couldn’t have found a better partner. He introduced me to the concept of altruism, which I might have been already practicing, but helped put the importance of being altruistic (and patient) with our community building efforts and supporting the arts.
Please tell us about your art.
So, people ask me all the time if I’m an artist, and I can honestly tell you I’m not. I actually can’t draw a circle close, but I have a ton of talented artist friends that can! With art having had such a profound impact on my life by immersing myself into these experiences and culture, I wanted to share these experiences with my community while creating something unique for the 954. We’ve never had a major 4-day art fair like the Miami Art Week (“Art Basel”) fairs, and with the lack of a diverse gallery scene in Broward, we realized there needed to be a major platform for our local artists to showcase their work and get discovered. These thoughts, in addition to proactively deciding to highlight the unique characteristics of Fort Lauderdale in an effort to put us on the map, lead to the creation of Art Fort Lauderdale – “The Art Fair on The Water”.
Viewing art inside confined spaces like convention centers and under tents has become more of a purely commercial and transactional environment that lacks memorable experiences and is void of opportunities for thought, reflection and contemplation.
Our 4-day curated art fair transports attendees on a journey along the famed Las Olas Intracoastal waterways via water taxi and private yacht with stops at vacant multimillion dollar waterfront properties that feature individual artists and galleries exhibiting various styles and methods of art that reflect the past, the present and the future.
So, what exactly does this look like? An Art Fair, on the water, in Fort Lauderdale? Well, the journey begins at the Bahia Mar Yachting Center – home to the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show where guests wait in the Captain’s Quarters Lounge for a water taxi or private yacht to take them on an artistic journey of discovery through multiple vacant luxury waterfront properties where they can view, interact with and purchase art of all kinds. The water taxi is chartered on a custom route that continually rotates all day throughout the waterways of the intracoastal, which allows attendees to stay for as long as they like at each property and gives them time to contemplate and anticipate what they saw and what they hope to see on the next stop.
From artist talks to paintings to art installations, guests get the opportunity to view & interact with art in a natural setting like they’ve never experienced before, and an environment where art eventually lives.
As an artist, how do you define success and what quality or characteristic do you feel is essential to success as an artist?
To stay authentic and genuine, stay true to the forces and inspiration that got you to where you are, and don’t sell out or go commercial for money.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
The last week of January! Every year! This year will be January 24th-27th, for tickets and more information you can log on to www.artftlauderdale.com. People can support by telling a friend to tell a friend, by participating or volunteering, and of course by sponsoring!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.artftlauderdale.com
- Phone: 9543614998
- Email: evans@artftlauderdale.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/artftlauderdale
- Facebook: facebook.com/artftlauderdale
- Twitter: twitter.com/artftlauderdale
Image Credit:
Evan Snow
Getting in touch: VoyageMIA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
