The Columbus Chamber and CD102.5 have partnered to bring the first business-themed podcast to Columbus. During cbuzz, host and local comedian Dan Swartwout will speak with local business owners and entrepreneurs and allow them to tell their story and highlight their organization, while further inspiring the entrepreneurial spirit that is buzzing in the city.
Of the interconnected web of titles Adam Brouillette holds – entrepreneur, musician, community collaborator – he first and foremost considers himself an artist.
“Growing up I always wanted to be an artist, that’s the only focus that I really had,” Brouillette said on a recent episode of the cbuzz podcast.
It’s many of his other endeavors that have grown out of being an artist, and the thing that when the hectic schedule settles, will always remain. Outside of his signature style of painting, Brouillette offers design services through his business littleINDUSTRIES, is a main organizer of the Independents’ Day Festival (among other community events), and is taking on a new adventure in shared studio space Blockfort.
During the podcast, Brouillette discusses how his time at CCAD was not only influential to his art, but taught him the critical thinking skills necessary to put a business around his work. He saw a connection between print making and business – doing due diligence and dissecting each piece step by step. It was about this time that his entrepreneurial spirit made itself apparent.
When he graduated in 2002, Brouillette chose to stay in Columbus, in a city that was still figuring out its sense of self, instead of heading for bigger metropolises like many of his classmates. He says many wanted to go be artists with a capital A – something he’s never considered himself.
Growing up, Brouillette says he was never the best in his art class, but he always had a strong interest in it. As for how that translates to now, “It’s a practice makes perfect sort of thing,” he says. “If you stop thinking of yourself like as artist with a capital A, and instead think of artist like ‘What does that mean?’ ‘How does that apply?’ it’s allowed me the flexibility of taking how I think and work as an artist to being a business person.”
During the podcast, Brouillette discusses the many collisions and collaborations of business and art in the city, including the Columbus Chamber’s The Art of Business. For the past two years, local business leaders have partnered with local artists to bring their quotes to the canvas.
Brouillette also dives further into what it means to be an artist and his journey as one, and why so many of his fellow CCAD grads are headed back to Columbus.
“This is people moving back because Columbus is smart,” he says. “It’s thinking in a way that is progressive and it’s thinking it a way that’s collaborative, and I think that that’s really a lot to do with the creative industries in Columbus.”
Listen to the full podcast below!
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