Unbelievably, it’s been a year and a half since federal arts funding and humanities grants across the U.S. were abruptly canceled. In the wake of this decision, arts organizations and cultural institutions have scaled back or even halted their work altogether. Despite a general atmosphere of uncertainty, many are fighting back, determined to persevere.

Since its inception, Crewest Studio—the production house behind NOT REAL ART and its sister organization, ArtsvilleUSA—has pursued one core mission: to help artists tell their stories and promote their work. Led by Scott “Sourdough” Power, Crewest has produced podcasts, launched television projects, and published books, all self-funded and free from paywalls, subscriptions, or advertising.

Now, Crewest Studio is entering a new era with the launch of Arterial, a nonprofit grantmaking arm designed to keep artists’ stories alive and accessible to everyone. Today, Scott sits down with Morgan Laurens, editor-in-chief for both NOT REAL ART and ArtsvilleUSA, to talk about fiscal sponsorship, grantmaking, and the future of arts funding.

Episode Credits

Hosts: Scott “Sourdough” Power

Guest: Morgan Laurens, editor-in-chief, NOT REAL ART, ArtsvilleUSA

Production: Crewest Studio, Los Angeles

Fiscal Sponsorship: Arterial

Theme Music: Ricky Peugeot & Desi DeLauro of Parlor Social

Stay in the Loop: Subscribe to NOT REAL ART and follow on Instagram for coverage of the latest projects and exhibitions.

Greetings and salutations, my creative brothers and sisters.

Welcome to Not Real Art, the podcast where we talk to the world's most creative people.

I am your host.

Faithful, trusty, loyal, tireless, relentless host.

Sourdough coming at you from Crew West Studio in Los Angeles.

Man, do.

We have a special show for you today.

A real true vip.

She's not often on the show, but she has to deal with me every day.

Our one and only editor in chief, Morgan Lawrence.

Hey, Morgan.

Hi, Scott.

Glad to be here.

This is fantastic.

You have to deal with me on the phone and via email, via text, and you don't often come on the show, but when you do, it's a special day.

I'm honored.

I'm grateful, because I know you have better things to do.

You're right.

I wasn't doing anything when you called me.

You had nothing.

You had nothing else better going on.

Yeah.

Right.

Well, I am thrilled, and I sort of put you on the spot because I have actually some exciting, special news to share with you.

Yeah, I'm super excited to hear what you have to say because I know that something's been brewing behind the scenes, and I want to hear all about it.

Yeah, you've been hearing inklings, you know, a little.

Little.

But, you know, I wanted to sort of share the big story with you publicly here so that, you know, the world can.

Can know, because I know the world is listening.

And.

And I.

And I, you know, and I'm thrilled and I'm grateful, and I'm excited about it, and I just wanted to share it with you personally.

And it's also super relevant and important to the work we do together, to our mission of helping artists tell their stories and promote their work.

And.

And I think that it's really important for the people that are listening and that are fans of our work to know what's going on, because it's a bit of a game changer, you know, and to tell the story, I want to go sort of three steps back, because, as you know, and people may or may not know, listening, you know, not Real art is a sort of creation production of my company, Crew West Studio.

And Crew West Studio is based here in Los Angeles.

Crew West Studio grew out of our gallery, Crew West Gallery, and we founded Crew West Studio, you know, a few years back, really, with a mission to help artists tell their stories and promote their work.

And more specifically, we want to be a media, entertainment media company dedicated to the arts.

And that includes things like podcasts and the show, specifically, and other shows we do like, you know, Laugh Gallery or the Conduit or Artsville USA and you know, just, you know, art world horror stories.

I mean, we, we've done a lot of different podcasts over the years and.

But in addition to the podcast that Crew West Studio produces, you know, we develop and produce other kinds of content and material dedicated to the arts.

We've developed a TV show called Art House that people have heard me talk about on this show.

It's an unscripted show where real people meet real artists to buy real art without breaking the bank.

We have a wonderful project with a Steinway artist classic Black Celebrating Black Excellence in Classical Music with Steinway artist Ricky Pageau.

We've published books, we've published award winning books.

We've published two Tickets to Paradise, From Cult to Comedy.

It's an amazing book, award winning.

It's the story of a comic, the making of an artist, in this case a comedian who transcend Katie Love, the one and only Katie Love.

She's been on the show and her story is amazing.

I mean, the tragedy that she has transcended and found healing in her art is an awe inspiring story.

And so we published her book, we have some other books that we've published and so we have documentary movies we're working on.

I just signed another project the other day with some writers that want to tell the story of the artist who created Wedgwood, the British china brand, ceramic brand.

Fascinating.

Yeah, super fascinating.

More to come on that.

But, you know, as passionate and mission driven as we are, you know, to build this, you know, media entertainment company dedicated to the arts and you know, my little elevator pitch, you know, I like to say that if you're a sports fan, you have espn.

If you're a news junkie, you have cnn.

If you're evangelical Christian, you have Trinity Broadcasting Network.

But you know, if you're an artist or an art lover, an arts enthusiast or creative person, where do you go?

What do we have, you know, to go get our content?

You know, we gotta hunt for it, right?

It's spread across, you know, YouTube or any number of things and maybe PBS or NPR.

I was gonna say PBS.

Yeah, well, we love PBS, right?

And we've done, we've done work with them, but we have, you know, so, so, so Crew West Studio.

I founded Crew Studio to really be part of the solution to develop and produce content in the service of the arts.

You know, ultimately to, as I say, help artists tell their stories and promote, promote their work.

So, you know, I think it's A worthy cause.

We're obviously passionate about it.

We're obviously committed to it.

We've been doing it for years now, you know, and we, you know, but it's challenging.

It's challenging Media entertainment's challenging period, even in the best of times, let alone now in this sort of digital revolution that we're all living in, whether it's YouTube or TikTok or what have you.

And so, you know, making, you know, money in this context has always been challenging.

And of course, because of our commitment to trying to democratize art and, you know, we.

We are passionate about keeping our content free to consume.

We don't really put our stuff behind paywalls.

We don't really do subscriptions, and we don't sell advertising.

And so, you know, so what does that mean?

Well, it really means that we're, you know, sort of limiting our revenue potential, which is fine, because, again, we're mission driven.

And so.

So funding our work historically has really been about, you know, Crew West Studio underwriting its own work and, you know, and believing that it will someday pay off, not just spiritually, but also financially and fiscally.

And, you know, that's been.

That's for sure.

What's that?

I was gonna.

I was saying it's good karma.

Good karma.

Right.

We're trying to, you know, we're trying to, you know, redeem ourselves from our past sins.

You know, what.

What can we say?

But yes, it's.

It's.

We, We.

We.

We.

We're in it for the right reasons, I think, and we're passionate about it.

I can't imagine doing myself doing anything else.

Can you imagine doing anything else, Morgan?

Well, I can't imagine that because I.

Because I have done other things, but I'm very grateful to be.

Good.

Good.

Well, that makes me feel good.

You know, you always know the.

The right things to say when.

When we're talking.

I. I love that you make me feel good.

And joking aside, you know, we are just really committed to this.

And.

But the reality is, the fiscal reality is that, you know, we can't grow unless we figure out how to bring additional money in.

You know, Crew West Studio, my company, can't ultimately keep funding things into perpetuity.

You know, we have to bring in money to.

To grow, and we can bring in private money.

We can try to raise money through, you know, you know, venture capital or private equity or angel funding.

You know, the problem with that, of course, is, you know, once you start bringing in outside money, you've got to start answering to the people that write those checks and they're very concerned about making their money back and making it back quickly.

And that's fine, that's capitalism for you.

But it's not necessarily always going to align with our values.

And our values are very different.

And so we had to make a choice a couple of years ago to, well, we had to think about what we were going to do, how we were going to really help raise the money that we needed to raise to grow and fund these projects because quite frankly, the company can't keep doing it into perpetuity.

So two years ago we decided that we would found a non profit organization dedicated to the arts.

A R T E R I a l arterial.org and we are really proud of Arterial and the good work that we're doing.

And the mission of Arterial is to help artists tell their stories and foster these stories.

And really what I mean by that is helping fund these stories, raising money to help artists, you know, tell the stories they want to tell.

And so the last couple of years we've been working very hard to, you know, to do exactly that.

And we've been under the radar.

We've been very proud.

You know, we've been sort of just doing our work, very quiet about what we've been doing.

But I'm really proud of the work we've done so far.

We have given grants.

You know, we're a grant making organization.

Ultimately we give grants away to artists and arts organizations to help them tell their stories.

And oh, by the way, you mentioned PBS.

One of the first things we did two years ago was give PBS, SoCal PBS here in Southern California.

We gave them a $10,000 grant for their Emmy Award winning show Artbound.

They were launching their new season.

They were falling a little short to kind of, you know, host some premiere events for their first two seasons or first two episodes of the new season.

And so we were able to give them a grant that was very meaningful to them.

We helped PBS, SoCal, PBS tell their stories.

And that was one grant that we were very grateful to give.

Another grant that we were happy to give was to an artist in New York, Logan Hicks, who's also been on the show, he and his filmmaking friend who's another artist, Jeremy Chelnick.

Jeremy and Logan were about $10,000 short of for a documentary that they were doing about an art project there in New York.

And we were able to give them a grant for their project called the underbelly project.

And so now they're working hard to get that movie out into the world.

And so this is what Arturial is about, you know, and Arturo is a nonprofit.

We want to give grants, we want to help organizations tell and artists tell their stories because so much of it is about funding, so much of it is about, you know, they need money to do their work.

And you know, Crew west studios is ultimately a for profit company.

I mean, we hopefully someday want to make a buck and turn a profit.

So.

But, but Crew us Studio is.

Is a.

Is a maker, is a creator, is a storyteller, as a producer.

And we're a for profit organization.

And, and because we struggle, you know, to.

To find funding for our projects, we know other artists are.

Are struggling to find money for their project.

So we thought standing up a nonprofit, arterial.

Arterial.

Arterial.org would be a great way to help do that.

And so we have been working very hard to.

To, you know, to.

To tell the world about this.

We've been working hard on our.

On our, you know, on our mission.

And now we're really coming out.

You know, we really.

That's why I wanted to talk to you today because I wanted to tell you that we're getting.

We're going to kick off our big fundraising campaign this fall.

I'm going to tell you a little bit more about that.

We're very excited about the project that we did or doing with Edovo, which a story just broke on the blog notrelark.com that you did such a fantastic job.

So we'll talk about that in a minute.

But one of the cool things, and this is a big lead up to the big news that I wanted to tell you is that arterials board.

Okay, I mean, art, I founded Arturo, but we have a board.

We're governed by a board and of directors.

And the board of directors for Arturial have agreed to give not realart.com of fiscal sponsorship.

And what that means is that people, our listeners today and others can choose to underwrite and support our work, give us a donation and receive a tax deduction for that donation.

And it is a wonderful way for our fans and our followers to help us underwrite our work, get that tax benefit.

And we're able to do that because of this fiscal sponsorship that we have through Arturial.

And you know, it's a new day for us.

Morgan and I just, you know, I wanted to be sure that, you know, you were the first person I told and I wanted to do it on the podcast so that our listeners know that as well, and they know that they can support your good work and our good work.

That's amazing.

I mean, I can't imagine how much work it must have taken to stand that all up and right in time for.

It's giving season.

It's about to be giving season.

It is.

It is, Yes.

I think the official date for giving season is November 1st through the end of the year.

It's sort of the last two months.

November.

December.

Yes.

Yes.

We're sort of kicking off our fundraising season October 1st, so to speak.

Arterial is.

Arterial is going to be publishing its first impact report in October.

We're doing our.

We're.

We're.

We're going to be releasing our brand video very soon, which I'll talk about in a minute.

Oh, I can't wait to see that.

And, but, but you and I will be together in Asheville, North Carolina, October 14th with our.

With the colleagues there.

And I need to be careful because I say we a lot.

And people, listeners are like, wait a minute, are we talking about Crew West?

Are we talking about Arterial?

I'm saying that Arterial, the nonprofit that I founded that's governed by our board of directors, is.

Is embarking on its big fundraising campaign.

And, and I want to say that because it will.

We will be raising Arturo, will be raising money for.

Not relaunch.

It will be raising money for.

For other projects like Artsville usa.

And Artsville USA is a wonderful, important project that was actually donated to Arturial by a artist and businesswoman in Asheville, North Carolina, a woman called Louise Glickman.

And she had founded this wonderful platform called Artsville usa that was a combination of a pot of a.

Of a blog, an online blog, and a podcast.

And it really, it aligned with the mission of Arturial because it wanted.

It was working hard to help artists in the Asheville area, in the western North Carolina area, help them tell their stories and promote their work.

And I remember she sort of said, well, if people can't come to Asheville, I want to bring Asheville to them.

And the, the podcast and the blog was, was a wonderful way of doing that.

And, and, but, you know, she's retiring.

She wanted to slow down, and she decided that gifting and donating Art School usa, her life's work, to Arturial, would give it the best chance for a future.

And so now Arterial Art School USA is an official program of Arterial, and we are going to be fundraising for Artsville USA as well.

And you And I.

You.

You support Artsville USA as well as I do, as a writer and an editor.

I do.

And so you and I will be in Asheville raising some money for it.

We are going to be raising money for a very cool barn quilt project we've been working on for.

Oh, how long have we been working on this project?

It feels like forever now.

But we're working on sort of documenting and restoring some of the quilt trails in western North Carolina, which, I mean, there are quilt trails all over the country, I think in maybe 47 of the 48 states.

But just since quilting is such a big thing in the area, and this is such a.

The trails are such a.

Such a cultural touchstone there that they kind of got.

The trails kind of got destroyed during Hurricane Helene.

And so we are trying to help with a little bit of the documentation and recovery of these barn quilt squares that are so plentiful in that area.

Yes, it's an incredible story of preservation and conservation and cultural preservation and conservation.

And it's exactly the kind of work that.

That we.

That we, you, our colleagues across both, well, Arturial, of course, and Crew west, you know, we're passionate about these kinds of stories.

And now our listeners and people can support this work very directly by going to arterial.org making a donation, they can go to artsvilleusa.com make a donation.

And to the extent that they want to support not real art, they can go to notrealart.com and make a donation, or to arturial.org and make a donation.

And, you know, that money, 80.

80 Cents of every dollar goes to these.

To our work, to the work.

And that's so important because our impact, we want to make.

We want to optimize our impact.

And to do that, we make sure that we keep our overhead down, we keep, you know, we keep our costs down so that, you know, the bulk of our donations could go straight to the work.

Let me be clear.

I don't take a salary.

I'm a volunteer.

We don't lease an office space.

We don't have some big office.

We, you know, fancy space.

We.

We work from home.

You know, we work, you know, we're very lean in me.

We're so small but mighty.

And.

And I think that's a really important part of our story for people to know.

And, you know, and it's.

It.

Like I said, I mean, we're doing.

We're doing this because we're passionate about helping artists tell their stories, whether those artists are, you know, in Asheville North Carolina, or whether they're in one of all 50 states.

Because, by the way, because of your good work and the good work that we've done together over the last several years, notrealart.com now has supported artists in all 50 states.

That doesn't surprise me at all.

Congratulations, my friend.

Very, very, very meaningful.

Good work there.

I talked to a lot of artists from different places over the years.

Yes, yes, yes.

Yeah, that sounds, you know, I think our database of artists was basically zero.

Our official database.

I mean, we know, you know, lots and lots of artists, but, you know, now I think our database is like, We've got almost 8,000 artists in our database, generally speaking, and that's in all 50 states, you know, artists in all 50 states.

So it's wonderful that we've been able to.

To pull, you know, do, do, do add value and.

And serve these artists such that they want to.

To lean in and.

And throw in with us.

Yes, we're very lucky.

We are very, very lucky.

Very lucky.

And so, you know, I want the.

I'm just so grateful that you.

That you had time today to sit down and talk.

I wanted our listeners and everybody to know the.

The kind of.

The backstory here a little bit in turn, the origin story of the difference.

You know, like why I started Crew West Studio and then why I started the nonprofit.

These are two very different organizations with a common cause, but very different roles to play.

You know, Crew West Studio is meant to make and produce stories about art and artists.

And Arturial is meant to raise money to help fund storytellers in the arts.

And whether you're making a movie or making a.

Publishing a book or a blog or, you know, telling the story of the barn quilts.

You know, people can support this good work through Arturial and give a donation and receive a tax deduction as a result of that.

And they can either do that directly through arterial.org through artsvilleusa.com or not.

Realart.com.

And a silence filled the room.

Go make a donation.

Is that what that was?

I was supposed to say, go make a donation.

Go make a donate.

Yes, people, get, get, get, get go.

Now.

Don't hesitate.

Make a donation.

It all adds up.

$5, $10, A million dollars, whatever you can spare.

I should add that there.

There is information about all the projects that we're working on.

On Arterial minus the barn quilt project.

I think there'll be more information out about that soon.

Yes, yes, that's coming.

More, more, more.

Yeah, we're foreshadowing a little bit here, but yeah, that's very much in the works, but it's something that will.

Oh, it's be.

Be made public very soon.

It's.

It's bubbling.

It's bubbling.

Yeah, yeah, it's bubbling.

It's bubbling.

And by the way, I should say while we're talking about it, that we'll be debuting the Arterial brand video in LA November 4th.

We're actually having, you know, Arturial has, as I said, has been very much under the radar.

I didn't feel like our story was good enough yet to sort of tell, and this summer really changed that because of the Edovo Project, which we should talk about for a moment.

And as a result of the Edovo project, I feel like, okay, now is the time for us to kind of go public.

And so November 4th here in Los Angeles, we're going to be having our first Arterial salon where we're bringing leaders from the arts and culture sector together, along with donors and friends and family and philanthropists to come together and, you know, tell them our story and encourage them to support our work.

And that'll be November 4th, and we're going to debut our brand video there, which is going to.

Is very exciting.

And by the way, Ricky Pageau is going to be performing, you know, Steinway artist.

He's going to be playing.

Oh, I'm not going to get to see that.

Yeah, well, we'll have to bring him.

We'll have to bring him to, to, to your neighborhood there in the Midwest.

That would be amazing.

I thought you were going to bring art house to the Midwest.

I need some art in my house.

Yeah, well, you know, that's.

That, that's happening.

Too slow.

But sure, you know, all these things take time.

We have so many things going on, which is exciting.

I know, but we're going to.

One of the story.

One of the things that we're going to be talking about at the event here in LA November 4th is the Edovo project.

And you know, the Edovo project was something that really for me was the, was the proverbial straw in a positive way because it really allowed us.

I felt like, okay, now we have our story's good enough to tell.

And essentially Edovo, for people who don't know Edovo, and maybe many people don't, but Edovo is a proprietary educational platform designed specifically for incarcerated men and women.

And so if you're an incarcerated person in one of the thousands of facilities, correctional facilities in the US and you are trying to rehabilitate, re educate, reskill, trying to grow and learn and become a better person, obviously knowledge, education, learning is so critical.

And of course, arts education is a part of that.

And the EDOVO platform is the educational platform that incarcerated men and women are able to access when they're inside to help reskill, relearn, and re educate.

And it's all kinds of educational content on the EDOFO platform.

But we were invited to participate with our content.

So a good friend, colleague, artist, friend of the show, Aaron Yoshi, who has been on the show many times and has even guest hosted.

Years ago, Erin and her organization had been working with the DOVO to create some arts educational programming, and they were working with incarcerated women in particular to make art and make murals and paint murals on some of these facilities.

And it just was a wonderful story.

And she said, you know, Scott, she said, I think that not real arts content and some of its podcasts and videos, educational videos that we have in the not Real arts school, you know, a lot of these things would be really, really, you know, relevant and meaningful, you know, to these men and women.

And by the way, no small number, 1.1 million incarcerated men and women now have access to our content.

We were able to, through arterial, through our nonprofit, we were able to license and underwrite the licensing of over 50 hours of content at, not relaur content, podcast videos, artist interviews, things that, that now these men and women can watch, read, listen, learn, grow, and become better people.

And then it goes towards their parole, ultimately, when they're up for, you know, interview and, and, you know, for their parole.

So it's, it's just such a. I'm so grateful.

I'm so proud of this.

I.

And, and it was the one thing that, that I really felt like, you know, put us on the map, you know, the nonprofit in particular.

So that's why we're coming out and we're telling the story.

We want people to know, not well, we want them to know about edo, but we want to know about that.

Good work.

But want them to know that Arterial really helped make that happen.

In partnership with Aaron Yoshi and Lunar Soul, her organization.

And we're going to tell that story at our November 4th event.

Aaron's going to come and address the crowd.

For everyone listening, you can read the story on not real art now because the story came out yesterday.

So you don't have to wait.

But I do think it's interesting.

One thing I want to note that I don't think that you mentioned, but I think it's interesting that a lot of these classes are more aimed at the business side of being an artist.

Yes.

Rather than.

Because, I mean, excuse me, I have.

They have a lot of classes where you can, like, learn to paint, draw, you know, sculpt all of these things already.

But I don't think they had much in the way of, you know, marketing, pitching, copyright, just maybe some solid career advice from working artists that we've talked to over the years, because we have a lot of that.

Oh, I'm so glad you mentioned that, Morgan, because that's exactly right.

There were a lot of.

There's a lot of content on there, on the.

On the how and the.

In the.

In the making of art, you know, how to.

How to draw, how to paint, you know, that kind of thing.

But to the extent that these artists were trying to support themselves and support their families by, you know, selling art or making, you know, making and selling art, and, and, you know, they just.

There was nothing on the platform that really got to that kind of business acumen, the business educational pieces.

And so we actually have a lot of that stuff that's kind of been a reoccurring theme of what we talk about here at Not Real Art.

And you're exactly right.

Now they have access to videos and podcasts that address things like copyright and intellectual property and marketing and branding and licensing.

All the fun stuff.

All of the fun stuff.

That's right.

But, yeah, and we're proud of it.

You know, anything we can do to.

To help people become better people, we're.

We're honored and grateful to do it.

And so.

And so much of that content you touched with your.

With your own hands, Morgan.

It's over 50 hours of material.

We're going to add to it.

We're going to grow.

It's going to great.

It's.

Yeah, we're going to continue to grow that channel, if you will, sort of an educational channel on the platform, the Arterial channel, and we're going to grow that and continue to build on it.

So cool.

So exciting.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Good stuff.

So I think there's a lot of really good reasons for people to support Arterial, you know, the work that Arterial is doing.

Eventually I will someday, you know, sort of, you know, hand over the reins to.

To a real executive director who can run the organization and grow it, you know, but in the meantime, I'm running both you're stuck with me.

I'm running Arturial.

I'm running Crew West Studio, you know, for better and worse.

Hopefully for better.

But anybody listening, of course, can support Arturial by going to Arturial.org and that money gets, you know, put into these different programs.

And then of course, if you want to make a very direct, restricted donation to things like not real art, you can go to art notrealart.com you can go to Art School USA.

If you're a fan of America Kitchen, pray arts and crafts, please go to artsoulusa.com and make a donation there.

But by all means, go to Arturo.org and read about what, what we're doing, why we're doing it, how we're doing it, and the, the work that we've done.

Yep, yep.

Go, go.

I have nothing more.

That was so beautifully said.

Like, just, just go check.

Go and check it out.

At least you know there's some stuff there.

You're like, you're like what Scott said, what Sourdough said.

Yeah, yeah, there you go.

There you go.

Well, sometimes less, more, you know.

Oh, yeah, my wife tells me that all the time.

I don't listen, though.

I know.

Which is, you know, much to her chagrin.

Well, Morgan Lawrence, thank you for all you do and all your work.

We wouldn't be where we're at today without your important and meaningful contributions to our cause.

And so.

And I know how busy you are, truly.

So thank you for coming in today and sitting down and chopping it up with me.

Well, thank you for having me.

I am so excited about what's on the horizon for Not Real Art and Arterial and Artsville and all of the other projects we're working on right now.

Before you go, before I let you go, before we sign off, what are there.

Is there anything I'm put you on the spot.

Is there anything you'd like to promote, Anything you want to say?

What's coming up notrealart.com what's coming up with Artsville USA?

Let's see.

Well, with on Not Real Art, our next exhibition is Southern Gothic.

So we're going to be looking at probably some spooky, seasonal Southern type work come November, early November.

So that's.

I'm excited for that one.

And then at Artsville, well, we've got the barn quilt fundraiser.

We've got the Asheville trip coming up, which I'm super excited for, but we've got more information about the barn quilts coming up on Artsville usa.

So like, while there isn't a whole lot of information there right now, it is coming soon, I promise.

I'm working on things right now.

We've got a lot of amazing photos of these barn quilts up in the mountains.

So beautiful.

And I can't wait to actually get there.

Yeah, me too.

I haven't been there in the fall, so I'm really anxious to see the, the, the Blue Ridge Mountains and the beautiful fall foliage.

Yeah, it's stunning from what I, from what I've seen in photos.

I look forward to seeing it in person.

Me too.

And so we are going to be debuting those photos soon, like in October.

Over October, we're going to be debuting some of these photos.

And then I should say, I should say also that these photos that we had taken of the barn quilt squares in western North Carolina, we also, you know, as a nonprofit, we were able to hire a local photographer and send them out to take these photos, which is, you know, just so much of what we want to be doing.

We want to be involving local artists in this get community buy in, you know, always.

And that, that's, that's why we're, you know, that's why we're fundraising to be able to do things like this.

That's right.

That's right.

And, you know, artists are truly the culture bearers of every community.

And you know, when places get hit by natural disasters, as western North Carolina did with Hurricane Helene and nature, Mother Nature, you know, washes things away or burns things down, et cetera.

You know, artists are called upon to help rebuild the culture of that community.

And it's sort of our artists kind of end up becoming a kind of second responder, if you will.

Yeah, well, we've seen it in ashes Nashville or western North Carolina.

We've seen that in LA too, with the fires.

So.

So yeah, in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Yeah, yeah.

So a lot of people, I mean, yeah, a lot of people think, you know, the first responders, but you know, after that, who's rebuilding the, the culture?

A lot of these barn quilts, like, washed away in, or were damaged in the flood.

And so like, who's gonna, who's gonna document that?

Who's gonna maintain that?

Who's gonna rebuild?

You know, I mean, obviously the damage was far more expensive than just, you know, the barn quilts in the area.

But, but yeah, it's a lot of times it's the artists who are sort of called upon to rebuild and get started with the, the place making again.

That's right.

That's right.

That's right.

That's right.

Well, very, very good, my friend.

Hey, if I say it myself, we're, you know, we're doing God's work.

You know, like I should I say that.

Is that.

Is that wrong, to sort of congratulate ourselves like that?

A few days ago you told me you were a pagan, so.

A born again pagan.

That's.

Maybe.

Maybe we.

Maybe it should be Gods.

The gods.

I wake up every day with a plan, and then the gods laugh and it all goes sideways.

Sure.

Exactly.

That's it.

That's it.

Morgan Lawrence, you're the best.

Thanks so much, my friend.

Have a good day today, whatever you do.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

For now.

Bye.