partnerships Archives -

Grace Miceli’s Disruptive Art Empire

As part of our ongoing partnership with Depop, we sat down with one of their freshest artists, and one of the newest members of the We Are Pop Up community, Grace Miceli (aka Art Baby Girl).

Grace Miceli considers her two titles of artist and curator to be inseparable. “Creating and collaborating go together,” she said, over coffee at Spreadhouse. Google her name and you’ll fall into a magic-marker-internet wonderland. Her Instagram. Her online gallery. Her coverage in Broadly, W Magazine, Nylon and The New York Times.

Miceli is building an art empire by cultivating a community of artists whose work spans from interactive digital to apparel prints. Her exhibitions combine art and retail, so that throughout a show, visitors can purchase featured artists’ more affordable art (hats and t-shirts, for instance). The daughter of an artist and musician, Miceli’s goal is to make art approachable, enabling virgin collectors to explore the art world sans “Chelsea pretension.”

By combining the power of contemporary art and accessible retail, Miceli repositions the sterile art gallery as a friendly shop, where visitors are greeted by a smile instead of flat neglect. This shift benefits curious collectors and artists alike. “An artist’s work on a baseball cap travels a lot further than a print hanging up in an apartment,” said Miceli. In the past year, Miceli’s art displayed at Outlaw Art Space, Bushwick Open Studios, Vox Populi, and Transfer Gallery.

Miceli’s creative retail approach fosters an inclusive community online and off. From LiveJournal to Tumblr and then to Instagram, Miceli has evolved alongside the internet; she uses her online and mobile presence to showcase her art and collaborations. Miceli’s iterative process generates a steady stream of feedback, finetuning and conversation. And now, she’s gearing up for a cross-country tour. She’s curating at Sunday, Los Angeles in February, and then launching a US-wide gallery tour with Brooklyn’s Alt Space. “I’m excited to have the chance to meet artists who don’t live in NYC, it will be interesting to learn about artists whose practices exist in different and smaller cities.”

On her migration from online to retail spaces, Miceli says, “this started online, and that’s how it needed to start.” We can’t wait to see what Miceli has in store – and in stores. Visit her on We Are Pop Up and Depop.

Interested in becoming a Depop seller? Drop us a line and we’ll connect you!

We Are Pop Up x Kiva Zip: Unite & Conquer!

In December, We Are Pop Up attended Kiva’s Zip’s New York City launch. We’d heard about Kiva’s international work, but when we saw what they were doing in New York, We Are Pop Up was blown away. Aside from the fact that Bill Clinton was the keynote speaker and the event was being held in the beautiful IAC building, we were excited to attend the launch because Kiva is an organization whose values mirror our own, creating a democratic marketplace that sparks entrepreneurs, neighborhoods and cities. Kiva Zip is a peer-to-peer microlending platform where entrepreneurs can raise money from friends and family as well as Kiva’s generous community of more than 1.1 million potential lenders. The lending model opens up capital to business owners regardless of established credit or how long they’ve been in business. And, there’s zero percent interest! Kiva NYC has already connected thousands of small-dollar lenders to 300 local entrepreneurs.

Today, we’re excited to announce a partnership between We Are Pop Up and Kiva Zip. Over the next year, we’ll be working with Kiva’s New York team to open up retail opportunities throughout the city. At the same time, we’ll help the We Are Pop Up community take advantage of Kiva’s zero-interest loans. By joining forces, We Are Pop Up and Kiva will fortify their entrepreneurial communities to build and scale businesses more quickly. Lenders will also be able to sponsor ShopShare opportunities for their Kiva borrowers. Two of our foodie entrepreneurs, TrySome and Especially Puglia, already took advantage of the P2P lending opportunity to raise $10,000 quickly, and with none of the nonsense interest. They then reinvested those loans into their innovative food startups. To learn more about Kiva Zip’s zero-interest loans, check out zip.kiva.org/borrow. Questions, comments, want to slow clap in celebration? Shoot We Are Pop Up Managing Director Greg Spielberg an email at gregs@wearepopup.com or give a ring at 207-522-6715.

WAPU teams up with Modalyst to bring you dropshipping magic

You’ve popped up in the heart of Manhattan. Then load out day comes, and now what? You’ve gotten your press, made bunch of sales, engaged your community, gotten lots of social media love and pretty pictures. So what’s next? Through our partnership with Modalyst, turnkey dropshipping!

Dropshipping is one of the best ways to complement the brick and mortar experience and help you maintain sales when your store is closed. Not only will dropshipping offer you a way to sell off your excess inventory but it will help you widen your customer base by teaming up with e-commerce sites to market your brand. But after an exhausting pop up, who has the energy to start reaching out to e-commerce sites and pitch their collection?

Enter Modalyst. Founded in 2012, this B2B marketplace saw such an increase in dropshipping requests they recently released new technology that allow online stores to easily add brands to their sites. As a brand you can bulk upload your collection and immediately make it available to thousands of online stores. With the Modalyst Shopify app, retailers can add your collection to their store in one click. It’s so easy that more than 90% of Modalyst brands have been picked up by e-commerce sites all over the world. Currently their marketplace consists of close 10,000 stores and nearly 700 brands that are members of the community.

Dropshipping with Modalyst is an effective way to increase your distribution without having to hire a sales team. Similar to a pop up where brands benefit from the established customer base, staff and POS of the retail location, members of Modalyst have access to thousands of retailers and a backend tool to manage and organize all orders. In fact, much of the process is automated so one can easily manage hundreds of retailer relationships, keep buyers updated on new products and stock levels, plus process orders in seconds. For example, when an online order is placed for one of your products, the retailer will pay you directly and you will automatically receive all info needed including the customer’s shipping address.

After effectively capturing your local audience and building customer engagement through your pop up, dropshipping will help create a seasonless selling and marketing opportunity. As part of our partnership, Modalyst is offering WAPU brands a discount on the membership, so mention WAPU in your sign up to learn more! Get started with your free trial on Modalyst here.

We Are Pop Up x Depop New York: The Start Of A Beautiful Partnership

We met with the Depop New York team a few months ago, and spent most of the meeting reading about Kickstarter’s Potato Salad Guy. Definitely the start of a beautiful friendship … and as of today, an exciting partnership!

Depop is an app that enables you to sell straight from your phone. Much like We Are Pop Up, Depop is ideal for young and experienced brands alike; it’s distilled the complicated world of online retail into a simple and profitable process.

Over the next few months, we’ll be featuring some of our favorite Depop brands on our blog. And as the year progresses, keep your ears perked for additional collaborations with the lovely Depop New York team!