In Carol Bradbury, the artist’s quest for meaning thrives alongside the designer’s eye for form, function and clarity. She is the founder of BLOOMERANG, a collaborative art experience that celebrates community connection. Her process builds awareness of a community’s diversity while helping to shape its creative identity. Her facilitation helps participants tap into their imagination more readily and experience flow.

The artist’s work is informed by her diverse experience in art, design, branding, marketing, psychology and restorative practices. An insightful facilitator, she inspires clients and participants with her in-depth knowledge and experience of the creative process, her constant quest for deeper understanding and her appreciation of each person’s innate creativity. She delivers specialized workshops, residencies, lectures, collaborative painting at festivals, team-building and staff development for teachers and creates branded community engaged public and architectural artworks.

She has worked with at-risk populations in schools, prison and in businesses, communities and not-for-profits that value the experience of collaboration, engagement and growth. Carol is eager to tour and engage with schools and communities all over the state of Kansas, making and facilitating community based art that uplifts, educates, and inspires people of all ages.

Carol is a dynamic workshop leader and speaker, passionate about how the arts transform us and create community connection . Each project is tailored to fit your school and/or community’s unique circumstances and integration needs. Carol’s wide experience as both fine artist and brand/designer make her a great resource if you’re looking to address community identity on a bigger scale.

Bloomerang workshops work as stand-alone experiences or can become the first step in creating a permanent installation, like marquee signage, architectural graphics or a main street makeover. Her workshops invite your community… school, town or organization, to participate in creating installations that energize streetscapes and interiors with color and vitality, lasting reminders that when it comes to results, we’re all working toward something bigger than ourselves. New offering coming soon: M-Power Animal card workshops Further details for school and community workshops is detailed below under educational and community activity.

Carol’s also available for presentations on the following topics:

• How the arts transform: community engagements that define identity and drive results.
• The brain on art: Why arts integration should be a daily practice.
• Gentle action: How the arts provide pathways to community healing

Bloomerang workshop fees for stand-alone experiences start at $2500 and depend of the length of the workshop/residency, the number of participants and goal of the project. Meetings to define the goals of the project and material costs are included. We can work together to integrate the project into your existing curriculum or unique need. Design Fees for marquee signage, interior architectural wall art and environmental graphic design begin at $7500 and depend on scope of work. Matching grant funds are a good fit for these projects. Let’s talk about your budget and see what we can do. Speaker Program fees range from $700 to $2500. Additional travel fees and per diem for lodging, meals etc. when more than 60 miles from Topeka, Kansas.

Arts Integrated Workshops and Installations for Schools Each Bloomerang project is conceptualized and designed in advance with set project goals with school staff input and involvement. Participants are engaged in the project from concept (brainstorming/themes) to unveiling. Projects can be scaled for a single day workshop or designed in a series for multiple engagements, depending on the goals of the organization and end result required.

Workshop

#1: The signature Bloomerang art experience gives students an experience of collaboration; how the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and how art, like life itself, is in constant flow and flux and always changing. Workshop

#2: Coming soon. M-Power Animal Cards teach students how animal wisdom can teach them to creatively respond to emotional challenges and take back their power in a healthy way.
Workshop

#3: Team-building and staff development (Teaching teachers to give a Bloomerang workshop) Bradbury’s approach to arts integration focuses on curriculum goals for schools, often designing projects like her “M-Power Animal Cards” that invite teachers, counselors, and art integration specialists to come together in the planning stages. By working as creative partners, the project can be designed to adapt to a teacher’s existing curriculum and the impact of the project can be extended. Each of Carol’s workshops have a social emotional learning component to help students and teachers understand how an arts integrated curriculum fosters the ability to perceive the world in new ways, connecting patterns, and turning fresh ideas into reality. Creativity is the number one soft skill that employers seek.

1. Educational Workshop fees for school stand-alone experiences start at $2500 and depend of the length of the workshop/residency, the number of participants and goal of the project. Meetings to define the goals of the project and material costs are included. We can work together to integrate the project into your existing curriculum.
2. Team-building and staff development (Teaching teachers to give a Bloomerang workshop) Fees start at $2500/ up to 12 participants. Workshop art materials expenses included. Teacher’s Studio-in-a-Box (all the art materials a teacher needs to bring this project to her classroom) is also available, pricing on request.
3. Installations: Adapting the collaborative workshop art to marquee signage, interior architectural wall art and environmental graphic design. Design fees usually begin at $7,500k depending on scope of work and include discovery meetings, project planning/management and all review loops. Matching grant funds are a good fit for these projects. Let’s talk about your budget and see what we can do. 4. All projects are subject to additional travel fees and per diem for lodging, meals etc. when more than 60 miles from Topeka, Kansas.

Drop-in Community Event Workshop Fees Start at $3,500 for a single day of drop-in workshops and unlimited participation. Cost depends of the length of the workshop/residency and goal of the project. Initial planning meeting and art materials costs are included.

Installations

Design fees for taking the collaboratives artworks through Bloomerang’s unique transformation process and adapting them to main street branding makeovers, signage or architectural graphics usually run between $10K-20K.

Matching grant funds are a good fit for these projects. My proposals offer descriptions that can help your grant application. Let’s talk about how we can make it work. We may be able to design a special approach that works with your budget. Additional travel fees and per diem for lodging, meals etc. when more than 60 miles from Topeka, Kansas.

Community Workshops and Engagements that build community connection and pride.

Key to Bradbury’s success is her commitment to engage diverse voices on community projects. In 2011, due to her involvement in creating an arts district in a struggling part of her home town, she was confronted with the problem of how to raise community pride. She invited people of all ages to take ownership of their environment through a creative call to action. She’s created a model that turns the traditional mural-making process up-side-down and catapults public art and community identity into the hands of the people in a surprising way.

Today, Bradbury invites communities of all types to take part in reclaiming their identity by reshaping their sense of place. Fun, flexible and scaleable, Bloomerang Drop-in events are perfect for festivals, conventions, staff retreats and customer/employee appreciation days. These public engagements fit everyone’s schedule and allow participants from all ages to make their marks in their own time. It’s an especially gentle way for adults to rediscover and express the inner artist that resides in us all. People will be surprised and delighted with the outcomes.

THINK BIG. Scale is no problem. Bloomerang designs can be adapted to glass, tile mosaic, light, fabric, enamel, signage materials and, thanks to technology, just about anything you can think of. Architectural glass, walls, exterior and interior signage, stairs, column wraps, vehicle wraps, wallpaper, upholstery fabric and more. Let your imagination run wild!