Dear College Pikasso Friends, Fans & Family,
This is our first newsletter ever, so please excuse the length.  From now on they will be more regular and much more brief.
But for now we need to take it back to the beginning.  It seems like yesterday I dreamed up the idea of creating a store that was covered wall to wall with colorful, exciting artwork made by young artists.  It was while I was walking in a nice shopping area called Eaton Mall here in north east Ohio with my parents when I noticed how many galleries there were.  I also noticed something about all of them.  They all seemed kind of boring, pretentious, and archaic. I was disgusted with this and realized that the whole art world in general and galleries in particular could use to be turned on their head.  Rebranding was needed.  I yearned for a different sort of gallery. A gallery that was younger, more exciting, colorful, full of culture and modern.  I fell in love with this idea right then and there.

I proposed the idea to a friend who I met in grade school, Ian Derby, & together we decided to turn the idea into a business and we become business partners.  Its been a fast and interesting four years since then and the idea has undergone drastic twists and turns but today still retains it’s original vision.  Ian recently decided to leave the company and focus on his career as he was being spread too thin and we wish him the best of luck and thank him for all that he has contributed to what College Pikasso is today.  Ian stepping out of the company has put me in full control of College Pikasso’s direction and day to day happenings.  It is a big responsibility and I want to share it with all of you as I continually seek to create a more fun and amazing experience for everybody shopping at College Pikasso.

After almost four years, we had little to show for all of our brainstorming, meetings, and research.  However, about 6 months ago, we decided to kick it into high gear and since then we have made incredible progress.

We developed an online version of our vision where we have a collection of the coolest, most exciting, colorful, and fun art we can find at www.collegepikasso.com.  We have dozens of pieces and almost a dozen artists being showcased in our online galleries.  With our website, we have the opportunity to bring great art and artists to art lovers world wide.  And in doing so, we are bridging the gap between people who want to buy exciting & fresh art with the next generation of creators all over the world.

Over the past six months we have worked to:

• build a good looking & easy to use internet gallery & store (www.collegepikasso.com)
• find the best young, local artists and fill our galleries with their diverse art
• & share this art with family and friends

And we thank you all for helping us achieve this.  We owe our success to you.  It is a very exciting time for College Pikasso and myself personally and everyday I have more and more fun working on College Pikasso.  I can’t wait to see how we continue to grow and develop.
In the next year we are specifically working towards:

• sharing our collection with more and more people through our ever expanding marketing campaigns (first in ohio, then regionally, and then nationally)
• a much larger, more diverse, and more curated collection of art and apparel
• attracting more and more highly talented young artists from an expanding area starting here in north east Ohio and spreading across the state, region, and country, slowly but steadily spreading our support of young, local artists and their exciting art.
• opening a physical location. we want a place where people can come in person and be surrounded by our colorful, exciting, and vibrant art and also learn about where it came from and who made it. therefore my original vision will fully be a reality.  we hope to have a a brick-n-mortar headquarters and retail operation within 1 year.

So thats it.  Thats where we came from and thats where we’re going.  And we need your help in accomplishing all of this.  We need your continued support of these artists and their art.  We have a lot of work to be done and I will personally enjoy every bit of it.  I look forward to the adventure that's ahead and sharing it with all of you.

You can contact me directly for any reason at any time.  I look forward to hearing from you.  And once again, we appreciate all of your support from the bottom of our hearts and want to continue making the process of finding and buying cool, exciting art & apparel made by young artists easier and more fun.

Until next time, take care and have fun!

Yours in art,
Mike Vecchio, Co-founder & Lead Team Member, College Pikasso
mike@collegepikasso.com
330.441.2432
www.collegepikasso.com