User’s Guide To PATTERN

PATTERN was founded in 2010. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit that is a media company, a creative agency, a print publication, a talent incubator, an economic development engine rolled into one groovy community building platform. It’s a lot, right? We do a LOT, and we love it!

Below is a range of Frequently Asked Questions that will hopefully help you better understand who we are, what we do, and why/how you might want to be a part of our ever growing community, or help support us financially.

A big thank you to graphic designer Megan Gray (past Creative Fellow!) who created the infographics below to help explain PATTERN better. If you still have questions, please comment below or contact us directly and we’ll be happy to explain further. Buckle up!

ABOUT PATTERN

WHAT: PATTERN is a culture & arts organization with a proven track record of driving positive social change, accelerating the creative economy* and providing creators a platform for creative expression. We are an inclusive community of artists, creatives and makers on a mission to make Central Indiana a world-class destination for culture, fashion, art and music. 

Who runs PATTERN? Check out our team here! A little known fact is that our Executive Director, Polina Osherov is a first generation immigrant, born in Soviet Russia. She and her family moved to the United States by way of Australia when she was 20. Polina also happens to be professional commercial photographer.

As the Executive Director, she does not own PATTERN, but instead answers to a Board of Directors. Polina personally mentors 20+ interns and Fellows every year. Under her supervision, these young people help create most of the content you see on PATTERN’s digital channels, as well as contribute to the print publication. PATTERN also relies on help from dozens of volunteers and contributors.

GETTING INVOLVED:

How can I work with PATTERN? There are several ways that people can take advantage of the programs and resources that PATTERN offers. The infographic below will help explain. We’ve broken out levels of your involvement based on where you are in your professional journey.

If you are….


I DM’d/emailed you guys and no one got back to me. What gives?
As you’ve hopefully gathered from the above information, we are a very small team, working part-time, and mostly unpaid with other jobs and things like families and classes to stay on top of. We have A LOT of people reaching out to us all the time. It’s impossible for us to respond to everyone. If you’re emailing to see if you can get featured, or how you can work with us, you can increase your odds of a response if you follow some simple guidelines:

  1. Email us rather than sending a DM. Info@patternindy.com. We also have a really comprehensive “Contact us” page that will help direct you to the right person on our team.
  2. Introduce yourself, and be clear about what it is you’re asking. Help us understand quickly why we should work with you over the other fifty people asking the same thing.
  3. Send a link to your music/art/work…if you want to be featured but don’t include a link to your portfolio, you’re not going to get a response.
  4. Show us that you’ve actually done some homework about our organization and what we do. A generic-sounding pitch is not going to get a response.

What is your editorial process for who gets featured in the print issues of PATTERN?
As you can imagine we cannot possibly feature everyone and everything, and have to be very picky. Stories are selected by weighing a combination of factors such as timing, relevance to current events, theme of the issue, aesthetic fit, a person’s accomplishments, and space availability among many others. Polina, who is not only the Executive Director, but also wears the hat of the Editor-in-Chief, along with the editorial team and contributors are very proactive about soliciting recommendations and feedback from people in all different corners of the Indy community to ensure that we cast a wide net when looking for people to feature.

While only a lucky few make it into print, we do our absolute best to lift up as many local creatives as we can through our digital magazine, and our weekly Creative of The Week instagram story feature. Over the past decade, we have given exposure to over three thousand different creatives through a combination of print, digital and events.

I have an idea for a program or an event that I think PATTERN should do that I’d like to share. How do I do that?
We love hearing about your ideas for programs, events, exhibits and whatever else tickles your fancy! Some of your ideas might be things we’ve already tried, some might already be in the works, yet others are new to us, and we’d love to bring them to fruition. Here’s the thing though: We’re swamped. Between publishing a bi-annual magazine, creating content for our multiple social media channels and digital magazine, planning existing events, as well as coordinating, SUPPLY, St’Artup317 and StitchWorks, we do NOT have any capacity for additional programming at this time. That’s what happens when you don’t have full-time staff. Insert sad face.

So that means that if you have an idea that you think PATTERN should get behind, and you want to pitch it to us, you need to come prepared to explain how YOU personally plan on investing your time and energy to bring that idea to life. Your direct involvement is about the only thing that will make it possible for us to seriously consider your proposal. As Polina can be overheard saying quite frequently, “Ideas are not the problem – we’ve got hundreds of ideas ourselves. The problem is the lack of manpower and resources to execute!”

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

Recently, we’ve also had some questions about who our community encompasses, as well as our diversity and inclusion policies, and we want to be totally transparent about that as well.

Do you have an official diversity and inclusion policy? We do:

PATTERN stands in solidarity with Black communities and protesters in denouncing racial injustice. We honor the lives of so many who have been unjustly killed by racial violence.

We commit to even greater equity, empathy, and justice across our programs, operations, and workplace to dismantle systemic racism. We renew our pledge to:

  • Champion a practical approach to anti-racism.
  • Make sure that our Board of Directors and our team is diverse and balanced, and that their opinions are listened to and actioned.
  • Be more inclusive in all programming.

We promise to pursue this ongoing work with vulnerability and courage. Black lives matter.

Do you have any black or minority employees? Yes! We have minority representation across all programs.

If you’re a numbers person, you might be interested to know that historically out of 106 interns who have participated in our program to date (Summer 2021), 24 (22%) were/are African American, and 10 (9%) were/are Latinx/Asian/Other. Our Creative Fellowship has hosted 11 Fellows to date, with 27% of them being African American, and 95% being female.

Keep in mind that the interns rotate in and out every 3 months, and every class of interns looks different in terms of diversity. We rely heavily on word of mouth for our internship program to get promoted, so the intern class is a reflection of who applies.

It’s important to note that in bringing in interns and hiring Fellows we look for the best and most promising talent. Diversity is always on our minds, but we would never hire someone purely based on their race, gender, or sexual orientation. Our goal is to promote excellence, and we’ve been very fortunate to help support and elevate a very diverse group of excellent creative talent.

What about your print and digital magazine? Do you have any contributors who are non-white? Of course! From writers, photographers, make up artists, models to the actual subjects of our stories, people of color and particularly black creatives make up close to a combined 40% of our contributors and written stories. You can see a list of regular contributors here. Keep in mind that the list is not comprehensive – there have been dozens and dozens of people over the years. With our limited capacity it’s been hard to keep this list updated. If you’d like to see our inclusive mindset first-hand, please check out our digital magazine, or view past volumes of the print issue online, here.

What about leadership? Who helps drive decision-making at PATTERN? Our Board of Directors currently has 9 members, 50% of whom are female. We have three board members who are African-American.

Where else in your organization do people of color have a chance to participate? All of our programs, StitchWorks, St’Artup317 and SUPPLY have leaders and participants who are non-white. Please visit the websites for each program for more info!

What exactly is PATTERN’s core narrative? PATTERN was created by a handful of diverse fashion professionals and lovers who saw a better future for their small businesses and for the city overall. The narrative has always been about elevating Indy’s creatives in an equitable and inclusive way.

WHY SUPPORT US?

Every year, PATTERN directly impacts over several hundred creatives, creative small businesses and brands through it’s programs and by creating opportunities for exposure and connections via it’s social media channels and print publications. No other organization in Indianapolis, offers the type of unique programming that supports up-and-coming creatives the way we do.

WHAT’S AT STAKE?

Arts, culture, and, creative industries, and their activities and products, are key resources and incubators of creativity. Individuals working in arts and creative industries create new cultural, intellectual, and economic opportunities and innovations. Additionally, jobs are generated for people who supply materials and service needs, and present and distribute creative work. While Indianapolis is home to a number world-class arts and cultural institutions, it lags significantly behind peer cities in supporting and investing in its grassroots creative culture – the very thing that livability experts say make a city “sticky”. PATTERN is among a handful of organizations standing in the gap of a resource desert fighting daily to make sure that the voices of our community, are heard, and we need your help!

IN CLOSING

If you’re still with us, thank you for allowing us to shed some light on who we are and what we’re about. If you have questions or concerns about any aspect of PATTERN, we invite you to engage with our team directly. We always welcome radically honest, face-to-face conversations with members of our community to help all of us be and do better. Onward!

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