The concept for this directory began with the observation of a problem. There are a variety of creative personalities in the local area putting out content that you may have never heard of. As the world increasingly moves toward digital first, it has never been easier for creative people to build a community on the Internet. With that being said, an online following doesn’t necessarily correlate to a local following. There are artists, social movements, writers, designers, volunteer efforts, clothing brands, podcasters, pop up shops, and many other digitally native projects right in our backyard that have little local visibility.
We decided to start this directory to help map this digital landscape to a physical proximity. While the Internet allows us to collaborate meaningfully with anyone in the world, there is still a certain power in being able to work with somebody close to home. We strive to create connections across various disciplines and believe that this can serve as a starting point for new ideas and conversations. Our hope is that Upstate Vuew can become the gateway to finding creative people and causes in the local area that wouldn’t be mapped to a physical address on mapping services.
It might not be immediately obvious, but we intuitively believe that there is nearly unlimited potential for collaboration here. We know there is a podcaster out there looking for their next interesting guest, while there would be fifty artists waiting in line if they only knew it. We know of movements born on Instagram with thousands of followers, that might get a media feature if they had more local visibility. Somebody right down the road is selling a craft out of their home, that you had no idea existed. There are so many amazing people, products, services, and resources available close to home. Oftentimes help is only an ask away. We believe in abundance > scarcity.
Upstate Vuew is a novel concept and the thinking behind this was to simply put it out there and see what people find useful. We are offering this as a free service and are welcome to any and all feedback. Feel free to reach out to us with suggestions for new categories, feature requests, etc. The scope of this directory is dynamic and virtually limitless. We hope this directory brings value to our community and is effective at fostering relationships that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible.
