Artistic Venture for Marketing Students

On Wednesday, September 10, 2008, artists and entrepreneurs Ayala and Erica Reshef visited Fanshawe College to give Marketing 1027 students firsthand insight into their fascinating new business venture.

ArtVenture is a multimedia art school in northwest London that opened in August 2007. Offering art classes for all ages, camps and birthday parties in a custom-designed studio and gallery, ArtVenture exposes children and adults to a wide range of art education and art exploration. Courses at ArtVenture are led by Erica Reshef, an artist and a certified visual arts teacher with a wide range of classroom experience, and her daughter, Ayala Reshef, a certified primary, junior, and intermediate classroom teacher. The school also offers an on-site gallery, showcasing works by local artists on a rotating basis, and a sitting-area stocked with art books for on-location use.

Fanshawe Marketing students heard Ayala and Erica describe the opportunities and challenges for their business in an engaging presentation supported by a series of photographs and images. Students were then divided into two groups for a unique, interactive team-building exercise. One group was directed to colour strips of paper in a specific manner, while the other was given little direction while being encouraged towards team-cooperation.

In the end, both groups discovered 'Harmony'. It was not obvious at the start, but the letters to spell the word harmony were encrypted within the stylized series of lines and swirls. While students worked on distinguishing the background from the foreground, they learned the effect of group cohesion versus an individualistic project management.


It was an effective and memorable way of demonstrating the creativity of the ArtVenture team to conduct a short, fun exercise with a specific learning outcome. Students now have a much better sense of the core competencies of these entrepreneurs and are excited to develop marketing plans to build awareness of this local business.

Marketing 1027 was redesigned as one of many curriculum development projects this summer. Professor Sherry McEvoy designed the new schedule to feature a variety of interactive exercises and a focus on developing the skills to prepare a marketing plan.

The course instructor for this semester is Professor Murray Morgan who is also Coordinator of the International Business Management Program. To add further interest and relevance, Morgan has the class using their skills to market themselves to seek employment. Students are working in small groups and will use the theory behind marketing plan development by applying it to an existing local business, in this case ArtVenture Art Studio. The class includes students from numerous towns and cities across Ontario as well as several international students and one student on exchange from HZ University of Applied Sciences (Hogeschool Zeeland) in the Netherlands.

To thank the ArtVenture team for their time and engaging presentation, two students presented Ayala and Erica with engraved pens from the Fanshawe College Faculty of Business.

Faculty, staff and students who may be interested in a fulfilling art experience can visit www.artventure.ca for information on art classes, birthday parties, spring and summer art camps, PD-day workshops, and on-site custom framing.