Philanthropy Today
Philanthropy Today
Switch Wicked Studios on the GMCF Community Hour Show Episode - 320
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We talk with Dane Malone about how Switch Wicked Studios grows from a screen printing shop into a nonprofit community art space in downtown Manhattan. We dig into the events, the low-friction ways artists can participate, and the big goal of making creativity feel accessible for all ages.
• expanding from design and screen printing into a retail space plus community studios
• running weekly meetups like Independent Craft Night and Film Club
• hosting a First Saturday Art Market that helps local artists start selling
• treating the studio as a creative idea incubator for workshops and new events
• building all-ages music through the Frog Wizard concert series
• partnering locally and creating a welcoming landing spot for people new to town
switchwicked.com
Following us on social media is a great way to keep up on all of our events as well
Sponsor And Segment Setup
SPEAKER_01Philanthropy Today is brought to you by the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation. In this episode, we feature a recently broadcast segment of the GMTF Community Hour, as heard on News Radio KMAN. We are back with the GMTF Community Hour here on News Radio KMAN.
Meet Switch Wicked Downtown
SPEAKER_01We're going to introduce you today to a new organization, an organization that has a presence downtown on Point Avenue. Dame Malone is joining us. Good morning, Dane. Good morning, Dave. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, we've I stopped in there as Twitch Wicked to see what you're all about. And you are in uh what's probably best known as the uh old uh previously, the Glenn's music building there at um 400, what, 413 Points? Exactly.
SPEAKER_00413 Points Avenue.
SPEAKER_01I don't know if I told you. I used to have an office there in the basement of that building and and had a wonderful relationship with Glenn. And uh so that place has uh special memories for me. But Switch Wicked, what's that all about?
SPEAKER_00So Switch Wicked actually started as a business in 2021 as a design and screen printing. Uh and then when we opened our retail space in 2024, we really wanted to get it have a way to get more community involvement and do more things for the community. So we decided to start Switch Wicked Studios, which is our community art space and really just a space for creatives to come and uh teach classes, have events, and talk about the things that they love.
SPEAKER_01You know, you walk in the door and you see a retail counter, you see a number of things that are on display, shirts, hats, things that you can print on, but you go back and you see some of the equipment that you utilize, you go upstairs, and it's a whole different world up there.
SPEAKER_00It really is. I mean, it's we have obviously, yeah, the retail right when you walk in, and that's really where we share a lot of our interests as well as our personal art and local art from the community and people who utilize our studios. Um, and then yeah, upstairs with the studio space is really where our work happens for the community and the things that we want to give back.
Inside The Studio And Events
SPEAKER_01Can you give me some examples of uh the work that's being done there?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so we host a number of events, um, regular events as well as just one-offs. Uh so our regular events are going to be things more like independent craft night. It happens every Tuesday. Uh, every first and third Wednesday, we host a film club. We do our first Saturday art markets on the first Saturday of every month. And that's really a chance for local artists to get started selling their own art and learning how to turn the thing that they love into maybe a business or just a hobby that makes a little money. Um, and then we also hold or have private studios that people can rent out. Um, and as well as we're getting into starting to figure out our classes and how we want to handle workshops and things like that going forward.
SPEAKER_01What's that look like upstairs when you have like, let's just say, for example, your art show? Because you know, when you step upstairs, that's a very wide open area for people to claim and and and do their thing. So when somebody walks in and they want to see what some of our local artisans are doing, what what can they expect?
SPEAKER_00So for things like the first Saturday art market, for example, uh, we host up to 15 artists in the space. And so we have tables laid out. It's a 3,000 square foot, pretty open area. Um, and so we just kind of line them up and we also hold craft events during the art market as well, where people can work on crafts or and people of all ages. It's accessible to everyone. Um, but yeah, it's really just about going vendor to vendor. So kind of like a farmer's market of sorts, but just for artists, and it's treated like that, and everybody does great. I mean, it's really about getting people there that are going to look at local art. They know that's why they're going. So people tend to do pretty well. Um, and that's great to hear. I mean, as my wife and I, when we started this, it was all about how can we give other people the opportunity to make money off of their art the way that we wanted to do? Because that's how our whole business started was just an idea of how can we create every day and make that a living. And so now we're just trying to give that back to the community in whatever way we can.
SPEAKER_01Mm-hmm. Do you have quite a number of artists and other businesses, small business? It's almost in and I guess you could probably almost call it an artistic incubator in some respects.
SPEAKER_00I've actually changed to calling it a creative idea incubator. I really like when people just come to us with ideas and they're like, hey, I want to do this workshop or I want to host this show. And then we sit down with them, we talk about the logistics of how that can happen, and we try to make that thing possible for them in that space. Uh, but yeah, I agree with you. It is. And we actually have gotten a lot more small businesses than I expected when we started. I didn't really know what to expect. And we really wanted the it to be built by the community and the people in the community for what they wanted and needed. And that's kind of what it's become.
SPEAKER_01What's it like to
How Artists Join And Sell
SPEAKER_01get involved? If, you know, I decide that I'd like drawing airplanes flying over a beach in Florida. Um, and this is what I want to start doing and having all kinds of different planes and different sceneries. What steps do I need to take in order to participate in some of the uh opportunities there?
SPEAKER_00So if you want to join our art market, it's actually very simple. You just fill out our, we have a whole page on our website, switchwicket.com. There's a studio section, and within that, there's art market information, signups. You can go there and just fill out our form, and then we just charge a $20 table fee for the art market, and then you could sell your art there. Um, and it's very communal. Uh, a lot of people really like to uh do that as their first market because there's other artists there who are experienced. You get people all like so many different experience levels, and they all want to help each other. They all want to help you do well because it's all just about like being a supportive creative community. Um, so there's things like that. Or if you had an idea for a workshop or a class, you could come to us and say, hey, this is a class idea I have. That's like what we're doing right now. That's our big push is getting classes and workshops going. So we're like, hey, come to us with ideas for classes that you would want to see uh in Manhattan. Because if you want to see it, there's a good chance that other people want to see it too. And so we're just trying to build those ideas up.
Nonprofit Plans And Community Impact
SPEAKER_01Now you are a nonprofit.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we are and that's one of the things that I, you know, you do have a retail side, but there's a, you know, that side of it, you know, is uh is considered a nonprofit. And that's why we're working here with you uh with the GMCF. What are some of the other programs that uh you'd like to develop or maybe already have plans on developing in the future for Switch Wicked?
SPEAKER_00So for on the studio side, yeah, we definitely want to develop more music programming, um, just a more regular that's kind of our Frog Wizard concert series. Uh, we want to do things like uh more workshops, classes, just things to give back to the community and offer for all ages, all ranges of like interests. Um, like the things like the film club and the independent craft night have really taken off. And we just started those around May. I want to say it started in May or April, and those have really become a very popular thing and a great meeting place, especially for people who are new to town. Um, we've had a lot of people who aren't from Manhattan, they just moved here and they saw our stuff and they came and now they're trying to meet people with similar interests, and that's been really cool to see. Um, just another benefit that I did not necessarily think about, but that I've come to really appreciate.
SPEAKER_01It's almost like group therapy.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, in a way. I mean, all of us have our interests and the things we love.
SPEAKER_01So sharing ideas is a big deal. It is, especially when you got a creative mind.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. I think it's really important.
The Name, Mascots, And Origins
SPEAKER_01I want to step back a little bit because the name Switch Wicked is very unique in its own right. And I and and I I gotta come, I gotta figure out how you came up with this.
SPEAKER_00It's honestly, if you want the short story, it's two words that sounded cool together. Uh it started off as my name and a music project I was doing. And then when my wife and I sat down to come up with the idea for the name for our business, we just list out a bunch of names and we just kept going back to Switch Wicked. We wanted a brand name. We didn't want to call it Dana Ash Print Co just because that kind of limits us, and we knew we weren't going to be limited to that long term. That wasn't our goal. So we just came up with the name Switch Wicked as a brand name. And yeah, it really doesn't have any meaning. It's just kind of a fun name. Just representing the thing.
SPEAKER_01And then you mentioned Frog Wizard. Then you mentioned Frog Wizard, and and sounds like that may have been something that um uh similar process.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so Bubbles the Frog Wizard is actually one of our mascots. We have three of them at our store. So we have Gnarly, who's like kind of a dinosaur guy. We've got Bubbles the Frog Wizard, and we have Stigat, who's like a robot computer guy. And Bubbles the Frog Wizard's the one that kind of got attached to our music programming due to we did a collaboration with Manhattan Brewing um about four years ago now. And that was just a beer release collab. We did a lot of design work with them, and so we decided to release a beer together, and then that turned into a music festival the last three years. And through that, we've kind of developed this partnership with uh Wildcat Electronic Media, so like 91.9 and um channel 8 news and developing this concert series to bring K-State students out to interview bands, photo, photograph and video bands, as well as get them involved in organizing the festival.
Why Downtown Manhattan Matters
SPEAKER_01You know, you're right in the heart of a very artistically based area with downtown Manhattan. You mentioned Manhattan Brewing Company, you're right across the street from them. You got the Wharm going through. It's uh what's going to be an amazing uh renovation, lots of art things that are happening downtown. And how does that presence downtown suit you at Switch Wicked?
SPEAKER_00That was a big pull for us for coming downtown. I mean, we looked for a location for our business for about two years before we actually settled on a spot. And we just were never really happy with anywhere we were looking. We wanted to make sure we were in the right environment. We were collaborating a lot with businesses downtown. Those two, for example, Wareham Hall and Manhattan Brewing are both people we collaborate with quite often, um, as well as, you know, just a bunch of other businesses down there. And we just really felt like if we could, we would prefer to be down there. We just felt like that had the that district was had the direction that we were looking for. And that's what ultimately caused us to set up shop there. And having that studio space with where Glenn's was, like you said, they already had those music lesson rooms, so those were easily converted into private studios that we could rent out to people, artists, and honestly, it's been a lot of photographers and videographers who like to uh make use of our space as well. And sorry about that, Dane.
Frog Wizard Concert Series Preview
SPEAKER_01Can you hear me now? I can. Okay. I I keep forgetting there's this little button on this microphone that mutes it. So that's weird. Thanks, Nolan. Appreciate you catching up on that. Um so my question for you, Dane, was um about Frog Wizard and concert series. Anything in the works?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so the Frog Wizard concert series goes throughout the school year. Um, it's the very first one is gonna be August 28th. Um, so it's a Friday, and we've got uh three bands um lined up for that. So we've got Big Fat Cow out of uh Kansas City, and we also have the Manhattan Project who's lined up on that as well, and Nirvana Hope. So we have two local musicians and bands as well as one uh kind of out-of-town band or uh and so that's kind of the method for it. It's to bring start getting a circuit of bands coming through who might not have a place to play here. Um, there's a number of music venues, but you still can encompass every genre and every band. So, and also just being an all-ages venue is very beneficial. Um, so something that Manhattan hasn't had very much of. So for us to be able to offer kind of, you know, we're not a bar, we're just a shop at the end of the day or a studio. So we can offer our space up and make it an all-ages show and make it for the community. And so everybody can come and enjoy it all ages.
SPEAKER_01Where do you have those? Where do you have those?
SPEAKER_00So typically we host our shows in our storefront area, our front window kind of doubles as a stage. So for those shows, we definitely act as our retail store is an extension of the studios. So I run those as Switch Wicked Studios events, they're all volunteer. It's nothing we're making money on or anything. Um, any money we do make goes to the bands as far as like dwarfy, anything like that, just to help pay for their gas and travel and everything and just support them. But yeah, we do it all. I even run sound for the events just to save costs to try to do it as cheap as we can to just make it so that we can keep doing it. I mean, it's all just about bringing bands in who people want to see and all ages and just supporting the different demographics that Manhattan has. Anything else uh in the works for Switch Wicked in the coming weeks?
Kids Art Show And How To Follow
SPEAKER_00Um, yeah. So we just announced um this September actually, we're doing a kids' art show called Keep My Future Bright, which we're really excited about. And this is a non-juried show, so no pressure or anything, but kids up to, I say we say around 12, because we always regret putting an exact age on it. But kids up to around 12, we want them to submit art, and then we're gonna have a reception where they can come in and they get a little name badge that has their name and says artist on it, and they get to talk about their art. And yeah, we're really excited for that one. We partnered with a local artist, Mary Gordon McFall, and that's a perfect example of somebody coming to us with an idea and us just fully flushing it out and making it a reality.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Okay. Well, how can people find out more about Switch Wicked?
SPEAKER_00Um, switchwicked.com. And if the on there, there's a section for our whole our studios, as well as all the other things we offer. And then honestly, just following us on social media um is a great way to keep up on all of our events as well.
SPEAKER_01Sounds good. Great to have you in. Thanks for the work
Wrap Up And Next Guest Tease
SPEAKER_01that you're doing and the contribution that you're making to our community and and helping out all those uh artistic individuals and all the great things that they got their hands involved in. So it's gonna be fun to follow along with y'all.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_01All right, that is Dane Malone from Switch Wicked Studios. Guess who's next? Jayna Ukrijenko. We're gonna talk about some things that are coming along here in the next few days on the GMCF Community Hour here on News Radio, K M A N.