Hi friends, Starting September 9th, I will officially be the full-time Executive Director of Nosreme Baltimore. This was a very difficult decision. I’ve spent a little over four years as an Architect at Gensler, saying goodbye to my colleagues and the place that has been such a huge part of my professional life was hard. I went back and forth about this decision for a while. So much so that I didn’t even tell my parents until after I formally put in my two weeks. The exciting part: Every single person I’ve told has been excited for me... People are rooting for Nosreme. The scary part: I won't have health insurance, life insurance, or a salary (of which I could use to subsidize Nosreme when we need something.) For the past four years, so much of Nosreme has been built between the hours of 8 PM and 2 AM after work, on weekends, and whenever I could squeeze it in. Now I can actually spend my days pursuing contracts, building partnerships, fundraising, supporting artists and growing this organization instead of frantically making Instagram posts at 11 PM. What’s next? I’ll be in Rotterdam from mid-September through early November building relationships, figuring out how we can access Dutch funding, connecting Baltimore artists to new opportunities, and identifying a location for a mural project with a really strong story behind it. This international work has been part of the vision for Nosreme from the beginning. Now I finally have the time to intentionally build it. This is where you come in. A few months ago, I accepted that I cannot do all of this myself and started hiring contract support. Right now, Nosreme pays approximately: - $420/month for administrative support
- $220/month for our blog + LinkedIn writers
- $120/month for social media/Reels editing
- $70/month for bookkeeping support
We currently have about three months of overhead to keep that support going. When Nosreme needed something, I could personally cover the gap. Now that I’m doing this full time, that safety net looks VERY different. If you’ve been watching Nosreme grow this is your moment. Donate! Even a small donation helps us keep the people behind the scenes paid while I focus on bringing more funding, contracts and opportunities into the organization. On September 12th, I’m hosting our first little Nosreme fundraiser at my house. I’m keeping it intentionally small, so it won’t be publicly advertised. It’ll be a chance to meet some of the people who support Nosreme, talk with me one-on-one about what we’re building, eat, drink and celebrate this very big (and terrifying) next chapter. Thank you to everyone who has supported Nosreme over the last four years. Whether you’ve donated, collaborated with us, shared our work, introduced me to someone, attended an event or simply told me, “Thank you for creating opportunities for artist to Baltimore." Also, if it has been hard to get in contact with me over the last three weeks…I'm sorry. Life has been a little chaotic. I’m catching up and will be responding to everyone before the end of the month but if you want to set an in-person chat it has to be between September 9th - September 16th. Leggo! - Ariana Parrish, Founder & Executive Director of Nosreme Baltimore | 
