It’s funny how a well-intentioned business venture can be twisted into a negative narrative.
We were thrilled when local reporter John Emeigh featured us in a story to support the 2024 Art Walk season where we made our first appearance as a featured artist. The community response was fantastic, and we were grateful for the support as we introduced our art. Making friends who share our passion, drop off broken pieces of glass, and believe in our purpose has been very rewarding.
A couple of weeks later, the article was picked up by Sirius XM and aired nationally.
The feedback was incredible. A kind woman from Georgia emailed to congratulate us and a gentleman in Texas gave us a call to put in an order for his 50th wedding anniversary. Though a bit embarrassed by the spotlight, we felt and continue to feel incredibly proud of our creation.
Our excitement grew as we set up for our first farmers market. If you haven't been to a Butte Farmers Market, imagine 70+ vendors and hundreds of shoppers enjoying Saturday morning on historic Park Street. The energy is invigorating, especially on a sunny morning as was the case on our first market.
On that day, a gentleman and his wife visited our booth. He mentioned seeing the article and criticized it for painting Butte negatively, suggesting that it depicted the town as a place of neglect and outlaw behavior. Taken aback, I didn't respond immediately. He claimed that we were just collecting glass from an old dump which was different than picking up new glass off of the trails. His comment made my husband and I reflect on our business and marketing and our overall purpose.
Over the next few weeks, we noticed that contrary to the comment, the majority of glass we collected was new, replenished weekly, not from old dump sites but near the trails. While some antique glass comes from the dump era, it's a minority.
Most of Butte’s residents take good care of the town and its trails. Unfortunately, some individuals still use the M for shooting and breaking glass on a fairly regular basis. Until we can curb this behavior, we will continue to keep the M as clean as possible and create art from our finds.
This experience made me grateful for our ability to reflect on differing perspectives and then let them go. I also noticed how much this one comment impacted me vs the dozens of positive comments that we had received over the last couple of months. We appreciate criticism so we can clarify or adjust if necessary. Additionally, I wanted to post about it in case anyone else had the same question about where we find our glass.
We welcome anyone to reach out to us and join us on a glass pickup day. Email us at montanaseeglass@gmail.com to join in!
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