We had the good fortune of connecting with Merrick Porcheddu and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Merrick, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I started Artist Uprising with the intent to pair brands and businesses with artists and entertainers. There is always a creative need that corporations have, whether it be to collaborate with a renowned artist for a marketing campaign, or a local artist for a mural or billboard sign, or a product designer for the launch of a new product, or a musician for a company party, happy hour, or even for licensing music for a commercial. Whatever the need is, there is always a creator to be found. Today we have curated artists, photographers, film makers, muralsits, sculptors, etc for brands like Google, Adobe, MTV, Netflix, AirBnb, Canon, Warner Brothers, Spotify, Mercedes, Toyota, and more! Not to mention all the commercial developers creating work, live, play concepts. Commercial spaces are constantly looking for muralists, animators for their LED screens, fabricators for FF&E, musicians for live music programming. Our team at Artist Uprising is here to curate the best talent for the job and to project manage the process for the business and the talent all the way through to the end. For artists, we do on-demand management. Meaning, we are a non-binding business management group that can negotiate contracts for artists for a percentage of the project. Artists can use us at any time to help handle the “money talk,” the legal contracts, the project management, and the accounting. Most artists that use us for these services end up staying with us for a long time. We value the artists freedom and we also have many resources we bring to the table for artists we manage. In 2020 we launched a creative agency (an effort that is helping fine artists and muralists take their artwork to the digital licensing world for global brands). We also launched a photography & film studio, Artist Uprising™ Studios in Richardson Texas that is a natural light private studio for photographers and film makers to book. And lastly we launched Real Estate Uprising, a real estate brokerage company to help people find curated spaces for their homes and offices. They are then given credit with Artist Uprising to aid in the art curation services once they close with REUP. We are a company that is growing at a rapid pace, especially as more companies learn the value of working with artists and artists who learn the value of working with companies. The relationship is only getting stronger between the two and we are here to serve both sides to strengthen the relationship for the long haul.

What should our readers know about your business?
The thing I am the most proud of is the amount of money we paid out artists last year. This year we have already quadrupled that number. I am constantly blown away by the talent we have worked with and the projects we are doing for brands and corporations. It’s exciting to go to a restaurant or a hotel or a coworking space and see all the art, sculptures, and murals we have done in just one year. Last month I went to check on a project in Milwaukee that we have been working on for the last 9 months. I hadn’t seen it all in person yet – the 15 murals, the branding, the animation designs, old parking meters we painted to look like characters. The shopping center has absolutely transformed and I couldn’t be more proud of the 15 local artists we have employed for this project! Starting this business was not easy. I was pregnant with my second child when we launched as a tech company. Technology was very difficult to maintain with two little children, so we closed that part of the company and pivoted to curate and project manage manually. Letting the business die was essential to the pivoting, and in the end the death of the technology lead to the success of the brand.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Depends who the friend is and what they are interested in (haha) but I would take them probably to a local artisan shop probably in Bishop, a local brewery probably in Deep Ellum, my favorite restaurant Smokey Rose in Lakewood, and a speakeasy – probably Here Lounge by Smokey Rose!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My husband. He has truly been through it all with a startup business, a hard-headed passionate wife, and working mother. He has been a rock, has sacrificed more than I can write here, and he has partnered with me now as a co-owner of Artist Uprising™ Studios which we just launched.

Website: www.artistuprising.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artistuprising/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/artist-uprising/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/artistuprising
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artistuprisinglife/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1qcN2nJ4C6lm5DVmdMIr_Q

Image Credits
Photography provided by Belmont Creative, Artist Uprising™ and Artist Uprising™ Studios and their respective partners.

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