the JOPLIN TOAD: SEASON 7
The toad lives
Artwork by Luke Smith [from the Toad archives: alternate cover for issue 6]
SEASON 7 (seasons sounds infinitely better than {years}). It’s insane that we are going into our 7th year.
And for those wondering- yes, we are technically still alive over here at the Joplin Toad- but our hibernations have, indeed, become longer and more sporadic.
That’d be because, basically and unfortunately, we’re normal humans- well, humans at least- trying to live normal lives and love our families and survive politics and make money to keep our families fed. It tends to be true that indie arts organizations don’t always provide for that last part so well, so sometimes Toad stuff has to step back for a moment while we catch up on the normal and the “real” and we recover from our ADHD burnout and then we barreling around the curve once more…
But all that being said…
original illustration by Austin Spencer, [from the toad Archives]
We’re still here. Slow and steady, to continue celebrating Joplin and our passionate pursuit of encouraging local folks to work on THEIR passionate pursuits. So we’re now introducing a new season of creative challenges, localized sarcasm, random Toady surprises, and sharing the stunning work of JoMO area creatives while disproving the “there’s nothing to do here” mumblings.
QUICK SUMMARY:
Here’s what’s up, in a toadshell:
new creative challenge for the month of May (first of the season)
see a couple places we’ve been recently interviewed
sneak peek at a new project
soft call for volunteers
the Toad Archives
1: SURPRISE! First Toad Art challenge of 2025
PROMPT: Surprise!
PRIZE: $20 gift card to your favorite local business
MEDIUM: any
DEADLINE: midnight, May 31st
SEND ENTRIES TO: joplintoad@gmail.com
Some more info that might be helpful:
Only original entries from local creatives (or former residents who remain connected to the area). This is centered around Joplin, MO but can also include nearby towns like Carthage, Pittsburg KS, Miami, OK Neosho, etc.
We leave our ‘prompt’ a bit vague on purpose. “Surprise” could inspire many different emotions and pieces of art; Sit on a porch somewhere for a few minutes and decide what it could inspire for you!
most creative mediums are accepted; 2D, 3D, written, video, & audio work. (We’ve had songs, audio fiction, puppets, and cakes- seriously)
No, it can’t be a DM. Email submissions only, plz.
If you’re submitting a photo of an artwork, please take the time to get the best shot of it you can- try for nice lighting, no distracting backgrounds, etc.
Titling your attached images w/ name of artist & name of piece, is super helpful to us.
There will be a new art challenge next month as well, with a whole new prompt.
Want to see an example of what past art challenge entries looked like? check out our Nick Cage exhibit!
#2: FEATURED RECENT INTERVIEWS w/ THE TOAD
We were recently featured by two other publications- one local, one national.
THE MAIN MIKE: The first was a lovely podcast interview w/ the folks over at the Flanagan Group. While the Flanagan group sponsors the podcast, It’s really not about business or advertising, as we came to learn; Adam and the boys over there have done a great job building a podcast that shows off Joplin’s strongest assets by interviewing some of it’s most interesting and outside-the-box entrepreneurial and artistic thinkers.
…after running through all those folks, they also featured us.
THE CANVAS REBEL: This is an online publication that describes itself as “a space for artists, creatives and entrepreneurs to be able to learn from their peers through the magic and power of storytelling.” They sought out an interview w/ Toad chancellor Mark N, who rambled many gargantuan rambles in response to tiny questions.
#3: Sneak peek at a new project
this is it. It’s all you get. this one thing. we won’t answer your questions. Back off us hisssss
#4: A quiet whisper of a call for volunteers
It’s sort of a funny spot to be in, when you’re too busy bc you don’t have enough volunteers but you can’t interview volunteers bc you’re too busy. That seems to be our predicament. But we’re slowly moving the direction of more directly asking for help with a variety of things, such as:
manning the toad booth at local events (usually Saturdays)
webmaster duties, posting to website and/or social media
being on call for occasional specific creative needs- categories like mini write ups, illustrations, layout design, content proofing, comedy writing, etc.
administrative, based on talents offered- accounting, grant-writing, event coordination,
serving on a specific committee, like “merch”, “events”, “magazine”, “how the living hell do we make some money,”, etc.
being on the toad prankz(™) squad
volunteer for the Toad with your own ideas.
The last one is our favorite. We’re only here because a group of different passions all happened to align in the same direction; if your idea, willingness, and area of expertise line up in the same direction as ours, maybe we can be the platform for you to expand your own dream toward its’ next steps.
Want to help? Aren’t sure what category from above is clicking? Have this one specific thing you know you’re super good at? Just tell us what you’d like to do, and we’ll see if it’s something that fits!
We’re currently in the very beta stages of setting up official volunteers, so there will be more opportunity for conversation soon. In the meantime, will you email us with subject line "volunteer”, and answers to these questions?
your name
what you’re passionate about
what you’re flipping really good at
what you’d love to do with us
why the Toad?
DO IT! Before you talk yourself out of it.
#5: The Toad Archives
You know what organizations do when they don’t have new content? They just dust off their OLD content and shine it up a little.
Illustration by Julia Miller. (this is an example of “old content”, like maybe 2 years ago or something, I don’t know, but why on earth would you not want to see an 80s island santatoad again, regardless of season)?!
But that’s not what WE’RE doing. We genuinely believe in our old content so much that we’re lovingly presenting it to you all over again.
All that to say, keep an eye on our social media for more archived content that even we’ve forgotten about! Videos, podcast episodes, art series, lawyer billboard jokes, the FULL GAMUT of an incredible few years working with 100+ Joplin, Missouri area creatives.
That’s it for now, folks. Thanks for hanging in there with us. Go make something beautiful!