Parents want to foster creativity in their children—hence the self-esteem-boosting refrigerator door/art gallery. But what about when the exhibit is over? Where do parents put all those paintings, sketches, and crayon drawings? Staples grad (class of ’93) and parent of two young scribblers, Jedd Gold had an idea: save it, efficiently. He created ArtKive, a clever image-sharing app that allows users to take, tag and store images of artwork and even easily turn them into a book or keepsake. Simply upload images from a camera or take one from within the app—and they won’t be lost within the hundreds of others.
“The feedback has been incredible, from winning a Parents’ Choice Recommended Award to being featured on The Today Show, Daily Candy, and more,” says Gold. “What I really love though are the emails, FB posts and Tweets that I get from moms every day. Here’s a marriage proposal we got today: ‘I keep singing praises for ArtKive App, which is so amazing I could marry it.’” He clearly understands his audience, explaining, “Who knew all those years working on Main St. (Onion Alley, Britches, and Westport Pizzeria) would prepare me so well for later in life?”
As for the art work of his youth, he says, “I know a lot of it is still sitting in bags at the top of my closet in my old bedroom. Too bad my mom didn’t have ArtKive.” (iPhone only, Android version in development.)