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There is a deep-rooted misconception in the society: creativity means the ability to draw. The fact is, creativity is not limited to drawing. “A person can be creative but cannot paint,” said Bartega co-founder Benson Putra. Moreover, drawing or painting skills can be taught.

 Bartega founders are the living proof of that statement. Founded in 2017 by Jazz Pratama, Nadia Daniella and Benson Putra, Bartega (@bartega.studio) creates fun learning experience by adding wine to painting class. None of the founders has art background.

The idea of Bartega is simply to create activity that allows people to be productive on the weekend while hanging out with friends. “When I was a kid, I remembered going to the mall [for leisure]. I wish something like Bartega exist. We were taught to consume instead of create,” said Nadia who is handling finance at the company.

Experience, either online or offline experience, was the buzzword of 2017. There was a transition from consuming goods to collecting experience. “People started to indulge in experience rather than buying goods to please themselves,” said Benson.

One of the experience that people indulge in is visiting art exhibitions. “They know where to purchase and enjoy art. They rarely get the chance to be the artist. We give people a chance to be an artist, explore new things, make mistakes with art and be creative,” Benson explained.

From weekly painting class, Bartega expanded its services to company painting event and art supplies. They also work with established artists, such as Kathrin Honesta, Darbotz and Imelda Adams, to teach art classes.

This collaboration brings the art community together and supports artists during challenging times like COVID-19. Recently, Bartega held an online event with art gallery Ruci Art Space. “Since the pandemic, they (Ruci Art Space) don’t have online platform to exhibit artworks and share their current project. We collaborate with professional artists from Ruci,” said Jazz who is handling the marketing side of Bartega.

According to Jazz, the artists need a platform to share their message effectively with exposure to audience. The painting class was then turned into webinar which put social aspects at the forefront called the artist series, through which the audience get to see the artists share their story and perspective behind their work.

“Each artist has different style, work and characteristics. People who join the online painting classes will get different experience and results [from each artist]. Before the pandemic, it was nice to be at different locations for each event. However, the knowledge and experience were almost similar from one event to another,” said Benson.

The pandemic also pushed the Bartega team to be agile and more attentive to their audience. When the first large-scale social restriction (PSBB) was just announced, the team had to move its office location and pivot all the events online.

Even though business activities were redirected to free tutorials on Instagram live, paid webinars on Zoom, as well as painting sets and merchandise, the team managed to find innovative ways to communicate and engage with their audience on social media. They also branched out to mixed media aside from paintings and illustrations.

One benefit from online session is the connection Bartega builds with its audience. “When we had 20 to 30 participants, the teacher cannot attend to everyone’s need. It is more personal right now compared to before the pandemic. It helps us understand why people like to engage with us and what they need from us to develop themselves.”

“There are participants who went through unfortunate incidents during the pandemic. They are trying to find new ways to cope during difficult times. We see a lot of wellness trend going up during the pandemic.”

Painting is one of them because it lets people spend more time with themselves to cope with the ongoing situation and go through difficult times.

The founders slowly built a tight knit group with the active participants. They become more like friends now, according to Nadia. Another blessing in disguise from online sessions is the reach. Bartega now has participants from Singapore, Australia and the US. Previously, the event was limited to Jakarta, Surabaya and Bali.

Learning from the current situation where changes can happen every week and things are uncertain, in addition to the growing number of competition, the team agrees that agility is something that needs to be implemented in the company culture going forward.

“We want to show people [that] as a creative people you have to keep on changing, get out of [your] comfort zone, otherwise you will be forgotten. [This is] Something I find a lot in common in businesses that survive the pandemic.”