Today we’d like to introduce you to Joshua Thomasson
Hi Joshua , so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My name is Joshua Thomasson, an architect in Raleigh, and my Barkitecture journey in 2018 as a way to use the design talent that we had in the Triangle to promote the mission and needs of the pet rescue community here. As an architect, and president of Barkitecture, it was a creative outlet for me that also let me give back to the community and the pets that have made an impact on my life. Forming a committee of like-minded individuals and with the support of AIA Triangle (a local chapter of the American Institute of Architects), we’ve really formed a tight knit community that gets excited for our event every year. We just recently celebrated our 5-year anniversary of Triangle Barkitecture with new fundraising highs and a book coming out in 2025. Through our committee’s hard work, we’ve seen growth in our fundraising efforts year after year and look forward to seeing how it will continue to grow and save more pets lives while promoting the amazing design talent we have.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Barkitecture has faced a couple of challenges along the way, but ultimately I think that has led to a bigger and better event with more outreach. Having our first event in the Fall of 2019, I think we all felt great about the future of the event based on the energy we saw from teams and the community there, and then we quickly had to pivot after the covid pandemic in 2020 which saw us cancel our next planned event that year. I think it took as another whole year to again capture that momentum and grow to where we are today.
I think one of the other opportunities we’ve been faced with is working with new and different venues for our event as we’ve grown and added more to our schedules. The community relationships my team has made along the way is a big reason for our successes, but it’s a lot of work in spreading the word about the event and what we do. I think there are a lot of pet events, but none quite like Barkitecture where we’re a team of volunteers putting on such a large scale event with all proceeds from the event getting donated back to local rescue groups. That messaging is something we’ve tried to be very clear about in our sponsor packages, although we are competing with events with bigger advertising budgets. We still feel a bit of the underdog role, and think we still haven’t had our big breakout yet in terms of media awareness of the work we’re doing.
We’re also all volunteers, so the balance of our ‘real’ jobs, in my case being a licensed architect, while doing the most we can with the Barkitecture event can also be a daunting time commitment at times.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Barkitecture?
Barkitecture is a custom pet architecture competition that challenges local architects and designers to design and build one-of-a-kind pet architecture designs that are displayed and auctioned off at our event, with all proceeds going to our selected rescue partners that year. Since our first event in 2019, Barkitecture has raised over $110,000 for local pet rescues around the Triangle, with our biggest event fundraising total coming in 2024 with $41,000 donated. We’re always looking to make our next event the biggest yet, and help more pets in need.
I think what sets us apart is that we are volunteer led. Barkitecture is a group of design and pet lovers looking to make a true difference in our pet community and have some fun doing it. We have such an amazing pet rescue community, and we’re trying to do our part to educate the community about pet rescue needs and amplify the missions of our partners.
If you’ve never been to a Barkitecture event, it’s your chance to bid on and win amazing creations from local architects that your pets will love. Unlike something you buy in a store, these builds are thoughtfully crafted with our pets in mind and tell the stories of what the architect’s pets liked and how they interact with their owners. Best of all, the money raised goes right back to helping find more pets to find loving homes – which will need their own barkitecture!
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I think a lot of working in this non-profit space is really knowing when to bet on yourself and the work that you do. We’ve always asked ourselves what’s best for the event to grow and reach more people, and sometimes that has involved us taking a step back and completely rethinking how we approach the event and incorporate new ideas to make it even bigger and better. We do a lot of event planning and try out new ideas at each event – some are great new additions like our Howl-o-Ween pet costume competition, and our Stuff The Trunk pet food and litter donation drive, but not every idea has been successful.
Being volunteers, we’re also doing this around our full time jobs, so I think there is a lot to take on from that perspective as well and knowing that there are times where you are not going to have a lot of energy, but still pushing to put your best foot forward because you believe in the mission and what you do.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://aiatriangle.org/barkitecture/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trianglebarkitecture/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/triangle.barkitecture
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/barkitecture-events/
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/@barkitecture
