Local Good: How One Business Owner is Helping Artists

PHOTO COURTESY OF LOCAL GOOD | PITTSBURGH IN BLOOM BY ALLIE BARTOSZEWICZ

Five years ago, Desiree Vuocolo crafted up the idea for an online business with the mission to unite artists with consumers, celebrate a storytelling hub of craftsmanship and feature local creatives who showcased activism and resilience. She called it Local Good. Now, her newly minted nonprofit, Amplify Local Good, is taking that mission a step farther.

“There’s a major issue going on right now. The economy is not good. The state of the world isn’t necessarily strong and people [involved in the arts] are getting forgotten and left behind,” Vuocolo says. 

The company helps artists sell their works and amplifies their voices through its social media channels. In addition, the business collaborated with local brick-and-mortar businesses such as Ketchup City Creative and Song Bird Artistry, which closed down its Lawrenceville shop earlier this year, but is still a popular vendor at local pop-ups and festivals.

“I think there’s still something to be said about the community itself and the artist’s struggle,” Vuocolo says. “If people don’t start to recognize that we need to find new ways to work with these artists, we’re going to end up with mass produced goods…and that’s what I was trying to avoid. We need to ask ourselves, how else can we get the arts out there?”

Previously an executive with Highmark, Vuocolo started Local Good as a passion project in order to help artists promote and sell their art. The idea sparked from her daughter, Sofia, who is an artist herself. Vuocolo says she considered what trying to make a living would be like for Sophia; the idea for Local Good took off from there as she brainstormed ways to help not only her daughter, but other local artists, too.

“People are all connected online, but when they’re actually standing in front of a person, you see a lot of people with their phones in their hands. You see a lot of people who are very busy with their day,” Vuocolo says. “But there is an art that is just connecting, asking questions, figuring out what people want and need. Most of the time, it’s such a simple thing that can make a huge difference in a person’s world.”

Local Good is now shifting gears. Vuocolo is focused now on Amplify Local Good, an nonprofit organization that helps provide marketing and social media assistance for local artists to promote their work. 

“The intention behind Local Good was always to not just be able to give artists a place to sell their work, but it was to be able to help amplify their voice,” she says. “With Amplify Local Good, we really want to be able to get the word out for artists and help them connect with new markets and audiences.”

Amplify Local Good received non-profit status in September of 2025, and Vuocolo is now working with her board of directors and interns to learn how to better serve the art community. 

“Taking the time to connect with another human being, or spend money at a local business, doesn’t only help ensure the dollars go back to where you want, but it really does go back into building up a better world, a better humanity,” Vuocolo says. “And I think we all need that.”