FIRESIDE CHATS: 11.07.2013 TOYS, PLAY, CREATIVITY, INTELLIGENCE..Janine Jensen owns and operates Madison Arts Exchange, dba MAD Arts, in Madison County, VA. Opened in August 2009, MAD Arts is made up of over 200 local artisans, offering hand made items for sale in the retail store. MAD Arts also offers fine arts classes and workshops for students of all ages and skill levels, private music instruction, an eclectic selection of new books and basic art supplies plus local food products like BBQ sauce, honey and grass-finished, all natural beef, pork and lamb.
Janine is the current President of the Charlottesville Business Exchange, a local networking group that focuses on personal and professional development.
Janine’s primary career has been in trade publishing, having served with a Mid-Atlantic sales and marketing group for the past twenty-five years. She was the Director of Operations for twenty years and ran the business for off-site owners. For the past five years she has been in the field, covering a specific territory and selling new books to bookstores, museum shops and specialty accounts in the Mid-Atlantic states and NYC. She also helps coordinate author appearances, cooperative advertising and supports key national accounts such as Barnes & Noble, Inc. and the National Park systems.
Her passion has been serving the small and diverse community of Madison, where her family of five reside and her children attend public school. “I spent several years searching for a new home and ended up falling in love with the people and beauty of Madison County, VA.”
Janine graduated from John Brown University in Siloam Spring, AR, earning a B.S. in Psychology and an A.A. in Journalism. Janine lived in New England for 10 years and in South Florida for 10 years before moving to Northern Virginia in 1986.
From her early years working in the U.S. House of Representatives on Capitol Hill to her current home in the hills of Central Virginia, Janine tries to help others and solve problems in a caring and compassionate manner.