2005-2006 "Making a Living, Making a Life" workshops
Workshop dates/locations
Workshop topics/schedule
Additional opportunities for assistance
How to register
WHAT
Arts Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Arts Board are offering both a Fundamentals and Advanced version of professional development workshops for artists-entrepreneurs in 2005-2006.
Workshop leaders from Minneapolis-based Springboard for the Arts, and Madison-based MartiWorks - practicing artists themselves - will conduct these business and professional practices workshops for Wisconsin artists in the following communities around Wisconsin from October through April.
The “Making A Living, Making A Life: Fundamentals” workshop consists of a day and a half of sessions filled with key information for self-employed creative people who are ready to make the commitment of time and resources necessary to advance their artistic careers. Various WI arts professionals will participate as guest faculty for these workshops. Click here for more information on dates, locations, and agenda.
The “Making A Living, Making A Life: Advanced” workshop consists of a one day intensive that explores more deeply the needs of arts entrepreneurs who are running a small business. Click here for more information on dates, locations, and agenda.
Springboard for the Arts is a nonprofit service organization whose mission is to provide affordable management information, consulting and training services designed to improve the business competence and confidence of independent artists and cultural organizations in the Upper Midwest.
MartiWorks is a business consulting service for creative commerce. Martiworks provides business, marketing, and financial analysis so that artists, small business owners and entrepreneurs are free to do what they do best – create.
WHERE/WHEN
FUNDAMENTALS workshops schedule:
- February 17 & 18 – LaCrosse, local host and location: Pump House Regional Arts Center, 119 King Street
- March 3 and 4 – Wausau, local host and location: Center for the Visual Arts
- April 7-8 -- Green Bay, location: Cellcom Room, Resch Center; local host: Northeastern Wisconsin Arts Council
ADVANCED workshops schedule:
- March 5-- Ashland, local host: Chequamegon Bay Arts Council; location: Northern Great Lakes Visitors Center
- March 18 – Mineral Point, local host and location: Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts, 18 Shakerag Street
- April 1– Milwaukee, local hosts: Bucketworks and Milwaukee Artist Resource Network (MARN); location: Woodland Pattern Book Center, 720 East Locust Street
Fundamentals Workshop Agenda
The sessions will be highly interactive, informal, and encouraging for
all artists to ask questions, share knowledge and resources. The key “take-aways”
are understanding how writing a business plan can help you organize your
growth, and key skills for managing an art business.
Friday, 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM
--Career Planning for Artists
--Business Fundamentals for Artists
Saturday:
8:30 AM – Noon
--Financial Management for Artists
--Marketing and Professional Presentation for Artists
1:00 PM – 5:00 PM
--Developing a Business Plan
--Career Planning for Artists
Provides artists with a format to examine their careers- both professionally
and artistically- and develop well-thought-out career goals and objectives.
Artists will learn how to chart a "career path" that incorporates
developed goals and strategies.
--Business Fundamentals for Artists
Familiarizes artists with business planning concepts with a focus on organizational
skills, keeping the balance between business management & creating
art, and finding small business resources locally and on the web. Provides
an introduction to the legal aspects of running a business.
--Financial Management for Artists
Demonstrates simple methods for setting up your financial books as a self-employed
artist, includes setting a budget, financial statements 101, doing a Break-Even
Analysis, working with Dealers and Agents, Fees and Pricing.
--Marketing and Professional Presentation for Artists
Teaches effective marketing 101, including helping artists describe their
“product,” communicate it to your target audience, determine
who your target audience is, and develop artist statements, biographies
and targeted resumes.
--Developing a Business Plan
Starts artists on the path of developing a basic business plan, including
the initial plan outline, addressing funding and space issues, identifying
what a bank or lending organization is looking for in a business plan,
and critiquing a sample artist business plan.
Advanced Workshop Agenda
This advanced level workshop is designed with arts entrepreneurs
in mind who have already attended our “Artists Making A Living Making
A Life: Fundamentals” workshop. Presentations will build on the
foundation of career planning, marketing and business practices provided
by the Fundamentals workshop, and explore more deeply the needs of arts
entrepreneurs who are running a small business. Topics will include reviewing
current business plans and improving upon them; developing a marketing
plan that uses the web effectively; planning for profit; choosing the
right professionals to work with you; and branding.
9:00 AM: Business Plans In-Depth
- Review of current goals (i.e. exhibit or sell at galleries or coffee shops; perform in a series of coffee shops or 1,000 seat halls)
- Planning for profit
- Review of current business plans; strategies for strengthening them
1:00 PM: Marketing Plans In-Depth
- Review of current artist statement for visual artists and biography for performing artists; and of how artists communicate verbally about their work
- Development of a marketing plan that uses the web effectively and review of target markets
- tips on miscellaneous issues, such as choosing the right professionals to work with you, HR/staffing, and branding your work
*schedule subject to minor changes between communities
SPECIAL ADDITIONAL OPPORTUNTIES FOR ASSISTANCE!
Take advantage of this concurrent opportunity for individual assistance--these consultations are available on an individually-arranged basis, through a free consultations with an ArtsPeer representative of Arts Wisconsin, the state's arts service and advocacy organization. Sign up for free 15-minute discussions about an issue concerning you and your work. If you have a question, need advice, want an objective viewpoint for a challenge you’re facing, Arts Wisconsin's’ ArtsPeers Advisory Network can help.
Please register for any of these consulting sessions by contacting Arts Wisconsin at 608 255 8316 / akatz@artswisconsin.org.
COST
The cost of these workshops is being underwritten in great part
by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Wisconsin Department of
Commerce. These kinds of information-packed workshops would cost at least
$250 per person without this generous support. Because of
this generous support, registration for the Fundamentals workshop is only
$50, and registration for the Advanced workshop is $75. It's a great
deal and a great investment for your career!
WHO
Artists from all visual, performing, literary, and media arts
disciplines and genres are encouraged to participate!
SPONSORS
These workshops are:
- Sponsored by the Wisconsin Arts Board and Arts Wisconsin
- Presented by Springboard for the Arts, MartiWorks, and featuring guest presenters from Wisconsin
- Funded by the Challenge America program of the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Community-Based Economic Development (CBED) Program of the Wisconsin Department of Commerce
HOW TO REGISTER
Register online or contact Arts Wisconsin at 608 255 8316 /akatz@artswisconsin.org to register. If you register and pay the fee for a workshop but find you are unable to attend, refunds of the registration payment, minus a $5 administrative fee, will be made up to a week before the date of the workshop. We regret that we can only make refunds within a week of the workshop if your place is filled by another registrant.
Please note that we are limiting attendance, in order to provide
a quality experience for participants, to 25 people per Fundamentals workshop
and 20 per Advanced workshop, so register today!