Free Recovery-Focused Financial & Business Online Workshops
SUMMER 2021 OFFERINGS
for MA, RI & CT
All workshops are FREE and held via Zoom, with pre-registration required to keep the cohorts at a size that maximizes participation and peer support.
WORKSHOP REGISTRATION PRIORITIES: Generally, our workshops are open to artists who currently live in the states of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, or Connecticut. In general, space is limited, and your registration is not guaranteed to be approved. Please be aware that priority will be given to:
Artists whose practice best matches the focus of the training.
Artists of color. A4A recognizes that the dire impacts of the pandemic have disproportionately affected BIPOC communities, and our 2021 programming is especially focused on supporting artists of color.
For RI & CT: preference will be given to artists in rural areas due to a collaboration with the USDA.
Artists who meet additional geographic priorities due to partnerships with organizations in a given region. These will be specified with individual workshops.
Learn about Assets for Artists’ accessibility resources
for artists who live with impairments and disabilities.
SUMMER 2021 PARTNERSHIP WITH
MASS CULTURAL COUNCIL
We’re thrilled to present an expanded series of online workshops for MA artists in partnership with the Mass Cultural Council. See the line-up throughout our calendar below.
“The Basics of Building a Grant” w/ Yara Liceaga Rojas
Tuesday, June 22 & 29, July 6, 2021 | 2:00 - 4:00 PM
This is a THREE-part series. Participants may register for all sessions or select the topic most relevant to them.
Grants and other written proposals can feel daunting without a plan. In part one of this series, participants will learn about developing an appropriate project for the appropriate funder and where and how to search for opportunities. In part two, Yara will cover the basic building blocks that make up a proposal, including how to get organized, what the review process looks like from the inside, and how to persevere through rejection. The last part of the series focuses on a project’s monetary and non-monetary needs and how to build a corresponding proposal budget. Participants will discuss how to set artist fees, as well as the barriers – financial trauma, the devaluing of the arts, and systemic inequities – that come into play when we build our own project budgets. Participants will leave empowered to fight for their worth and prepared to take advantage of creative opportunities.
Based between Boston and Puerto Rico, Yara Liceaga Rojas is a writer, performer, and independent grant-writer who works in both English and Spanish. A4A’s fundraising & marketing manager, Molly Rideout, will be a guest speaker for this workshop, as both a professional grant-writer and practicing artist.
Suitable for artists of all disciplines. Open exclusively to MA artists in Franklin, Hampshire or Hampden County.
Part I: Project Development & Where to Find Grants - Register via Zoom
Tuesday, June 22, 2021 | 2:00 - 4:00 PM
Part II: Getting Your Materials Ready & Writing- Register via Zoom
Tuesday, June 29, 2021 | 2:00 - 4:00 PM
Part III: Building a Project Budget & Addressing Financial Trauma - Register via Zoom
Tuesday, July 6, 2021 | 2:00 - 4:00 PM
“Navigating Housing & Studio Spaces for Artists: Know Your Rights and Resources” w/ Ngoc-Tran Vu and expert guest speakers
Wednesdays, May 19, June 23, July 21, 2021 | 6:00 - 7:00 PM
With the ongoing housing crisis resulting from long-standing class and racial inequities (all exacerbated by the pandemic), it can feel like an impossible task to secure stable, affordable housing or studio space in some communities. But you’re not alone, and there are strategies to make the hunt easier. In this interactive workshop, artists will learn about locally relevant housing rights and resources and hear firsthand knowledge about navigating the housing market. This workshop micro-series is led by Ngoc-Tran Vu, a 1.5-generation Vietnamese American interdisciplinary and transnational artist whose socially engaged work draws from her experience as a community organizer, educator, and healer. Additional insight provided by guest specialists in each field.
Photo Credit: Three Circles Studio
Presented in partnership with the Mass Cultural Council.
This is a 3-part series. Participants may register for all sessions or select the topic most relevant to them.
Suitable for all artists.
Open to artists in Massachusetts.
I. Renting and Evictions: Wednesday, May 19, 2021 | 6:00 - 7:00 PM
Focused on navigating as a renter in the current housing crisis. We will share information on the moratorium and ways to seek eviction help/defense. Guest speaker: Housing attorney Liliana Mangiafico.
THIS WORKSHOP HAS PASSED
II. Alternative Artist's Living: Wednesday, June 23, 2021 | 6:00 - 7:00 PM
Focused on exploring different housing models that artists are building for themselves and one another. We will share insights on creating and sustaining these spaces. Guest speaker: Pampi D, Artist and Cultural Worker.
Register for “Alternative Artist’s Living” via Zoom.
III. First-Time Home Buying for Creatives: Wednesday, July 21, 2021 | 6:00 - 7:00 PM
Focused on navigating the current housing market as a prospective home buyer on freelance income. We will share tips and strategies on preparing yourselves for these rewarding long-term investments. Guest speaker: Jacqueline Cooper, President of Financial Education Associates.
Register for “First Time Home Buying” via Zoom.
“The Basics of Building a Grant” w/ Yara Liceaga Rojas
Thursday, July 8, 15 & 22, 2021 | 2:00 - 4:00 PM
Grants and other written proposals can feel daunting without a plan. In part one of this series, participants will learn about developing an appropriate project for the appropriate funder and where and how to search for opportunities. In part two, Yara will cover the basic building blocks that make up a proposal, including how to get organized, what the review process looks like from the inside, and how to persevere through rejection. The last workshop of the series focuses on a project’s monetary and non-monetary needs and how to build a corresponding proposal budget. Participants will discuss how to set artist fees, as well as the barriers – financial trauma, the devaluing of the arts, and systemic inequities – that come into play when we build our own project budgets. Participants will leave empowered to fight for their worth and prepared to take advantage of creative opportunities.
Photo Credit: Erin Scott
Presented in partnership with the Mass Cultural Council.
Based between Boston and Puerto Rico, Yara Liceaga Rojas is a writer, performer, and independent grant-writer who works in both English and Spanish. A4A’s fundraising & marketing manager, Molly Rideout, will be a guest speaker for this workshop, as both a professional grant-writer and practicing artist.
Suitable for artists of all disciplines. Open to artists across Massachusetts.
This is a THREE-part series. Participants may register for all sessions or select the topic most relevant to them.
Part I: Project Development & Where to Find Grants - Register via Zoom
Thursday, July 8, 2021 | 2:00 - 4:00 PM
Part II: Getting Your Materials Ready & Writing - Register via Zoom
Thursday, July 15, 2021 | 2:00 - 4:00 PM
Part III: Building a Project Budget & Addressing Financial Trauma - Register via Zoom
Thursday, July 22, 2021 | 2:00 - 4:00 PM
“Staying Authentic While Marketing Your Work” w/ Daniel Callahan
Wednesday, July 14, 2021 | 6:00 - 8:00 PM
They say 80% of life is showing up. How one shows up determines the rest. Whether it’s an interview, Google search, Pinterest post, TED talk or a conversation over tea, making sure the impression one leaves leads to interest, opportunity, and growth for both you and your audience is crucial. In this workshop, participants will learn some of the strategies and apply practical knowhow to promote themselves and their services with excellence and authenticity in both in-person and online spaces. Participants will leave the workshop with a fuller understanding of themselves and some tried-and-true methods for presenting and pitching their art and their practice. Daniel Callahan is an award winning transmedia artist, designer and filmmaker. In addition to running his own multimedia production company and art practice, he teaches film and video at Emerson College and The Institute of Contemporary Art.
Best suited for visual and media artists.
Open to artists across Massachusetts
Credit: Jonathan Turner
Presented in partnership with the Mass Cultural Council.
“The Essentials of Digital Marketing” w/ Francesca Olsen
Tuesday, July 27, 2021 | 2:00 - 4:00 PM
Francesca Olsen is a writer, musician, textile artist, and digital marketing consultant. In this workshop, Francesca will cover the basics of digital marketing for artists, including branding, audience building, effective social media, SEO optimization and website best practices. By the end of this workshop, participants will have the tools to build an online audience, evaluate what digital platforms are best for their work, use analytics to determine future decision making, and put together a marketing plan that covers multiple platforms.
Suitable for artists of all disciplines.
Open to artists across Massachusetts
THIS WORKSHOP IS FULL
Presented in partnership with the Mass Cultural Council.
Recent Summer Online Workshops
“Rhode Island Taxes, State & Federal Pandemic Relief” w/ Amy Smith
Tuesday, April 13, 2021 | 4:00 - 6:00 PM
As if taxes weren’t already complicated enough! Now, for the 2020 filing season, artists who received support from any of the many of federal and state relief efforts must learn about the tax implications of each program. Never fear! For decades, Amy Smith has prepared taxes for artists, taught financial well-being workshops, and coached artists one on one. This special, Rhode Island-focused workshop will cover the tax implications of a variety of RI and federal pandemic relief that artists may have received in 2020, including emergency relief grants and loans, unemployment, PPP, EIDL, and other federal CRF funds like Restore RI and Business Adaptation Grants. Amy will explain what to do if you received some of this relief, and also what to do if you already filed and now realize you filed incorrectly. Plus, we’ll have an update on any additional 2021 relief available to artists in the most recent funding stimulus and relief bill. Amy Smith is an educator, professional tax-preparer and the former Co-Director of Headlong Dance Theater, a Bessie-award winning Philadelphia-based dance theater company.
Suitable for artists of all disciplines. Open to RI artists.
THIS WORKSHOP HAS PASSED
Presented in partnership with the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts.
"The Nuts & Bolts of Being a Performing Artist" w/ Seth Lepore, Deen Rawlins-Harris, and Amy Smith
Mondays & Thursdays, May 3, 6, 10, 13, 17 & 20 | 5 – 7:30 PM
How do performing artists thrive under economic instability? How have the tools that originally defined success shifted in scope and practice? How can we collectively determine ownership over our livelihoods? Over the course of three weeks, this highly interactive series will cover a broad range of business and financial topics related to the performing arts. Participants will build community and trust with a cross-section of disciplines dedicated to live performance. Each 2.5-hour gathering will center on a different theme, including financial health and safety nets, values-aligned goal setting, budgeting and taxes, and interrogating historically outdated business models. There will be a special focus on solidarity economic models such as cooperatives and collectives. Facilitators will empower participants to build their intentions into proactive strategies, even in times of uncertainty.
Outside of regular workshop hours, participants will have additional options to join small group discussions.
Seth Lepore is a performing artist, educator and facilitator who, from 1997 - 2017, created and toured eight multiple-character solo shows. Deen Rawlins-Harris is an artist-educator from Boston, MA, who has facilitated and developed LGBQ/T+ trainings and Racial Justice trainings for people of all ages across the East Coast. Amy Smith is an educator and the Former Co-Director of Headlong Dance Theater, a Bessie-award winning Philadelphia-based dance theater company.
This workshop is best suited for individuals whose creative work leads them into the realm of performance. Any discipline is welcome: musicians, dancers and choreographers, hip-hop or spoken-word artists, actors, directors, and writers for the stage.
Open to artists across MA, RI & CT
DEADLINE: APRIL 20.
Registration deadline has passed.
Credit: Lauren Miller
Presented in partnership with the City of Boston Mayor’s Office of Arts & Culture and the New England Foundation for the Arts.
“Crowdfunding for Artist Projects” w/ Laura Christensen
Thursday, May 13, 2021 | 2:00 - 4:00 PM
Learn tips and tricks to help crowdfund your art project. In this workshop, Laura will guide participants through the process of preparing and running a successful crowdfunding campaign, from setting funding targets, to identifying potential backers, to sharing your campaign with the world, as well as post-campaign strategies. Using the platform Kickstarter as a case study, participants will take away strategies applicable to whatever their preferred crowdfunding medium. Laura Christensen is a visual artist who paints on recovered vintage portraits. In 2019 she ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund her project THEN AGAIN, a book anthology that features thirty-one original stories and poems written in response to her artwork.
Open to artists in Massachusetts.
THIS WORKSHOP HAS PASSED
Presented in partnership with the Mass Cultural Council.
“Making a Plan in a Time of Uncertainty” w/ Laura Baring-Gould
Thursdays, May 20 & 27, 2021 | 2:00 - 4:00 PM
(this is a TWO-part workshops experience)
Over two sessions, artists will develop the building blocks for a strategic plan for their creative career. This highly interactive course will help artists examine their goals and values, inventory their skills, and practice budgeting with an eye to maximizing opportunity and stability in the midst of crisis. Laura Baring-Gould's practice includes award-winning installations, public artworks and small bronzes sold in galleries, juried shows and through private commissions.
Suitable for artists in all disciplines.
Priority given to artists who live in Essex County, MA.
Note: If you do not live in Essex, your registration may not be approved until the week before the workshop, when we’re able to see how many Essex County artists have registered.
THIS WORKSHOP HAS PASSED
Presented in partnership with the Essex County Community Foundation’s Creative County Initiative
“Online Sales and e-Commerce for Craft Artists” w/ Ayumi Horie and Alicia Goodwin
Wednesday, May 26, 2021 | 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Sell your handmade work online! With so many in-person sales opportunities shuttered or limited, craft artists are turning to various online marketplaces to sell their creative wares. Join a conversation with two artists who have thrived in selling work digitally. Learn how to sell on your own site or through a third party host (e.g. Etsy), how to engage customers and bring sales year round -- while running a business that reflects your politics and values. Potter Ayumi Horie has been making pots for 25 years and selling online for 16 years. She is known for her online activism and is a Distinguished Fellow in Craft from United States Artists. She is currently Vice President of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts.. Jeweler Alicia Goodwin has been selling work through her shop Lingua Nigra for 17 years, with major recent success on Etsy. Her work has been displayed and sold at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, featured in Essence and on Good Morning America.
Best suited for craft artists.
Open to Massachusetts Artists.
THIS WORKSHOP HAS PASSED
“The Business of Writing: How to Successfully Research and Submit to Literary Journals, Publishers, and Agents” w/ Kristina Marie Darling
Wednesday, June 2, 2021 | 2:00 - 4:00 PM
This workshop will take writers through the basics of writing convincing and persuasive pitches, as well as submission etiquette and best practices for presenting your writing to decision makers in your field. It will address such topics as crafting cover letters, writing compelling queries, how to research opportunities for your career development, strategies for building an audience for one's work, and ways to improve the odds for your submissions. Participants will leave the workshop with a packet of resources for discovering opportunities in their chosen genre, as well as examples of successful pitches and submissions, and next steps relative to their goals and career point. Poet, essayist and critic, Kristina Marie Darling is the author of 35 books of poetry and literary criticism and the Editor-in-Chief at Tupelo Press.
Best suited for writers of all genres.
Open to writers across Massachusetts.
Presented in partnership with the Mass Cultural Council.
“Financial Strategies for Artists” w/ Amy Smith
Thursday, June 3, 2021 | 2:00 - 4:00 PM
Financial shame gets imposed on artists by our socioeconomic structures. In this workshop, Amy Smith cuts through shame and covers the financial building blocks necessary for surviving a career as a freelancer, including personal finance topics such as debt management in a time of crisis, emergency funds, private and governmental safety nets, tax issues, and how to negotiate with lenders. Participants will leave empowered to combat the scarcity mentality and impostor syndrome ever present in the creative sector. Amy Smith is an educator and the Co-Director of Headlong Dance Theater, a Bessie-award winning Philadelphia-based dance theater company.
Suitable for artists of all disciplines.
Open to artists across Massachusetts.
Presented in partnership with the Mass Cultural Council.
“Elevating Online Sales” w/ Han Cao & Ayumi Horie
Thursdays, June 10 & 17, 2021 | 6:00 - 7:30 PM
(This is a TWO-part workshop)
In this 2-part online workshop, artists will dig deeply into strategies to best market and engage their audiences with an eye toward direct online sales. The workshop will focus on multiple tools and methods of engagement, including: photography, the website, the email list, and social media.
In Part 1, Han and Ayumi will cover strategies and lessons learned from their own successful practices, as well as examples from other artists they admire.
For Part 2, select workshop attendees will be invited to send in examples of their own engagement strategies (websites, Instagram posts, e-blasts), and a selection will be reviewed for live feedback and discussion with Han and Ayumi and other workshop participants. Through these live critiques, all attendees can discover how to steer away from common pitfalls and how to build audience engagement within their own network.
Han Cao is a self-taught artist specializing in embroidery on found paper. She has over 100K followers on Instagram and over 5 years of experience selling through online channels. Potter Ayumi Horie was an early adopter of using the internet for business, coding a website 20 years ago and selling work online for 15. She ran the popular Instagram feed, Pots In Action, and is currently a trustee at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts.
Best suited for artists who already sell work online. Open to artists across Massachusetts
“Creative Practice Within Virtual Communities” w/ Shey Rivera Rios
Tuesday, June 9, 2021 | 2:00 - 3:30 PM
Participants will renew the tools and knowledge to which they already have access in order to address the question, How can community-engaged artists extend their work into virtual spaces? Drawing inspiration from the successes of artists already using digital tools, this workshop will create space for participants to push their creative power, expand the horizon of their creative practice, embrace fear, and see the opportunities at their disposal. Shey Rivera Rios is an interdisciplinary artist, cultural strategist, and arts administrator whose artistic creations span a myriad of topics, from home to capitalism to queerness & magic.
Best suited for community-engaged artists.
NOW OPEN TO ARTISTS ACROSS MA/RI/CT!
Photo by Cat Laine, Painted Foot Studio
“Marketing in a Time of COVID” w/ Jessica Burko
Tuesday, June 15, 2021 | 2:00 - 4:00 PM
During COVID, working artists need to implement new strategies for connecting with audiences, showing work, and generating sales. The good news is there’s technology available to assist with these goals, and because people are lacking outlets for real life interactions more time and attention is spent online seeking engaging content. This workshop will give an overview of general Arts Marketing best practices then focus in on how those concepts can be integrated into an exclusively digital model. Topics will include developing and strengthening website content to capture the attention of audiences and lead them to engagement, maximizing Instagram strategies using Stories and Live features, and how to strengthen the use of email marketing. Jessica Burko is a Boston-based exhibiting artist, arts marketing professional, and programming manager and curator at the Photographic Resource Center.
Best suited for visual artists. Open exclusively to MA artists in Franklin, Hampshire or Hampden County.
Our Massachusetts programming is made possible in partnership with the Mass Cultural Council, the Barr Foundation, the City of Boston, the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts’ ValleyCreates Initiative, Essex County Community Foundation’s Creative County Initiative, the Deborah Munroe Noonan Memorial Fund (Bank of America, N.A.,Trustee), the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, New England Foundation for the Arts, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts through the Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation. Our Rhode Island programming is made possible in partnership with the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts thanks to funding from a US Department of Agriculture’s Rural Business Development Grant. Our Connecticut programming is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in partnership with the Connecticut Office of the Arts (COA), Northwest Connecticut Arts Council, and the Southeast Connecticut Cultural Coalition.