Assets for Artists + Artists U
Accelerator Workshop for CT Artists
ASSETS FOR ARTISTS IS PLEASED TO PARTNER WITH ARTISTS U
A NATIONAL LEADER IN ARTIST SUPPORT & DEVELOPMENT!
Led by Andrew Simonet and Michaela Pilar Brown
Photo provided by Artists U.
“Artists U and A4A feel very aligned and together have had a profound impact on the way I think about and actively approach my creative practice.”
—Visual Artist, Western Massachusetts
"The Artists U workshop was a jolt of clarity, community, and validation—a reminder that our work as artists matters. I came away with practical strategies for setting goals, managing time, negotiating for fair pay and re-committing myself to the work that makes me feel alive."
—Performing artist, Philadelphia
"I have been working full-time as a self-supporting artist for ten years, but there was not a single idea or observation in this workshop that did not make an impact on me."
—Visual artist, Baltimore
Friday, april 5, 2024 @ 6PM - 8PM
Saturday, april 6, 2024 @ 10AM - 5 PM
Eastern Connecticut State University
Willimantic, CT 06226
COST: FREE!
Are you looking to engage in deeper conversation, and expand your vision for what your best creative life could look like? Do you want to build community with other artists while building a sustainable future for your practice? Join us!
What is Artists U exactly?
A FREE professional development intensive based on the principles and strategies of Artists U's transformative book Making Your Life as an Artist. This in-person workshop is an opportunity to build clarity around your artistic practice and the resources that sustain it. Artists U’s approach is specific and practical: you’ll receive principles, tools, and prompts that artists use to make balanced, sustainable lives, and to create the art and impact that matters most to them. It is supportive and nurturing, designed to encourage active listening and thoughtful engagement; participants build deep and authentic relationships that often extend the weekend intensive.
Participants in this workshop will talk about:
The role of artists, our impact and value.
Long-term planning, the most powerful tool for sustaining as an artist.
Time: doing fewer things, better.
Financial thinking for artists. What is your time worth and how do you support a bountiful life for yourself?
Your mission: What audiences, communities, and impacts matter most in your work.
Participants will come away with:
A written plan to achieve your personal and creative career goals, with action steps.
An understanding of the value of your time as an artist, based on what you need to earn to live your life comfortably.
An artist mission statement, describing not only what you create, but why it matters to you and why it matters to your audiences, publics, and communities.
Participants will commit to:
Attending the Weekend Accelerator: Friday, April 5, 6pm-8pm (2 hrs) + Saturday, April 6, 10am-5pm (7-hrs).
NOTE: We know from experience that the in-person experience of this workshop is the most impactful. If there is need, Friday night's portion of the workshop can be offered in hybrid form for those unable to travel Friday night. Everyone must be able to attend Saturday in person.
Who is this for?
This workshop intensive is suited for Connecticut artists in all disciplines and traditions (including community art, folk art, fine art, craft, hip-hop, spoken word, film, writing, performance, etc.). It doesn’t matter if you’ve been making work for five years or fifty. We will prioritize artists who live in Eastern Connecticut and current Connecticut A4A grantees, however anyone is welcome as space allows.
What to expect at the Weekend Accelerator Workshop
You will be one of 30 artists attending. The weekend Accelerator Workshop will include a mixture of lecture, individual exercises, and large and small group discussion. On Friday light snacks and on Saturday, light breakfast, full lunch, and light snacks will be provided. While the workshop is free, artists are responsible for their own travel, though we are happy to help you connect for carpooling.
Accessibility/COVID-19 precautions
This is an in-person, seated workshop for up to 30 people. The Johnson Room at Eastern CT State is a wheelchair accessible room. A microphone will be available for presenters. There will be no digital slides. Neither masks nor covid rapid tests are required, but we encourage either for those who prefer them. We ask anyone experiencing cold or flu symptoms to stay home. If you need any specific accessibility accommodations beyond this, we ask that you share them in your interest form so that we can prepare accordingly.
We will do our best to accommodate all dietary restrictions with our snacks and shared meals. If you have a particularly restrictive diet, we will be in touch with you directly to plan how we can make sure you are well fed.
Artists who submit an interest form will be notified around March 1, 2024 of whether we’re able to save you a spot at this weekend workshop.
2022 MA ARTISTS U PARTICIPANTS INCLUDED: Ana Fernandez || BrujaTheVillain || Becky Behar || William Gardiner || Gabrielle Orcha || Heshima Moja || Bella Vendetta || Laura Petrovich-Cheney || Lolita Parker Jr || M Rudder || Melanie Mowinski || Nadroj Holmes || Pamela Hersch || Robert J. Fitzgerald || Rachel Blackman || Rebecca Kopycinski || Sara K. Lyons || Szu-Chieh Yun || Tsar Fedorsky || Yasmin Goris || Youme Nguyen Ly || Emikan Sudan || Gina Siepel || Jennifer Langhammer || Lisa McCarty || Tareq Rantisi || Amaryllis Lopez || Patricia Montoya
2023 MA ARTISTS U PARTICIPANTS INCLUDED: Aleksandra Azbel || Leo Balkovetz || Triana Burnett || Edwige Charlot || Aimee Cotnoir || Derek Craig || Bob Dilworth || Matt Dunn || Amy Dyer || Kate Egnaczak || Amanda Garcia || Alana Garrigues || Jose Guzman || Aysim Hakioglu || Tatiana Hopkins || Aiko Itadani || Saberah Malik || Yaira Matos || Rebecca McGowan || Evans Molina || Marissa Moore || Joseph Murchison || Tangiene Nyereyegona || Noel Plouffe || coco rosenberg || Holly Stone || Yixuan Zeng
PRESS: 2022 ARTISTS U WORKING GROUP HAS GALLERY SHOW IN GREENFIELD, MA
THE ARTISTS U LEADERS
ANDREW SIMONET is writer and choreographer in Philadelphia. From 1993 to 2013, he co-directed Headlong Dance Theater, creating dances like CELL (a journey for one audience member guided by your cell phone), and This Town is a Mystery (dances by four Philadelphia families in their homes). Andrew left Headlong to focus on writing fiction. His debut novel, Wilder, was published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux in 2018; his second novel, A Night Twice as Long, was published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux in 2021. In 2006, Andrew founded Artists U, an incubator for helping artists make sustainable lives. Through workshops, convenings, and one-on-one planning sessions, he has worked directly with over 5,000 artists across all disciplines. His book Making Your Life as an Artist, an open source guide to living as an artist, has been downloaded by 200,000 artists worldwide and is used as a textbook in dozens of university and graduate arts programs.
MICHAELA PILAR BROWN (Columbia, SC) is an image and object maker, a multidisciplinary artist using photography, installation and performance. She studied sculpture and art history at Howard University. Brown’s installations, collage and photographs address issues attendant to the black body. She uses nontraditional materials and their juxtaposition to each other, and/or dissimilar objects to make statements about the body and its relationship to larger cultural themes of age, gender, race, sexuality, history, and violence. Her work considers memory, myth, ritual, desire and the spaces the body occupies within these vignettes. Brown is the 2018 grand prize winner of Artfields juried art competition. She is a 2018 inaugural resident artist of the Volcanic Residency, Whakatane Museum, Whakatane, New Zealand. She was has attended many residencies around the world and her work can be found in private and public museum collections in the United States. She is the Executive Director of 701 Center for Contemporary Art in Columbia, South Carolina., where she has served since 2020.
A4A WORKING GROUP LEADERS
Christine Brown is a multidisciplinary artist who works with textiles, paint, and digital/graphic media. She makes and sells handmade baby accessories, quilts, pillows, and other items through her business, Fawn. Christine credits her sewing skills to the local 4H club, where community members opened their homes to her and where she was able to learn a skill she has enjoyed over her lifetime. That experience led to her commitment to teaching sewing to the next generation of artists through private lessons and workshops. Christine studied art education at Fitchburg State University, and her work has been featured in ArtsWorcester’s “The Little One” exhibition.
Sculptor Laura Baring-Gould’s practice includes award-winning installations, public artworks, and small bronzes sold in galleries, juried shows, and through private commissions. Her permanent, public installations can be found throughout the Boston area, including in the Tower Hill Botanic Garden, the City of Cambridge, and Edward Everett Square in Dorchester. She has taught numerous workshops with A4A since 2018. She is also an alumna of the A4A Capacity-Building Grant Program, which makes Laura uniquely skilled to help current grantees with designing business plans and budgets best suited to their needs and the grant program’s requirements.