Free Artist Financial & Business Online Workshops
SUMMER 2022 OFFERINGS
for MA, RI & CT
Wherever you’re going this summer, bring some professional development opportunities with you courtesy of A4A!
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.
NEW IN 2022 — WORKSHOP RECORDINGS AVAILABLE!
In order to better accommodate artists unable to attend the live workshop, we now record the majority of our online workshops! To have access to the recording, you will need to register and be approved to attend the workshop as if you were attending live—this will allow us to send you the recording link plus any follow-up materials that the instructor wants participants to have. Registration will still be limited based on each workshop’s specific geographic area served (with A4A grantees and recent alumni of the Studios at MASS MoCA also receiving priority). And we will still have capacity limits on the number of artists able to register for workshops, so don’t delay your registration request! All registered participants will have 60 days after the live workshop date to view the recording on Zoom.
Why wasn’t my workshop registration approved?
WORKSHOP REGISTRATION PRIORITIES
Our workshops are open to artists who currently live in the states of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, or Connecticut or are current/recent Studios at MASS MoCA artists-in-residence. 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.
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/translation resources
for artists who learn best in a different language
or who live with impairments and disabilities.
Credit: OJ Slaughter
The Basics of Building a Grant w/ Yara Liceaga-Rojas
Tuesdays, May 10, 17 & 24, 2022 | 2-4 p.m.
This is a 3-part introductory-level series. Participants may register for all sessions or select the topic most relevant to them.
Part 1: Project Development & Where to Find Grants
THIS WORKSHOP HAS PASSED
Part II: Getting Your Materials Ready & Writing
THIS WORKSHOP HAS PASSED
Part III: Building a Project Budget & Addressing Financial Trauma
THIS WORKSHOP HAS PASSED
Grants and other written proposals can feel daunting without a plan. In part one of this webinar, 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 webinar 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 to artists across Connecticut & Rhode Island.
This workshop will also be recorded! If you're unable to attend the live session, you can still register via Zoom and, if approved, we’ll send you a link to access the recording after the workshop is complete.
Presented in partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Office, Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, the Connecticut Office of the Arts (COA), Northwest Connecticut Arts Council, and the Cultural Coalition.
Financial Strategies for Artists w/ Amy Smith
Thursday, May 12, 2022 | 2 - 4 p.m.
Presented in partnership with Mosaic Lowell and the Greater Lowell Community Foundation.
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.
Priority given to artists who live in the Greater Lowell Area. Open to artists across our 3-state region. Note: If you do not live in Greater Lowell, your registration may not be approved until the week before the workshop, when we’re able to see how many Lowell area artists have registered.
This workshop will be recorded! If you're unable to attend the live session, you can still register via Zoom and, if approved, we’ll send you a link to access the recording after the workshop is complete.
THIS WORKSHOP HAS PASSED.
Concrete Steps for Creative Sustainability w/ Laura Baring-Gould
Thursdays, June 2 & 9, 2022 | 2 - 4 p.m.
This is a 2-part introductory-level series. Participants may register for one or both sessions.
An artistic life is focused on creating and sharing your work – but building a profitable and sustainable practice requires us to think about much more than making art. In this two-part series, Laura Baring-Gould shares concepts to organize a creative business that supports your artistic strengths, values, and goals.
Presented in partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Office, Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, the Connecticut Office of the Arts (COA), Northwest Connecticut Arts Council, and the Cultural Coalition.
PART 1 (Business Structure & Strategy) will present entrepreneurial structures for expanding opportunities and revenue streams. This week will focus on entrepreneurial structures and how individual artist practices can evolve to become businesses entities that offer support, status and protection. We will tackle the more concrete questions around getting registered as a business, different types of business licenses and entities (including when it’s appropriate to pursue non-profit, LLC, or sole proprietor status), with practical information about financial accounting and bookkeeping. While artists are deeply skilled within their work and mediums, these business questions can be confusing. With shared information and resources, participants will leave the workshop with solid information and a good action plan, ready to amplify their practice and maximize creative opportunities.
PART 2 (Business Strategies, Status, and Finances)
Part 2 will hone questions about what structures make sense for workshop participants - and how new markets, partners, business models or practices might help support and expand people’s work and practice. How can artists reach new markets and work with partners that align with their mission and values? What business concepts can we adopt to organize and amplify our work? How can we make money to support a more sustainable practice? In this first session participants will explore structures to grow their work in ways that make sense: Keeping yourself an artist, but also thinking about yourself as a business.
Laura Baring-Gould is an artist, educator and arts advocate based in Somerville, MA. For over 25 years Laura has managed her art business to create award-winning monuments, permanent public artworks, collaborative community projects and intimate objects in bronze.
Suitable for artists of all disciplines.
Open to artists across our 3-state region.
THIS WORKSHOP HAS PASSED.
Negotiating Pay and Pricing as a Musician
w/ Billy Dean Thomas
Tuesday, June 7, 2022 | 2 - 4 p.m.
Presented in partnership with the Mass Cultural Council.
During this session musicians will discuss a step-by-step process to generate a price for performance opportunities that acknowledges experience, time, and the creative economy. Billy Dean Thomas will showcase examples of inquiries you may receive from anyone hoping to hire you for your music services and talk through how to respond or request a payment that best suits your desired outcome. Musicians will leave this workshop with a knowledge of how to quantify their skills along with a boost of confidence to ask for what they need from booking agents, venues, other artists, or even friends looking to book you for upcoming projects. Billy Dean Thomas is a Grammy-nominated hip-hop recording artist and composer whose polyrhythmic flows align with intersectional feminism and social justice.
Best suited for performing artists.
Open to artists across Massachusetts.
THIS WORKSHOP HAS PASSED.
Photo by Cat Laine, Painted Foot Studio
Business Strategies for Artists w/ Shey Rivera Ríos
Wednesdays, June 15 & 22, 2022 | 2 - 4 p.m.
Presented in partnership with the SouthCoast Community Foundation.
Artists often run their own creative business. And as the world changes, artists continue building alternative structures to sustain themselves. Let's talk about this and share experiences. This two-part workshop will present strategies for developing a more sustainable art practice and will also take a look at what opportunities exist for artists in today's economy. During the first session, we will share practice, compare experiences, and explore the possibilities together. The second session will be focused on turning the ideas from part one into strategies for gaining new income streams, sustaining your practice, and leveraging resources. Participants will be encouraged to share a practice or project they wish to workshop during the session. 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.
Suitable for artists of all disciplines.
Open to Massachusetts artists w/ priority for the SouthCoast region.
THIS WORKSHOP HAS PASSED.
Instagram Basics: Build a Following, Increase Engagement, and Understand Analytics w/ Francesca Olsen
Thursday, July 7, 2022 (RECORDING ONLY)
Presented in partnership with the Mass Cultural Council.
Instagram is a visual social media platform with over a billion monthly active users. How can artists best use this platform to grow their audience and make the most out of the time they invest in the platform? In this workshop, we’ll cover both the basics of Instagram growth—designing varied content; best use of hashtags, reels and stories; “Link in Bio” best practices; and the difference between personal, creative, and business accounts—before moving on to IG analytics, the platform’s changing algorithm, and “hacks” to make stories more graphically appealing. The workshop will begin with an informational presentation and then shift into a Q&A discussion to work through specific challenges participants are facing in their own engagement. Artists will leave with direct action steps and a copy of Francesca’s “IG Best Practices for Creatives.” Francesca Olsen is a writer, musician, textile artist, and digital marketing consultant based in the Berkshires.
Best suited for artists of all disciplines who currently have 3,000 followers or fewer.
Open to artists across Massachusetts.
PLEASE NOTE: This workshop will be available ONLY as a pre-recorded event. We will accept registrations until July 7, on which date we will share the recording by email with registrants.
THIS WORKSHOP HAS PASSED.
Marketing in a Changed World w/ Jessica Burko
Wednesday, July 13, 2022 | 12 - 2 p.m.
Presented in partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Office, Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, the Connecticut Office of the Arts (COA), Northwest Connecticut Arts Council, and the Cultural Coalition.
During the pandemic the world went virtual. Tried and true methods of arts marketing needed an upgrade and a strategic shift. Working artists had to find new ways of connecting with audiences, showing work, and generating sales. The good news was we had technology at our fingertips to assist with these goals and with it the ability to expand audiences and diversify opportunities, and we still do. As we ease out of isolation into a new reality the comfort level of online experience remains and so does the power of alternate interactions. This workshop will give an overview of general Arts Marketing best practices then focus on how those concepts can be integrated into a more 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 Reels, expanding revenue streams, and how to strengthen the use of email marketing. Jessica Burko is a Boston-based exhibiting artist, arts marketing professional, and Creative Director at the Photographic Resource Center.
Selected artists who participate in the workshop will have the opportunity to receive free 1:1 coaching with Jessica.
Introductory level. Best suited for visual artists.
Open to artists in Rhode Island and Connecticut.
This workshop will also be recorded! If you're unable to attend the live session, you can still register via Zoom and, if approved, we’ll send you a link to access the recording after the workshop is complete.
Mindset & Money w/ Erika R. Moore
Tuesday, August 2, 2022 | 6 - 7:30 p.m.
Presented in partnership with the Mass Cultural Council.
Dancer, cultural strategist, and arts educator Erika R. Moore developed this workshop for artists after recognizing her pitfalls related to money management. Workshop attendees are guided through a holistic process to uncover their mindset around their finances. Action steps to chart a new, better, more refined pathway to Happy Money are discussed, with the hope that people will be excited to move forward. Mindset & Money is an engaging, high-energy, and participatory workshop with active participant discussion and breakout rooms for peer feedback. It's filled with diverse perspectives on life, career, and choice, and is best suited for artists of all disciplines who want to heal, renew, or start a new relationship with money. Erika R. Moore is a dance and theater artist, Critical Response Process Certified Facilitator, International Speaker, and Creative Business Consultant. She is the Co-Founder of ReCreate it, an organization using the philosophies and values of art-making practices to support the corporate sector in resource & development training.
Best suited for artists of all disciplines.
Open to artists across Massachusetts.
This workshop will also be recorded! If you're unable to attend the live session, you can still register via Zoom and, if approved, we’ll send you a link to access the recording after the workshop is complete.
Programming throughout Southern New England is made possible thanks to the Open For Business Fund at the Wells Fargo Foundation. Our Massachusetts programming is made possible in partnership with the Barr Foundation, the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts’ ValleyCreates Initiative, Essex County Community Foundation’s Creative County Initiative, Greater Worcester Community Foundation’s Creative Worcester Initiative, the SouthCoast Community Foundation, the Greater Lowell Community Foundation, the Deborah Munroe Noonan Memorial Fund (Bank of America, N.A.,Trustee), 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 Cultural Coalition.