Call for Participants: The Business of Art

The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes and Southern Tier Economic Growth have issued a Call for Participants for a series of art-related business workshops to be held in 2011. The Business of Art will train visual artists and fine craftspeople to think of themselves as businesspeople, and to learn and apply business-related skills to enhance their careers.

Funded in part by a grant from The Community Foundation of Elmira-Corning and the Finger Lakes, ten workshops will be held at Elmira-based arts and cultural venues between February and June 2011 and will culminate in an exhibition of participants' art and craft in the fall

The workshops will be facilitated by Elmira artist Allen C. (Denny) Smith, and will feature expert presenters on various art-specific small business topics, including: goal setting and documentation; portfolio basics and presentation packages; basic business plans and business resources; budgeting, financial management and taxes; legal and insurance issues; real estate and architectural considerations; human resources; business models; sales, marketing and new media; and community resources.

Program participants will be chosen through a jury process, conducted by The ARTS and Mr. Smith. There is no cost to submit an application. Applicants should submit the following to BusinessofArt@eARTS.org by January 3, 2011:

• Full contact information, including name, mailing address, email address, telephone and website URL, in the body of the email
• Two (2) digital images of current work (made within the past year), in JPEG format, resolved at 72 dpi and sized no larger than 600 x 800 pixels
• Current resume, including exhibition record, in PDF format
• Current artist statement, in PDF format
• Statement of intent for participating in the program (in the body of the email or in PDF format), answering the following questions:

1. Why do you want to participate in these workshops?
2. How do you think these workshops will assist you as a working artist/craftsperson?
3. Do you intend to participate in all ten (10) workshops? If not, which workshops do you wish to attend?

Applications will be reviewed during the week of January 3 and selected participants will be notified as quickly as possible.

Accepted participants who commit to attending all ten workshops will be asked to pay a nominal fee of $50.00 (fee will be waived in cases of economic hardship). Accepted participants who do not wish to attend all ten workshops will pay fees of $10.00 per workshop. All fees will be due in full before the workshop series begins.

Only those who complete the full workshop series will be eligible to show their work in the culminating exhibition.

Full program information is available for download from The ARTS' website or by emailing BusinessofArt@eARTS.org.

Questions about the program should be directed to Ginnie Lupi at The ARTS, at 607-962-5871 x225 or director@eARTS.org.