If you’re an artist, you have a business. We want you and your art business to thrive. In this workshop, artists across the disciplinary spectrum will meet weekly to identify our values, strengths, and goals and translate that into a healthy business model.
This bootcamp is ideal for the emerging or established artist or cultural producer who is ready to level-up, make a better living, pay off debt, or pursue new income streams.
Identify and affirm your core values, mission & goals.
Gain confidence & skills in the business side of your art practice.
Clarify & articulate your business model.
Assess personal strengths & available opportunities.
Create structures to meet business goals.
Receive peer feedback & insights from a leading art business professionals.
Share knowledge & build supportive relationships with other artists.
A digital Business of Art workbook and an online toolkit will supplement the workshop with readings, worksheets, and additional resources.
“After each class session I couldn’t wait to share my experience with my peers. I left each session feeling empowered and supported.”
Meets Wednesdays from 10am-1pm PT.
Weeks 1 and 10 meet in-person at West Hollywood Library.
Weeks 2-9 meet online via Zoom.
February 19: Artist Presentations (in-person)
February 26: “What roots you?” / Core Values
March 5: “What do you offer to your people?” / Customers + Business Models
March 12: “Marketing = connecting your people with what you do.”
March 19: “Debt + Taxes.”
March 26: “What do you need to earn to thrive?” / Financial Goals
April 2: “Know your rights + protect your work.” / Legal Protections
April 9: “Where is the $ coming from?” / Income + Pricing
April 16: “Moving forward with accountability.”
April 23: Art Business Pitches (in-person)
Time commitment: Expect to spend 3 hours/week in class, and another 2-3 hours/week reading and completing homework. You will prepare a short talk about your art practice in week 1 and give an art business pitch (with pitch deck) in week 10.
Zoom presentations will be recorded, but live participation is important. Much learning takes place in breakouts, which cannot be recorded.
The program will be free to those participants selected. Priority will be given to City of West Hollywood residents and grantees of the City of West Hollywood Arts Division.
FAQ:
Q: What if I know I have to miss one or more classes? Can I still apply?
A: Priority will be given to folks who can commit to attending every session. The relationships that develop from artist to artist are an important benefit of this workshop. That said, sometimes life happens and you may have to miss a class.
The 8 virtual sessions will be recorded and viewable for at least 90 days.
If you know in advance that you will have to miss a particular session, please indicate which date(s) in your application.
Q: I am not a visual artist. Will this Artist Bootcamp be relevant to me and my work?
A: Yes! The bootcamp curriculum is designed to be relevant to artists and creatives working in any discipline or medium. We select a diverse cohort representing visual, performing, media, literature, social practice, and multidisciplinary arts practices, and a variety of career stages.
Q. Will this workshop include a portfolio review and information on working with galleries?
A: No, this workshop will focus on business skills for artists and creative entrepreneurs working across the disciplinary spectrum. We will not focus on visual art-specific professional practices. Fortunately, Los Angeles has some wonderful resources for that kind of thing, including Continuous Projects, January Arts, and Kipaipai, to support you instead of – or in addition to – this bootcamp!
ALLISON WYPER, WORKSHOP FACILITATOR
I am an artist, consultant, and arts entrepreneur with 20 years of experience providing administrative, marketing, and production support for individuals and organizations. I specialize in professional development program design and facilitation, business coaching for artists, and collaborative web design.
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GUEST PRESENTERS
JEREMIAH OLAYINKA OJO (Core Values) is the Founder and Managing Director of Ilèkùn Wa, an art business advisory firm facilitating & cultivating opportunities for visual artists of African descent to create, sustain and thrive. Over the last decade, Jeremiah has become a sought after arts and culture management consultant, working internationally in artist development, gallery management, and art fair operations. His collaborative work with minority emerging contemporary artists, art institutions, corporations, and collectors has carved a pathway of connectivity for creative professionals throughout Africa & its Diaspora. Jeremiah is also the Founder of Creative Milieu, LLC, a creative professional development enterprise that sources, trains and connects creatives through an integrated online-learning and staffing agency for the Creative Economy.
AMY SMITH (Debt + Taxes) is a dance and theater artist, educator, and facilitator. She works to dismantle oppressive structures in non-profit organizations and other groups so that artists and low income folks can achieve collective liberation. She does this through financial well-being workshops, one-on-one work with clients giving financial advice and doing tax preparation, consulting with arts organizations, co-facilitating anti-racism sessions with co-facilitators of color, and as a dance and theater educator. Amy co-founded, co-directed, and performed with Headlong, a dance theater non-profit that transformed into a community arts organization over 25 years. She leads financial well-being workshops through Creative Capital, Assets for Artists, and in many other settings. She holds a BA from Wesleyan University and has been greatly affected by her learning as part of artEquity’s National Facilitator Training and other anti-oppression trainings. Amy wrote the money management chapter of The Business of Art: An Artist’s Guide to Profitable Self-Employment, 3rd Edition (Center for Cultural Innovation, 2020).
CASEY SUMMAR (Legal Protections) is an attorney and national consultant working with organizations and artists on organizational strategy, planning, and board development. She serves as Of Counsel with the Law Firm for Non-Profits and is an adjunct Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University. Prior to relocating to Southern California, Casey founded the Tennessee Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts in 2005 which grew to become the Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville, an arts service organization dedicated to ensuring a thriving arts community, for which she served as Executive Director for over a decade. In that role, she advised the boards and staff of over 400 nonprofits at all stages of organizational lifecycle from formation to operations to transition. Casey was recognized for this work as the 2016 Nonprofit CEO of the Year for Middle Tennessee. Casey serves on the boards of the national Craft Emergency Relief Fund (CERF+), the Carpinteria Arts Center, and the Lois & Walter Capps Project. Casey received her J.D. with honors from Vanderbilt University Law School and graduated magna cum laude from Belmont University with a B.F.A in Photography. Casey is based in Carpinteria, CA.
ELAINE GROGAN LUTTRULL, CPA-PFS, AFC® (Income + Pricing) is the founder of Minerva Financial Arts, a company devoted to building financial literacy and empowerment in creative individuals through education and coaching, and her workshops and presentations have been featured nationwide. Elaine spent 10 years in academia, teaching at the Columbus College of Art & Design and serving as the Department Head for Business & Entrepreneurship from 2014-2018. Before that, Elaine served as the Director of Financial Analysis for The Juilliard School and in the Transaction Advisory Services practice of Ernst & Young in New York. Elaine is the author of Arts & Numbers (Agate, B2 2013), and she contributes regularly to industry guides, including those from the Center for Cultural Innovation and the Joan Mitchell Foundation. She is based in Dublin, Ohio (Kaskaskia and Hopewell indigenous and cultural lands) where she serves on the boards of the Short North Alliance and Healing Broken Circles.
KRISTINE SCHOMAKER (Marketing) is a mentor, community organizer, curator, advocate and artist. In 2014 Kristine founded Shoebox Arts aimed at helping artists gain a presence in the art world and in 2024 she moved her artist support network organization to a nonprofit, January Arts. Kristine runs an alternative art space, Shoebox Projects at the Brewery, and is an Art Activator for the organization Artists Thrive. She founded the Facebook groups Artists Trading Co and Artist Classifieds, created a researched subscription program for calls-for-art for artists, started a free peer mentorship program and Call and Response: Collaboration at a Distance during the pandemic. She is currently the secretary of the Brewery Artwalk Association. Her mission is to create community among artists and the art world in order to help each other thrive. Through social practice and engagement, Kristine is interested in using art and community, education and expression to cultivate change.