Artist, INC

Take control of your career, create opportunity, shape your future and strengthen your art practice . . .

Artist, INC is a cutting edge training seminar that addresses the specific business needs and challenges artists of all disciplines face every day. Limited to 25 participants per session, artists gather for one night a week for eight weeks to learn business skills specific to their art practice and apply those skills cooperatively with their peers. Using an innovative class design, artists learn and grow together through artist facilitator mentoring, small group application activities, as well as large group discussion and multi-media lecture.

Participating artists will gain:

• tools and skills in arts planning, marketing, finance, law, and technology;
• an increased knowledge of and ability to access local and national art business resources;
• a strategic artist's plan for pursuing, marketing and sustaining their art; and
• a long-term network of cross-discipline, diverse artists to provide peer learning and support into the future

Workshop Schedule

1. The Business Art Paradox:  strategic planning and goal setting for your art (they really do go together)
2. Marketing Your Art (without selling your soul):  communicating the message of your art
3. Budget is Not a Four Letter Word:  managing money and financial planning
4. Show Me the Money:  finding grants and fellowships and raising capital
5. Zen and the Law of Art:  business structure, intellectual property, and basic legal issues facing artists
6. Better Than Pulling Teeth: writing about your work
7. Artist.com:  understanding the technology artists need to use
8. Opening Night:  sharing your completed artist's plan

Click here for Artist, INC 2010 details and application instructions 

Artist, INC is presented by the Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City, Charlotte Street Foundation and the Missouri Business & Technology Development Center.  Artist, INC is part of the Creative Communities program of Leveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC), funded by the Ford Foundation. Creative Communities programs are designed to reflect the diversity of the local community, and our goal is to have the participants in each Artist, INC workshop reflect a balanced cross-section of artists from multiple disciplines, backgrounds and ethnicities. 


Funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration.  Programs are extended to the public on a nondiscriminatory basis.  Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made if requested at least two weeks in advance.  Contact Diane Scott at 816-235-6769 or scottdia@missouri.edu.

What they're saying . . .

The Artist INC seminar reached the halfway point last night and wow! – it’s amazing how much I am getting from it. A great group of participants . . . We all have a lot of fun and it’s nice to be able to expand my world, I felt like I knew only the same 50 people in town!  

I have to say I am amazed at how much genuine care and concern I encountered among my fellow artists and those of you who bother to ask, "what do you need"?  Mostly it is a gift just knowing there are folks I can turn to when I'm overwhelmed, overjoyed, confused, angry, or just plain lonely for the company of people who get what I'm trying to do, who actually get it.  Thank you, thank you, thank you for Artist, Inc.

It really helped reinforce the notion that we as individuals, do what we do with the help of a larger community of like-minded people. Also, to have been introduced to the strategic planning tools has really helped me at this point in my career.

I would highly recommend Artist, Inc. to my friends- and already have - because I think it is a fun and informative way to deal with the many topics and issues most artists would rather ignore. I was especially grateful to find that there were many mid-career artists and not just the young, up and coming artists selected for the program. It made me focus on decision making and planning and inspired me all at the same time. Finally, It was great to have all of these creative people from a range of artistic endeavors to visit with and get to know over the course of 8 weeks.