Artist Leadership Fellows

Believing in the power of artists supporting artists

Artist Leadership Fellows is a transformational program that strengthens the professional skills of the next generation of artist leaders across the region. Designed with belief in the power of artists supporting artists, the program utilizes peer-modeling and mentorship to develop the talents of artists to serve as future program facilitators.

M-AAA’s Artist Leadership Fellow program selects artists, who are nominated by community partner organizations, from a wide range of disciplines and perspectives. Over a course of eight weeks, the artists meet virtually with the facilitators to explore and develop professional aspects of their work as leaders in their communities.

Fellows leave the program with a cross-discipline, geographically broad network of peer artists, the strategic framework to manage enduring artistic careers, and the tools to serve as facilitators and mentors to others in their home communities across M-AAA’s region and beyond.

Through the program, artists deepen their knowledge, tools, and skills to strengthen their professional practices and directly apply them in supportive small group environment with the mentorship of M-AAA’s experienced peer facilitators. Topics include goal-setting, financial strategy, marketing, contracts, legal business structure, time management, and self-care.

Program Overview

Participating artists will explore the following topics:

Current arts ecosystem
Integrated goal setting including long-term and near-term
Artist tool refinement including resume/CVs, statements, bios, online presence, and artist presentations
Finance including strategy integration, budgeting, revenue streams, and taxes
Time management and self-care
Marketing including strategy integration, branding, product analysis, and audience analysis and development
Contracts
Legal business structure

Program Outcomes

Participating artists leave with:

Strengthened professional components of their personal art practices
Refined, well-developed tool-box of collateral materials
Goals and a strategic roadmap for their career
Access a strong cross-disciplinary and regional network of artists
Facilitation skills through the modeling of the program’s senior facilitators
Shared knowledge, tools, and skills with non-participant artists in their regions
Acquired artist professional development knowledge, tools, and skills to facilitate M-AAA Artist Services programs; and
gain access to additional streams of revenue through artist professional development facilitation (both through M-AAA and with organizations in their communities)

Goals

Through the program, M-AAA Artist Services:

Increases the racial/ethnic, discipline, and geography diversity of their facilitator pool
Exponentially increases the number of artists prepared for facilitation roles in their programming
Increases capacity to sustainably and quickly launch programming in new communities
Uses the ALF program experience as a vehicle for rapid-prototyping new content/processes
Accesses the larger ALF cohort for input on new content/processes