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Professional development for artists

Artist INC website

Artist INC is a cutting-edge professional development program that empowers artists to take control of their careers and create opportunities they’ve only imagined.

Artist INC addresses the specific business needs and challenges artists of all disciplines face every day. In its full iteration, Artist INC Live, participants gather for one night a week for eight weeks to learn business skills specific to their art practice and how to apply those skills cooperatively with their peers. Using a groundbreaking class design, artists learn and grow together through artist facilitator mentoring, small group application activities, as well as large group discussion and multi-media workshop.

Artist INC has been offered in communities—large and small—across M-AAA’s region and beyond, including Argenta, Arkansas; Northwest Arkansas; Austin, Texas; Des Moines, Iowa; Houston, Texas; Kansas City, Missouri; Lawrence, Kansas; Omaha, Nebraska; New Mexico; St. Louis, Missouri; Topeka, Kansas; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Wichita, Kansas.

Want to bring Artist INC to your community? Email artistservices@maaa.org.

Artist INC Live

Artist INC is a cutting edge training program that empowers artists to take control of their careers and create opportunities they’ve only imagined. Artist INC addresses the specific business needs and challenges artists of all disciplines face every day.

Gathering for one night a week for eight weeks, participants learn business skills specific to their art practice and how to apply those skills cooperatively with their peers. Using a groundbreaking 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.

Artist INC Express

Artist INC Express is a weekend-long intensive workshop created to address the specific business needs and challenges that artists of all disciplines face.

Led by a team of Artist Peer Facilitators, Artist INC Express is designed to focus participants on learning the most essential skills in the shortest amount of time. Usually offered virtually, it is free to participants with registration.

What Works

What Works is an introductory workshop outlining best practices for artists to create a sustainable career, based on sharing the common behavior of successful artist entrepreneurs.

These tenets are based on working with thousands of artists and are the basis of the Artist INC program.

In the What Works Workshop, Artist INC Peer Facilitators share these behaviors as well as share personal and professional examples of their own and leave artists ready to apply them to their own art practice. Usually offered virtually, it is free to participants with registration.

Artist INC Advance

Artist INC Advance is a program of Artist INC that is geared specifically toward artist-led projects and provides direct network support and professional development in project management, planning, communications, and financial management.

Artist INC Advance is a twelve-month program that that extends over the course of a year and features live convenings, one-on-one peer mentorship, quarterly small group meetings, and a culminating grant and showcase event.

Artist INC Advance participants must have completed Artist INC Live as a prerequisite to enrollment in the program.

Artist Leadership Fellows

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. ­

Pictured: Artist INC Live Topeka WorkShare event. Photography by Nick Krug.

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