Business of Art (BOA)

With Deb Schwartzkopf
Tuesday 5:00pm-7:00pm
June 11th - August 13th
$450

Are you feeding your BOA or is it constricting you?

Join this in-person seminar of fellow clay artists wanting to grow their ideas and embrace art-to-market possibilities! All levels are welcome. This class is all about business skills for artists!

This “Business Of Art” class will dive into a new topic each week! We will write a simple artist statement or refine the one you might already have. We will photograph artwork and talk about how to use images on social media or websites. The group will discuss ways to bring your art to market through fairs, galleries, online sales, and more. Build a basic website on Squarespace with Deb’s guidance. The interest of the groups will set some topics. We will also take a side trip from our weekly meetings at Rain City Clay to visit Deb’s studio and discuss the essentials of setting up your own clay studio.

Join us in this foray into the “business of art” at whatever stage you are at. Everyone will support each other. Deb will suggest steps for your growth, no matter how far along you are in your path as an artist. Feed your “BOA”!

All the materials presented in this group will be available online in the Business of Art Space on Clay Q&A for three months after the class is over. Deb will provide a recorded video of the lesson, lots of links, readings, resources, and more for those who want to delve deeply into our topics, are taking this class online, or maybe are traveling during the session.

Suggested Readings:
An Artist’s Guide. This is a great book.

This class does not come with studio access to working in clay at RCC.

How to prepare for the first class:
Before the first meeting download the Might Network App. RCC will invite you our group).
Bring rough drafts of your artist statement and bio (very rough drafts are A-OK).
Read from an Artists’s Guide on Artist Statements/ or read links on Clay Q&A regarding Artist Statements.

General Outline:
Week One: Tell Your Story! Developing an Artist Statement / Bio
Week Two: Websites - get one started or improve it!
Week Three: Looking at Everyone’s Art
Week Four: Ways to use social media
Week Five: Making a newsletter using MailChimp
Week Six: Class set topic/ Open to independent projects
Week Seven: Ways to sell work in person
Week Eight: Setting up a Clay Studio
Week Nine: Open to independent projects
Week Ten: Wrap up/ Potluck/ Class set topic

Bring to the BOA Seminar:
Personal Laptop
Phone
Note-taking materials
Clay Q&A App (hosted on Might Networks)
Mailchimp Account (Newsletter Projects)
Website (Deb will be most helpful if you have questions in Squarespace, but has some experience with WP & Weebly as well)
Willingness to dig in and follow through

At each meeting, we will check in on personal goals. These are set individually.
Each person will identify a project to work toward. Deb will help with ideas for steps forward, accountability, and networking.