Artist as Entrepreneur Summer Institute: Apply Now
By Lushi Li, Kristy Sundjaja, and Steven Strauss
Center for Economic Transformation
First class of Artists Summer Institute artists on the ferry. Photo courtesy of LMCC.
We’re continuing to recruit for this summer’s Artist as Entrepreneur program, an initiative from our Center for Economic Transformation, which equips New York City-based visual and performing artists with business and management skills to successfully market themselves and their work. Though we’ve just wrapped up registration for New York Foundation for the Arts’ boot camp, we are now starting the registration process for the free, five-day Artists Summer Institute, offered through the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) in partnership with Creative Capital.
Keren Moscovitch, artist and participant of last year’s program, said this about her experience:
My ASI experience was a turning point in the way I think of myself as a professional artist. I was introduced to several useful tools for money management, and got a better sense of control over my finances. Since last summer, I gained the motivation and confidence to grow my freelance business and reduced my credit card debt by 30%. Creatively, I improved the ways I talk about my work and have felt more focused professionally. I cherish the friendships I made last summer and have been moved by the level of support that ASI alumni have shown for each other’s projects, and how we still are in touch almost a year later. Overall, I am so impressed by the high quality coaching that we received from LMCC and Creative Capital staff. The service they provide is generous and on point, identifying key areas that will improve artists’ lives. ASI gave me tools I can always go back to as I move forward in my career.
Fellow participant and dancer/choreographer Peter Kyle especially cherished the opportunity to learn with ASI’s diverse group of artists:
That ASI was a shared experience with 49 other artists made it all the richer—discovering new colleagues and making new friends outside of my own art form and at various stages of their professional careers has been instructive, empowering and deeply gratifying.
The Artists Summer Institute will run all day from Wednesday, July 27 to Sunday, July 31, 2011 at LMCC’s Arts Center on Governor’s Island. (There is a free 7-minute ferry ride that departs regularly from Lower Manhattan.) Registration is now open and the deadline to apply is May 25, 2011. Fifty-five artists of all disciplines will be selected by lottery system; artists will be notified of their selection by Tuesday, May 31, 2011 via email.
Participants will receive arts-focused professional training in the areas of strategic planning, verbal communications, marketing and promotion, Internet optimization, financial management and business planning. For more details and to apply, visit LMCC’s website.
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