You may remember some posts from many moons ago under the Produce Yourself! label.  They were designed to be a step by step process in the art of self producing your own independent theatre…from idea generation to the theatrical process to marketing and beyond.  Well Produce Yourself is back,...

It’s time for artists and entrepreneurs to unite once again!  At our last Create.Innovate.Repeat. event, we met a lot of brand new faces from the Chicago community who all shared one important quality: no matter their craft, business or big idea, they knew they couldn’t do it alone. It’s...

I wrote a piece on my website recently called Take a Picture of Your Building: How To Get People to Notice You Indirectly which is all about getting other people to notice you by noticing other people noticing you.  Does that make sense?  Hopefully so, because it’s basically the core of getting...

The Institute For Arts Entrepreneurshipâ„¢ Logo Contest officially ended on Saturday and the last few entries came pouring in.  Thank you to everyone who submitted a design!  Our board of advisors is going to be conferring to pick the winner, but we also wanted to give YOU a say.  You’ll...

As we’ve been getting applications for our Bite-Size Arts Ensemble summer program and talking to potential students, we’ve heard from many people that a 12 week program seemed like a really long time.  And while you could certainly argue that it is, these comments and questions made us...

Have you been to Artist Gumbo?  If the answer is no, you really should, because you’re missing some amazing talent…such as Kay Kron, a Chicago slam poet who is a neverending well of word-spinning enjoyment.  Kay, I welcome you to use that as a quote on the back of a future album or...

Daniel Pink, author of the ETA essential read A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, spoke recently in Orange County to a packed house of educators, business types and arts supporters about why, exactly the arts matter.  The Orange County Register did a great piece on the event,...

The weather is changing!  Have you noticed it?  Here in Chicago, it’s happening very slowly…we’re fluctuating between beautiful, warm days and frigid, throwback-to-January-cold days.  But the very fact that the sun is out is causing a noticeable shift in peoples’ willingness...

I wanted to pass this along for Chicago locals, as it’s a great way to get your child active, outgoing and involved for absolutely zero dollars. The Second City is offering free workshops in Clowning & Physical Comedy, Stand-Up and Singprov for students ages 9-18 on Saturday, April 10th. ...

For our Chicago readers and, maybe more specifically, our Chicago writers…there’s an event coming up this weekend that we don’t want you to miss.  The Chicago Zinefest is a brand new event that’s trying to shine the spotlight on the Chicago zine community and bring a little...

As we get closer and closer to the premiere semester of the Institute For Arts Entrepreneurship’s two-year arts entrepreneurship program, we’re trying to take a closer look at the needs of our students so that we can build a truly unique structure and curriculum that is responsive to the...

There’s a fascinating article up over at the Atlantic today on how the Grateful Dead were utilizing many more contemporary business tactics before they even existed.  Things like allowing their fans to tape and share live shows, social networking and more.  For independent producers, freelancers...

There’s a book by Christopher Booker (appropriately titled The Seven Basic Plots) that says there are only seven basic plots in all forms of literature that are used over and over, ad nauseum.  Sure, they look and feel different, they’re told from different perspectives, etc…but...

Producing a show is a pain in the ass.  Let’s get that out of the way right now.  You’re going to be putting yourself on the line creatively, financially, socially and professionally.  You’re going to devote hours and days and months of your life to something that could turn...