On Thursday January 26th The Institute for Arts Entrepreneurship (IAE) will be teaming up with WBEZ’s new project Front & Center to host a resource fair for the self employed, small businesses, start-ups, and freelancers.

Mini seminars and presentations will run through out the evening at the fabulous Catalyst Ranch located at 656 W Randolph St # 3W in the Polka Room.

Mini Seminar Topics Include: 

Entrepreneurship 101
Presented by Institute For Arts Entrepreneurship

Receiving small loans as an independent worker
Presented Accion Micro Lending

Doing your taxes as a freelancer, small business owner, or independent
Presented by Center for Economic Progress

Create. Innovate. Repeat: featuring 4 fabulous presenters, 7 slides and just 5 minutes each to pitch their most innovative business idea to you.
Presented by Institute for Arts Entrepreneurship.

Partial List of Participants Include:

Co-Lab Evanston providers of shared office spaces.

Northside Freelancers Network  who can help you connect to the growing Chicago self-employed community. Make sure to ask them about their weekly “freelancers soup” lunch.

Accion will be on hand to discuss how to get a  micro-loans to jump start your own business.

Northside Community Bank can help you find funding for your small, local project.

IndieMade is itself a small business. They create websites for independents, artist, small businesses, and start-up projects.

Rockstar CPA offers CPA services specifically geared towards the self-employed, with a specialty in creative projects.

The Law Project offer affordable legal resources for freelancers, independents, and small businesses, such as creating contracts, negotiating pay, etc.

Chicago! Come on out and celebrate self-employment with us! We hope to see you on January 26th.

Fair begins at 6pm @ Catalyst Ranch  656 W Randolph St # 3W, in the Polka Room

In 2012 The United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) will be held from January 12-15th in New Orleans, LA. My colleague from University of Illinois, Joyce Thomas and myself will be attending to present material from a paper we wrote, with another Univ of IL colleague, Deana McDonough, about The IAE and our learning cloud model. I am excited to be presenting my first paper about The IAE at this conference. This will be the 3rd time I have attended USASBE. I think it’s a valuable resource and a great networking opportunity. I hope  you will consider attending. You can register here.

About USASBE

USASBE is the largest independent, professional, academic organization in the world dedicated to advancing the discipline of entrepreneurship.  With over 1000 members from universities and colleges, for-profit businesses, nonprofit organizations, and the public sector, USASBE is a diverse mix of professionals that share a common commitment to fostering entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviors.

USASBE is built around four pillars that guide the ongoing development of our organization. The pillars include:

• entrepreneurship education
• entrepreneurship research
• entrepreneurship outreach and
• public policy

By fostering advances in each of these areas, we support the development of entrepreneurship educators who in turn will create next generation of entrepreneurs.

The roots of USASBE go back over fifty years to the founding of the International Council for Small Business (ICSB) in 1957. The ICSB was founded in the United States as a comprehensive organization of outstanding researchers, scholars, teachers, administrators, and public policy makers interested in entrepreneurship and small business. As the organization grew, members decided to form national affiliates, and the U. S. Affiliate of the ICSB was established in 1981. In 1985, the name was changed to the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE). Today, USASBE is an independent academic organization with its own unique mission, while also retaining its affiliation with ICSB.

USASBE is a community of scholars, entrepreneurship program and center directors, government officials, directors of entrepreneurship support organizations and others. It is a community that works to enhance our understanding of the phenomenon of entrepreneurship and to identify best practices in how to teach entrepreneurial principles and facilitate the creation and growth of new for-profit and social ventures.  Ours is a culture of exploring, experimenting, innovating, sharing, challenging and giving.

As leaders in the emerging discipline of entrepreneurship, our members are making an impact on how we think about, conduct research on, design public policy around, and interact with entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial ventures.  They are extending the field of knowledge and shaping the discipline to reflect the opportunities and demands of the 21st Century.

Written by Randy Woods, October 25th. Appeared in Entrepreneur Magazine online.

Andy Fife's mission is to provide a solid financial foundation for entrepreneurial artists.

In the drizzly Pacific Northwest, Andy Fife is a rainmaker for the region’s thriving arts community. Through Shunpike, a Seattle-based arts organization, he has helped nurture more than 2,500 creative enterprises across Washington, providing a solid financial foundation for the region’s most prominent entrepreneurial artists.

So what’s his big secret? “We mostly focus on writing a business plan, creating a marketing plan, securing funding, establishing lines of credit,” Fife says. “That, itself, could be considered innovative in the art world, where most people aren’t trained in the business fundamentals.”

“Artists always do badly with money,” admits Jennie Shortridge, a Shunpike client and co-founder of Seattle7Writers, a collective of published Pacific Northwest authors. “We just aren’t very good with spreadsheets and bank accounts and, frankly, we don’t always want to be.”

That’s where Shunpike comes in, offering two tiers of service for its financially challenged members. “Basically, we’re a service hub for all the back-office functions,” Fife explains. “Our mission is to handle all of that for them and let them spend their time doing what they do best, which is producing art.”

Shunpike’s first-tier program offers grant-writing services, tax-exempt 503(c)(3) status and consultation about fundraising, finance and advisory board development for a $100 annual fee and a 7 percent cut of revenue. The second tier, called the Partner Artist program, offers all of the above, plus assistance in bookkeeping, taxes, licensing, permitting, human resources, payroll and insurance. The same $100 annual fee applies, plus 10 percent of revenue.

Even in the shadow of the Great Recession, Shunpike appears to have no shortage of potential clients. A 2010 report by Americans for the Arts said Seattle is home to 4,370 businesses in the “creative industries”–museums, symphonies, architecture, advertising–employing more than 21,000 people.

When Fife joined as executive director in 2007, Shunpike’s annual budget was $400,000; today, it’s $1.4 million. About 55 percent of these funds come through donations by government agencies, corporations, foundations and individuals, he says. The rest comes from consulting fees and percentages of Partner Artists’ revenues. Shunpike, now in its 10th year, has about 115 Partner Artists on its roster.

Providing aid to nonprofits is Shunpike’s specialty, but the group also doles out advice to for-profit ventures. Katrina Toft, co-founder and owner of Two Ravens Studio in Tacoma, Wash., sought marketing and financial advice from Shunpike in 2010 when she and her business partners wanted to grow their metalworking business.

“Andy created a diagram for us, explaining how to get bank loans, address environmental concerns and go through the permitting process,” Toft says. “We also learned to be open to not just the standard methods of marketing. He gave us great advice on utilizing social media and venturing into Facebook.”

“It’s so important to learn business skills,” says Teresa Thuman, producing artistic director of the nonprofit Sound Theatre Company, a Shunpike Partner Artist since 2006. “We had no real structure when we started, so Shunpike essentially became our business office. They helped out tremendously with grant-writing, licensing and fundraising.”

Fife recommended that Sound Theatre eliminate overhead by renting out local theaters. He is also a champion of pooling artists into collectives and raising funds via online crowdsourcing, much the way Kickstarter works, with incremental PayPal donations.

“You might find other organizations that will help support your business, but no one else will support both your business and your artwork,” Thuman says. “There’s really no other organization like Shunpike.”

Soon that may no longer be true. Fife says he may try to export the Shunpike model. “The strength is that it’s a very local approach,” he says, “but there’s no reason it can’t be repeated in other cities.”

Last night when I sat down to get ready to begin my social media class, I  started up my computer and up popped Oprah Winfrey’s face and a Skype request to connect to her. Talk about a surprise. I wrote Oprah about nine months ago. She is the only “celebrity” I have ever written a letter to.  Think it’s really her? Doubt it. Scammers are everywhere online.

Anyway, my social media class is run by Angel Oakley, Unicatis Marketing- quite the “branding” gal.  In class we spent some time talking about the value of Twitter. Angel shared this video with us. It’s an interesting clip of Gary Vaynerchuk hanging out with ” The Harper Studio peeps“.  Watch how he converts them into Twitter believers.

So did Gary convert you into a twitter believer too?   He couldn’t convert me because I already have a  ( fledgling) Twitter account @IAEOU.  Remember: business skills are to artists like vowels are to words- pretty basic and necessary.  But Gary did convince me to follow him @garyvee. Learn more about Gary @ http://garyvaynerchuk.com/

Gary Vaynerchuk is a 35 year old New York Times and Wall Street Journal Best-Selling author who is also a self-trained wine and social media expert. Gary does not claim to be a ‘techie’, but in 2005, he began video blogging and now has close to 1 million followers on Twitter and was included in Business Week’s list of the top 20 people every entrepreneur should follow. Pretty amazing self made creative entrepreneur really.

Calling all Chicago Creatives!

Regardless of your background,entrepreneurs and artists are visionaries, each in our own way. We all want to make a difference, create and be innovative. Isn’t it cool to try and prove that creating the “impossible” isn’t that hard to do?

Written by Lewis Whittington, appeared in Salon on Monday August 29th, 2011

Amid bankruptcies and closures, a handful of radical innovators are building a new future for the city orchestra.

Strikes, closures, bankruptcies, record deficits — the classical-music world has been rocked by troubling financial news in recent months.

The city symphony is in trouble — and the size and cultural footprint of the city hardly matter. Musicians have walked picket lines in aging industrial cities like Detroit and Cleveland, but the New York Philharmonic has also reported record deficits. Orchestras in Philadelphia and Louisville, Ky., have filed for Chapter 11 protection, while bankruptcy also silenced — at least temporarily – the Honolulu Symphony and the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. (Both hope to return in a new form this fall.)

The problems are easy to identify: The recession has pummeled charitable giving and endowments, while the audience has continued to age. Many large orchestras have been juggling high operating costs and diminishing revenues for years, so they were especially vulnerable to the downturn. Local governments and benefactors, under pressure of their own, are less able to save the day.

So what will? A crisis can sometimes be an incubator for innovation, but some observers worry that there’s a lack of bold new ideas — and that without them, many city and regional orchestras are simply doomed.

“All the data tells us all new audiences are looking for different things,” said Jesse Rosen, the president and CEO of the League of American Orchestras, the industry’s leading advocacy group outside of musicians’ unions, who hopes orchestras use this period to make sweeping positive changes.

“The appetite for classical music remains as strong as ever,” he said. “[But] the desire for it is expressing itself in different ways besides people buying tickets. So how do we adapt to the generations coming up? The problem isn’t in the music, but how to be responsive.

ARTS CANVAS: THE VIEW FROM THE FIELD
Adriane Fink, Corporate and Foundation Relations Coordinator
Americans for the Arts

Social Media. We know we need it. But are we really getting the most out of our Facebook accounts and Twitter feeds?

Corporations across the country are paying close attention to the online craze and have discovered that using social media to partner with nonprofits allows them to reach the broadest possible audience in a cost-effective way. The results show a stunning use of creativity benefiting the nonprofit world. Let me share a few statistics with you.

With over 500 million active users, one in every 13 people on earth now uses Facebook. Over 50 percent log in every day. 48 percent of 18-34 year olds check Facebook when they wake up, and 28 percent do so before getting out of bed. Not to be left behind, Twitter has also rapidly expanded, with over 200 million registered accounts and 155 million tweets per day.

But what really grabs a corporation’s interest: Over 700 billion minutes a month are spent on Facebook. 250 million people interact with Facebook from outside the official website on a monthly basis, across 2.5 million websites. There are over 900 million pages, groups, events, and community pages and the average user is connected to 80 of them.

Corporate giving programs are sitting up and taking notice…

To read the rest of Adriane’s blog post, comment, and to browse other entries, visit Americans for the Arts’ ARTSblog.

Our 2010 most read posts are interestingly some oldies but goodies. From our top 25, 14 are from 2007 through 2009. Our oldest post from 2007, which also happens to be our #1 post, is about my  journey writing a book.

So for all you writers out there, this list just goes to show you that it’s important to get your writing our there because its more likely to become well read with the passage of time.

#1 Starving Artist Not
#2 The Four C’s of 21st Century Education
#3 Oh the places you’ll go by Dr Seuss
#4 Tongue twisters for actors and speakers
#5 Characteristics of successful entrepreneurs
#6 Ten steps to finding your artistic voice
#7 Best and worst marketing campaigns
#8 How to create a badge for your blog
#9 An artistic entrepreneurial case study: The story of blue man group
#10 Ben Cameron on change transformation and renewal in the arts
#11 One blank piece of paper
#12 Dinner in the sky
#13 Conservatory made me successful in business
#14 How to make your creativity explode create your own strategic implode
#15 North Africa Economic Partership announced between Aspen Institute and U.S. Department of State
#16 Top 20 arts entrepreneur blogs
#17 What does fame mean to you?
#18 I’m not an entertainer. I’m a lot closer to a paramedic, a firefighter, a rescue worker
#19 Artists as social entrepreneurs
#20 Our dirty little family secret
#21 The definition of a calculated risk
#22 Innovating through artistry
#23 Paradigm shifts build innovative companies
#24 Overcoming mediocrity
#25 What is your imagination worth to you?

Lisa Canning, Founder of EntrepreneurTheArts.com, TheIAE.com and LisasClarinetShop.com

Well, today I leave for Washington for my first PNB-NAPEO (Partners for a New Beginning- North Africa Partners for Economic Opportunity) Summit. Madeline Albright will kick off our meeting and then we will spend two days in meetings that range from a PNB overview from the ground to Entrepreneurship for Women in the Middle East to clean water initiatives. Great stuff.

IAE is supported by Partners for a New Beginning’s North Africa Partnership for Economic Opportunity (PNB-NAPEO), a public-private partnership created by the U.S. Department of State.  The mission of PNB-NAPEO is to build a network of entrepreneurs and business leaders in the United States and North Africa where both communities can identify projects that will foster entrepreneurship and job creation, especially for youth.

The meeting will be loaded with a lot of business folks interested in PNB’s mission from different vantage points. Gosh, what a big help this is going to be to The IAE. And what fun it is going to be attending such a high-voltage education oriented networking meeting. This will be a great opportunity to grow my network of support for The IAE and continue the transformation process- from idea into reality. Are YOU ready to transform from a caterpillar with 16 legs into a butterfly who, with just a single pair of wings, can fly?)

At the Summit, I am looking forward to meeting Naeem Zafar. Check out this blog post he wrote about the initiative.

Check out these ebooks that Naeem has written. I can’t wait to meet him. Imagine the possibilities for art and culture, as a ‘sector’, to create innovative new businesses and job strands in the U.S. and North Africa? I am.

Market Research on a Shoestring!

Get a Reality check on your big idea for under $100. By Naeem Zafar, University of California, Berkeley

Entrepreneurs don’t like to do market research. Whether they find it unnecessary, think it takes too much time and money, or are simply terrified by the idea, they often start up their businesses without the necessary preparation or understanding of exactly what they are getting into.

But market research doesn’t have to be an expensive, unbearably time-consuming nightmare. It is an essential aspect of starting a new business that can be conducted quickly and easily if you know what to look for and where to look. Market Research on a Shoestring is full of techniques, tricks, and secrets that will help you ask the right questions and find the answers you need to better understand your business and the market it faces. If you want to raise funds for your startup or simply maximize your chances of success, you need this book!

 

Get Funded!

A Definitive Guide to Seeking the right funding at the right time and from the right source
By Naeem Zafar, University of California, Berkeley

Entrepreneurs need funding at various stages of their companies’growth. This to-the-point book is your essential guide to the funding process. Organized into three sections, this book outlines the likely sources of funding and how they operate, how to approach investors, and the 12-step process of getting funded.

As a valuable bonus, Get Funded! includes the names of several hundred angel investors and venture capital firms.

If you are serious about seeking funding for your startup or simply want to know your options, you need this book! This book is the complete guide to seeking and getting funding that all entrepreneurs look for and seldom find.

 

The Entrepreneur’s Legal Guide to Starting Up

By Naeem Zafar, University of California, Berkeley

A simple, to-the-point guide that outlines the decisions all entrepreneurs must make when setting up a legal entity. This eBook is packed with practical, time-tested tips and suggestions about incorporation, hiring the right lawyer, registering patents, and
minimizing your legal bill. The eBook includes a step-by-step guide to finding and hiring the right lawyer for your company and offers proven strategies that will save you thousands on your legal bill. There’s also an easy-to-understand chart explaining the differences between the various corporate structures and offering a quick guide to the most common legal issues plaguing entrepreneurs, as well as effective methods for overcoming them.

Knowing the ins and outs of setting up a startup and picking the right lawyer isn’t a matter of intelligence—it’s about experience and expertise. You may have a great deal of both when it comes to your industry, but most entrepreneurs don’t know much about the law. Your strengths lie elsewhere. As a result, you may find yourself intimidated by the idea of selecting legal counsel.

 

The Definitive Entrepreneur’s Guide to Lawyers:

35 Little-known facts, secrets, techniques, and tricks to making sure you get every penny’s worth of value from your lawyer By Naeem Zafar, University of California, Berkeley

Containing nearly three dozen money-saving, angst-minimizing tips, The Definitive Entrepreneur’s Guide to Lawyers is a go-to resource for the entrepreneur who wants to streamline the budget while leveraging the most effective legal services available. The guide includes a step-by-step guide to finding and hiring the right lawyer for your company, an easy-to-understand chart explaining the differences between the various corporate structures, proven communication strategies that will slash your legal bill by half each month, and a quick guide to the most common legal issues plaguing entrepreneurs, as well as effective methods for overcoming them.

Knowing the ins and outs of picking the right lawyer isn’t a matter of intelligence—it’s about experience and expertise. You may have a great deal of both when it comes to your industry, but most entrepreneurs don’t know much about the law. Your strengths lie elsewhere. As a result, you may find yourself intimidated by the idea of selecting legal counsel.

 

Finance Essentials for entrepreneurs:
A Simple Guide to Understanding and Creating Financial Statements for Your Business. By Naeem Zafar, University of California, Berkele

Finance Essentials for Entrepreneurs is a startup owner’s indispensable guide to basic finance. Zafar draws on two decades of entrepreneurial experience to create an eBook that offers a simple, proven method for understanding the most important elements of financial management for businesses. Zafar understands what entrepreneurs need to know about business finance. He also knows that their time is precious. In Finance Essentials for Entrepreneurs, he delivers that knowledge in practical, to-the-point language free of technical jargon and longwinded discourses. Spreadsheet examples
are clear and relevant.

 

About Naeem Zafar

• A member of the faculty of the Haas business school at the University of California Berkeley, Naeem teaches Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the MBA program. Naeem is the founder of Concordia Ventures and focuses on educating and advising entrepreneurs on all aspects of starting and running a company. Naeem’s entrepreneurial experience includes working directly with six startups, and he has extensive experience in mentoring and coaching founders and CEOs. Naeem is now the president and CEO of Bitzer Mobile, a company that simplifies enterprise mobility.
• Until 2007, Naeem was the president and CEO of Pyxis Technology Inc., a company specializing in advanced chip design software for nanometer technology. Naeem has also been president and CEO of two other high tech startups (Silicon Design Systems and Veridicom, a Bell Labs spin-off that invented the silicon fingerprint sensors today found on most laptops). Naeem has held senior marketing and engineering positions at several companies including Quickturn Design Systems that had an IPO in 1993 and grew to $125M in revenues.
• Naeem holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Brown University (magna cum laude), Rhode Island, and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota.
• Naeem is a charter member of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs www.TiE.org ).He is also a charter member of OPEN (www.OPENSiliconValley.com ) where he serves as the president.

 

There is still time to get your ticket to The Chicago Michigan Avenue TEDx on Saturday May 7th at Symphony Center in Chicago.

The big question: How can we make changes to our industry to support the arts? Where do we begin and what will that future industry look like? David Zoltan will play host to people from all over the arts industry to answer these questions and more. Join him on May 7th, 2011 at The Symphony Center, “Club 8″ for his TedX talk. Together we can
create solutions and evolve!

8:00am – Registration and Welcome

9:00am-10:30am – First Group
David Zoltan, Organizer – Welcome
Seth Boustead - Executive Director, Access Contemporary Music
Gwydion Suilebhan – Playwright
Drew McManus – Orchestra consultant

10:30am-11:00am – 30 minute break

11:00am-12:30pm – Second Group
David Dombrosky - Executive Director, Center for Arts Management and Technology
Scott Walters – Director, Center for Rural Arts Development and Leadership Education
Lisa Canning – Founder, The Institute for Arts Entrepreneurship

12:30pm-1:30pm – 60 minute lunch break

1:30pm-3:00pm – Third Group
Ian David Moss – Arts Policy Wonk at Createquity.com
Crystal Hall, Adam Marks, Melissa Snoza – Fifth House Ensemble
Tom Tresser- arts and business consultant, arts policy activist
Adam Thurman – Director of Marketing, Court Theatre

3:00pm-3:30pm – 30 minute break

3:30pm-5:00pm – Fourth Group
David J. Loehr – Playwright and co-founder of 2amtheatre.com
Julie Ritchey - Artistic Director, Filament Theatre Ensemble
Eric Ziegenhagen – Artist and funding consultant

Click here to purchase tickets to this event!

In memory of  my mother, Lea Argiris, last fall, I launched the 1st Sustainable Artist Competition.

Lea’s talents as an artist-Lea’s talents as an artist- a model ( yes, that’s my mom in the logo!) a chef and a gardener- were enormous and yet she was never able to sustain her creativity in a way that gave her the rudder she needed to live a happy, successful, meaningful, creative life. In her honor, I asked the artists  who entered our competition to incorporate the beautiful designer clothes she left behind in the art they will created  for this competition.

Over $100,000 worth of designer clothes were offered as materials to utilize in the development of participants artwork. Items include jackets, pants, skirts, belts and scarves from designers that include: Gucci, DKNY, Channel, Christian Dior, Valentino, Yves Saint Lauren and more.

Beginning Monday  May 2nd through Monday May 9th all of the art work created will be auctioned off on Ebay at our

NEW IAE Scholarship Fund Store

1/2 of the proceeds will go directly back to the artists who participated and the other 1/2 will be donated to our IAE scholarship fund. Please share this email with others. We need your support!

Kraig Kleeman, Nathan Latka, George W Bush, Lisa Canning and Dean Tom Berliner

Last night I had the honor of speaking on a panel with Nathan Latka and Kraig Kleeman at the first World Leaders Forum at Judson University in Elgin, IL. immediately following a keynote given by George W Bush.  The evening was very special to me, politics aside, because until last night I had never met anyone who has held this high of an office before. Our former Illinois Governor Jim Edgar, and former speaker of the House Denny Hastert too were present for the event. Equally, I had never met anyone at their level either.

What struck me about the evening was how social circles, at every level, share a lot in common. Mostly in that everyone in them is a human being, just like you and I; trying to do the best in life they can with whatever circumstances, opportunities, struggles and triumphs have presented themselves.

And as I “worked” the VIP room last night, introducing myself and chatting with folks who had supported and underwritten the cost of the event at Judson, I was reminded that all social circles share other things in common too. There are givers, and takers, warm, kind souls, and steely one’s,  talkers, and listeners, those who come to show off their expensive clothes and those who could care less but came to support or hang out with a friend.  Individuals from all walks and views of life are in every social circle.

People are people. At every level a group is full of diversity. The trick is to find the people in whatever social circle you find yourself in this moment in, and connect to the one’s in it that can truly help you make the difference you wish to make. There is ALWAYS someone in the room who fits that description. But you have to “work” the room until you find them.

The “price of admission’ into the circle, whatever the costs to bring you all together, does not define the circle. Your ability to find your “people” in it- your tribe- is. So go shake hands and share who you are. You never know where it can lead you. I certainly never do and it’s worked pretty well for me. And it can for you too.

• Written by Jess Kaswiner, External Programs Manager  for The IAE

• The notion that artists take their art seriously is not a new phenomenon, but it seems now more than ever the topic of ‘artist as professional’ is a hot button topic on everyone’s mind.  With conversations happening at To Art and Profit, books like 20UNDER40, and podcasts like Artists Mean Business, the discussion is rampant, and shows no signs of letting up.

In fact, new to Chicago this February, is RAW Artists, a national organization who’s aim is to provide emerging artists of all creative realms with the tools, resources, and exposure needed to inspire and cultivate creativity.

Working with local hand-picked talent, this multifaceted monthly event features artists across disciplines and experience levels.  However, this is not your typical ‘arts’ event, Each RAW ARTcade features a film screening, musical performance, fashion show, art gallery, performance art and a featured hairstylist and makeup artist. Unlike many events I’ve attended, where the featured artist is left to their own devices, and the art itself is merely an afterthought, RAW places a focus on the importance of creative career building.

Here the artist and their work are celebrated, and given an opportunity to grow. “Organizations like RAW: natural born artists and The Institute for Arts Entrepreneurship have the same goals and ambitions for the art’s industry. In this economy, it helps to work with organizations that have your back. It’s great to work for one goal, rather than compete, to get to the top.” Says April Bocchieri, Event Director for the Chicago RAW affiliate.

As we gear up to partner with RAW for their next event March 31^st , being held at Vertigo Sky Lounge (8pm @ 660 N. State St.) we hope you all will consider submitting your work for the next ARTcade, and we look forward to seeing you there!

About Jess Kaswiner
As The External Programs Manager, Jessica is in charge of all of The IAE’s public programs series. Outside of her role as Programs Manager for The IAE, Jessica assists with curriculum development for Chicago Danztheater Ensemble.  Currently Jessica serves on the Urban Gateways Junior Board, New Arts Forum, and is also on the Planning Committee for Chicago’s Emerging Leaders Network.

Check out our little video from our most recent Bite-Size Variety Hour.

Video provided by  Heather Hollaway
Cooper Leigh Productions | A  S[p]lice of life.

Artist Robin Monique Rios combines several business ventures in 4Art Inc. in Bridgeport; Photo courtesy of 4Art Inc.

This article appeared on March 8th at SmallBizChicago. It was written by intern Hallie Busta who is also a journalism student at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.

Robin Monique Rios has been an artist since childhood, but only in recent years has her penchant for art become the basis of several profitable ventures.

From an 11,000-square-foot space at the Zhou B Art Center in Bridgeport, Rios runs 4Art Inc., a gallery featuring her work and that of nine other artists. But the location is also home to Rios’ other business ventures, including website and graphic design services and art framing. “I know this is where I’m supposed to be,” she said. “I know that with every fiber of my being.”

Shedding the starving artist image

Though Rios said financial gain is not her primary motive, she considers herself a small business owner. That makes her part of a growing number of artists who are trying to debunk the “starving artist” stereotype by seeking out ways to turn a profit from their crafts, said Joe Roberts, professor of arts entrepreneurship at Columbia College in Chicago.

As the Internet makes platforms for creating and selling art more accessible, some experts note a dynamic shift in artists’ roles as entrepreneurs.  “If they don’t marry that passion up with a business mindset … that’s where a lot of them fail,” said Michele Markey, director of the FastTrac entrepreneurship program at the Kansas City, Mo.-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.  Markey said the growing trend toward arts-based entrepreneurship has been spurred in part by an unstable job market and an increased desire among some for a creative career track.

But artists increasingly must use skills outside of their primary practice to make their arts ventures profitable, Roberts said. “If your passion is the arts, why would you not find a way to make a living?” he said.

For Lance Brett Hall, that meant using his collegiate studies in theatre direction and acting-coaching to start the Chicago-based Launch Pad Casting Workshop, providing budding actors with direct feedback not often available outside of acting school or auditions, he said. But he quickly saw the importance of being business-savvy, something that required skills he had yet to tap into. “Business was always the furthest thing from my mind, so there’s been a steep learning curve,” he said.

Keeping costs low

Unlike Rios, who started with a $20,000 business loan through ACCION Chicago and now uses her framing and design businesses to subsidize her gallery, Hall said he has been able to finance his own lower-cost venture himself. He said he uses free space at Lincoln Park’s Greenhouse Theater Center and developed his website himself.

Hall pays the directors who judge his acting clients between $100 and $250 each, depending on their experience level, and spends a small amount of money on snacks and bottled water.

Actors pay $50 per workshop. While eight registered for his November session, Hall expects 20 to register for a workshop in April. After that, he hopes to hold a workshop every six weeks.

But shifting gears to turn a profit can be difficult, he said. “It’s tough for an artist to really believe in a product or deliverable when it’s not the art form you trained in,” he said.

Lisa Canning, founder and director of the Institute for Arts Entrepreneurship in Chicago, agrees that the role change can be challenging. She said the institute strives to help artists leverage their skills to start a business through its workshops and support programs. In September, it will launch a two-year certificate program in arts entrepreneurship development, she said.

Part of that program will encourage artists to use technology to launch a website or, as their business goals evolve, develop an arts-based tech business such as website design, she said.

Artists in the program also will develop a non-traditional business plan called a “business canvas,” Canning said, plotting out their ventures in a way that fits their individual work patterns, not necessarily by recording it on paper, she said.

Creating business plans

Roberts teaches his students to complete a business journal, similar to a conventional business plan but without an exit strategy. While a traditional venture might look to sell the business or go public, artists often produce their art regardless of whether they have customers, he said. No matter how artists choose to format their plan, they should explain their business and how they will earn a living from it, he said.

Rios said she used a business plan for about two years. When she and a partner first launched the gallery in 2003, they developed the plan to divide the workload. Now operating alone, Rios said she assesses problems individually.  Her current business goals include attracting more clients and turning them into collectors, she said.

To maintain a profitable business portfolio, Rios offers lower-cost items such as coffee mugs for $18, mouse pads for $13, iPad cases for $56 and skateboard decks for $135 through an account on Zazzle.com. Over time, she hopes customers will come back for her more expensive digital art and photography.

By combining several arts ventures, Rios has been able to keep both feet where she wants them — in the art world.

“If I can pay my bills, then I’m happy because that allows me to stay here and do what I love,” she said. “Do I see myself being rich? No, but I can see myself being financially stable.”

Emerging Chicago artists give a sneak peek into their artistic practice; an evaluating panel of three successful arts entrepreneurs round out this American Idol-inspired show!

03.01.2011– Chicago–Interactive audience participation is at the heart of this new, fast-paced emerging artist show and tell, called The Bite-Size Variety Hour.

Presented by the Institute for Arts Entrepreneurship, seven emerging artists have seven minutes each to show their work and tell their story: What’s their art all about? How do they share it with the world? Where have they been, and where are they going? Are they as creative as their art?

The Bite Size-Variety Hour channels “American Idol” by including a panel of three arts entrepreneurs who will give on the spot feedback on the artists’ branding. The audience is also encouraged to tell artists what they liked, what they missed, or offer other creative ways they can present their work. Artists receive encouraging and actionable feedback on their branding, while broadening their audience and perfecting their pitch.

Utilizing an innovative format, the Bite-Size Variety Hour replicates the experience of a “live-studio audience,” complete with cameras, MC, and cash bar. Presenting artists share their “branding,” are ‘judged’ by expert panelists, and ‘voted on’ by the audience. In the Bite-Size Variety Hour, all the artists are ‘winners’ — each will come away with a better sense of themselves and their work, and the audience gets an inside look at the entire artistic process, from creation to marketing, while realizing their own creative business skills.

For more information on the Bite Size Variety Hour, visit http://www.instituteforartsentrepreneurship.com/Bite-Size_Variety_Hour.html or contact Peter Weathers at Peter@TheIAE.com or call The IAE at 773.756.2163

WHEN: Tuesday, March 8, 7:00 pm

WHERE: The Greenhouse Theater Center, downstairs main stage, 2257 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL TICKETS: $5.00 at the door; tickets may be purchased in advance at http://bite-sizevarietyhour.eventbrite.com/

ABOUT THE EXPERT PANELISTS:

KHARI B, the Discopoet, celebrates his love of poetry through music. He left architectural engineering studies to focus on performing poetry while working a day job in the non-profit sector, and has since successfully carved out a career in the live music scene. Khari B has worked with the AACM Jazz organization; was featured in the Illinois Arts Council’s “Meet the Composer” program and Sons d’hiver Festival in Paris. He has also hosted open mic nights at the Spoken Word Café in Bronzeville and held writing workshops at the Boulevard Arts Center, Ravinia Festival Program and Purdue University. One part rocker, one part disco and one part an academic free spirit, Khari B is the founder and lead performer of the group ‘The Rockstar Poetry Project.’

STEPHANIE HOWELL is a theater practitioner and performance artist whose work is based in identity, the performance of fatness, body politics, and burlesquing the body. She is a Visiting Instructor at the College of Communication at DePaul University. At DePaul she has had the opportunity to teach various classes such as Performing Culture, Performing Literature, Intercultural Communication, Autoethnographic Performance, Performance Art, and LGBT Civil Rights.

REID HYAMS has over 35 years of in depth professional experience in music, recording and music business related industries. Reid is a performing artist, published author, previous faculty member and administrative staff at Columbia College, and founder and owner of an award winning multiple recording studio complex, Chicago Trax Recording. Reid is currently a co-founder and the Vice-President of EARS (Engineering and Recording Society of Chicago). Hyams has extensive business, administrative, academic and entrepreneurial skills in the music industry. Presently, Hyams has taken on a management / consulting position at one of the award winning state of the art Recording Studios in Chicago.

ABOUT THE ARTIST-PRESENTERS:

FOTIOS ZEMENIDES, is a Chicago based artist who primarily works as a painter, printmaker and sculptor. He earned his BFA at DePaul and his MFA at the American Academy of Art. As the very essence of social justice was ingrained into his being from a young age, his intended goal is to create art that forces the viewer to question the way of things and ask difficult moral and ethical questions of themselves. Via the Beverly Arts Center, he acts as an outreach art instructor for underprivileged youth in Chicago’s South Side and is a staunch advocate for increased government subsidy of art education. Fzemenides@aol.com http://www.fotioszemenides.blogspot.com/

NICOLE HARRY is an experienced designer specializing in both interior and jewelry design. Currently, Ms. Harry operates Nicole Designs All, an independent firm dedicated to create unique jewelry and magnificent interior spaces. nicoledesignsall@gmail.com http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nicole-Designs-All

ELI ELY, The Peoples Variety host and producer. elimazursky@gmail.com www.thepeoplesvariety.com

TIFFANY GHOLAR is a lifelong resident of Chicago, Illinois. Gholar’s newest series, Post-Consumerism, explores the principles of design using found object assemblages. She studied art as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago and interior design at Harrington College of Design and has a Masters Degree in Painting from Governors State University. tiffany@tiffanygholar.com www.tiffanygholar.com

ERIC MALMQUIST lives, performs, and composes in Chicago, Illinois. He is a founding member of the Chicago-based Sissy-Eared Mollycoddles (SEMC) New Music Ensemble, and the founder of S O N G (Singers On New Ground), a group dedicated to contemporary American art song. emalmqui@gmail.com http://ericmalmquist.wordpress.com/

CORA VASSER is a graduate of Second City’s Writing Program. Along with Jaclyn Sorci, Cora is the co-founder of Girls in Glasses Productions. Cora is also a screenwriter and novelist who has trained with Steve Kaplan, Philippa Burgess of Creative Convergence, Laurie Scheer of Flashpoint Academy, and been read by The Gersh Agency in LA. cora.vasseur@gmail.com http://coracoco.wordpress.com

IRVIN ALMONTE’s paintings focus principally on exploring the power of music as an agent of human emotions and psyche. He is self-trained and considers his formative years to have been integral in his visual aesthetic. irvinalmonte@gmail.com http://www.irvinalmonte.com/

About The Institute for Arts Entrepreneurship

The Institute for Arts Entrepreneurship™ is a two-year program to teach artists how to earn a living. With a curriculum that combines experiential learning, mentorship and a personalized classroom environment that provides one-on-one time with the faculty of successful artist-entrepreneurs, artists are taught how to build their own arts based business while still in school. Founded by 25-year business veteran and serial artistic entrepreneur Lisa Canning, The Institute is based on her enthusiasm for the new wave of whole-brain thinking and the firm belief that the arts –and artists—can and must be allowed to contribute to the world’s financial recovery. Enrollment is limited to 45 students. Applications are available online to apply for the institute. There is no age limit for enrollment and the requirements to apply simply include artistic excellence and a desire to be self- sufficient. For more information about the school, go to www.TheIAE.com.

This past week I have been thinking a lot about tipping points in the arts and how they may be about to set into motion a seismic shift of sweeping change.

By definition, a Tipping Point is the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point.

It seems, three different boiling points concurrently are emerging in the arts. As I see it, these three can best be described through the lenses of physics, sociology and climatology.

In physics, a tipping point is the point at which an object is displaced from a state of stable equilibrium into a new, different state. The arts have been experiencing a growing displacement from a stable state into an extremely unstable one. The creation of You Tube, Facebook, itunes, Reality Television, and the Kindle and the Nook alone are replacing the need for live performance, the need for face to face interaction, diluting the value of music down from the purchase of “an album” to a .99 cent download, destroying quality art and cultural programing on television and transforming the publishing industry. And the list goes on.

And yet, I believe the instability and raging impact of the destabilization of the arts, much like the impact of deregulation to many industries, has lead us to another tipping point through the lens of sociology. In sociology a tipping point occurs when an event, which was considered previously a rare phenomenon, becomes dramatically more common. The arts are so routinely viewed as unstable that it has become a commonly held belief that they will never be the same and the only constant is change. Ben Cameron speaks eloquently to this very point as do Ken Robinson, Richard Florida, Dan Pink and others trying to respond with ways to create a new kind of stability- a new kind of normal.

My response has been to focus on arts entrepreneurship. And look at all the arts entrepreneurship courses and workshops springing up? Every day I get a google alert around the key words arts entrepreneurship. 4 years ago the alert generated more or less one a week, 3 years ago there was a few a week, 2 years ago there were several a week and today I receive a list of at least 25.

So, can we stabilize all this massive change and uncertainty into a stable state again? And to do this, does it require a seismic shift to create a new center for calm to exist? Is it even possible ever again to achieve?

I believe, to accomplish this requires a tipping point in climatology. This is the point in which the “global climate” changes irreversibly from one state to a new state.

Climatology to the arts, seems like the most important tipping point because it will produce a new stable global climate built on a broad base of consensus from funding sources as to what will support its creation and evolution.

And indeed this final tipping point has too recently begun to tip. Funding not for profits is tipping from charitable donating to investing. This tipping point, as it grows, will irreversibly alter our thinking (as well as vocabulary and actions) about how funders think about who we are and what they want us to accomplish with their funds. In the past, people were “donors” and their money was given as a charitable gift or contribution. Today, people invest (rather than donate) their philanthropic dollars. Consequently, this global climate shift is creating investors in the arts who are looking for the greatest return on their investment. This was clearly illustrated at this years Grantmakers in the Arts Conference, where Joi Ito, Creative Commons, delivered the lead keynote for the conference on how venture capital relates to grantmaking in the arts, and what lessons can be learned from VC’s habits of mind and the investments they make.

In fact, I believe it may be this tipping point of climatology, in combination with physics and sociology, that might be creating “the perfect storm” to lead us right now into a seismic shift for the arts.

On the 31st of January, The IAE will be meeting in Washington with folks from State Department, The Aspen Institute, Americans for The Arts, The Beckman Institute for Interdisciplinary Research and The University of Illinois School of Art+Design to discuss how to set in motion the mission/vision statement of The IAE. While no one organization alone can transform the arts, the powerful impact of this team could be seismic.

Watch the Press Briefing by US Assistant Secretary of State, Jose Fernandez about our project in North Africa.

For those of you interested in following “innovation for the arts” unfold, take 17 minutes and listen to this video briefing. This briefing serves as a broad understanding of the new arena the arts will be working in. How exciting and gratifying this all is for me and our inaugural class of students at The IAE!
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EFTN Students performed 3 original theater pieces in 4 cities in 2 different countries between 30 August -14 November 2010.

This autumn, thanks to the generous support of Lisa Canning and Jennifer Kincaid, Ensemble Free Theater Norway has had the opportunity to work, rehearse, and experiment at the Greenhouse Theater Center in Chicago.

The decision was not made lightly.  In fact, it was a huge risk for myself, the Norwegians in EFTN, for Lisa (whom I had only met during a panel we shared in 2009, hosted by Columbia College), and for Jennifer (Greenhouse´s General Manager, whom I had never met).

We all had something at stake.  We all wanted the experience to be a successful one, but we didn´t know in advance.  We had to take a chance, to think creatively, to Go For It.  In essence, to practice artistry and entrepreneurship on a big scale.

EFTN and I are now 3 weeks away from the conclusion of this 12-week residency in Chicago, and I am happy to say that the risk has paid off, for all of us.

The fact that the emerging Norwegian theater makers enrolled with EFTN this autumn have had the opportunity to work in the Greenhouse–which houses not one, but four–theaters is H-U-G-E-  Not only do they get to practice scenes for acting class or movement sequences in improvisation & composition class, but they get to try original scripts on their feet, under real conditions.  This past weekend (11-14 Nov) our students got to perform two original plays of their own for the public: “Come Closer” by Mette Fjæreide, and “The Anxiety, The Panic, and The Hatred” by Ida Mailen Hagerup and Dina Narverud.

They got to premiere two of their works in Chicago!  While in school!

Further, because the Greenhouse hosts 7 resident theater companies–from Remy Bumppo and Theatre Seven to Eclipse Theater and MPAACT–EFTN students have gotten to meet countless professional actors, directors, playwrights, literary managers, dramaturgs, and more, simply by being in the same building in Lincoln Park.  We have been offered discounted or free tickets to shows, and some have volunteered to come in for Professional Development courses with our students.  One of the companies was so impressed with our group that they have asked us to participate in a play-reading series of theirs next month.

Lisa, along with her colleagues at the Institute for Arts Entrepreneurship (IAE), have also provided EFTN students to participate in two intensive “Boost Camps“, where they are given tools in marketing, writing a mission statement (and how it is distinct from a vision statement), doing a SWOT analysis on their artistic-business models, practicing negotiating and pitching.  All of these essential skills dovetail perfectly into EFTN´s mission of creating artists who are truly independent and autonomous, who can create their own sustainable economy.

Simultaneously, Jennifer and I realized that we have a number of common goals in terms of how we want to contribute to the Chicago theater scene, and how we can provide resources to incubate emerging theater artists and theater companies.  These discussions have lead to EFTN being invited back to work at the Greenhouse in the autumn of 2011, for another 15-week period.

Lisa has also offered me to join her esteemed faculty at IAE for their inaugural year, which promises to be exceptionally exciting.  Not only is she going to be working across disciplines with her students here in Chicago, but IAE is getting support from the Aspen Institute and the US State Department to create arts entrepreneurship education with select partners in North Africa.

But let me get back to my original point: we all had to take a risk, for any of this to occur and unfold in our lives, in our artistic businesses.

None of us knew in advance how successful this fall would be, with all of us working together.  Would we get along?  Would our goals be in accord?  Would we see any possibilities for future growth or collaboration?

When taking a risk, as an artist or an entrepreneur, I think it is important to trust your gut.  Listen to your heart.  In my life, my own mistakes tend to happen when I don´t listen to that Sixth Sense, and try to rationalize my way into (or out of) something.

In this case, I thought that the fall would be Pretty Good, given the people involved, and the information I had before booking tickets from Oslo.  I felt confident that we could all have a good time, and that it would be a good fall term.

I did not realize that it would be Extraordinary, or so Supremely Fulfilling.

But none of this would have happened, if I would have waited for all of the pieces to fall into place.  I had to take a risk: to just Trust that things will work out, that possibilities will reveal themselves through time, and that such risk-taking is worthy of time, money, and energy.

I had no idea that such risk taking would be yield such a tremendous return.  Jennifer, Lisa, and I now have the “luxury problem” of coordinating how to manage the time to do all of the creative projects that we want to, for the coming year.

I encourage all artists and entrepreneurs to have such luxury problems in their own lives, in their own businesses, in their own work.  There is a front row seat for everyone, I believe.  But the price of admission is risk.

Brendan McCall

Director, Ensemble Free Theater Norway

www.ensemblefreetheaternorway.com

Ensemble Free Theater Norway creates an artistic international community that is independent, sustainable, and dynamic. Through performance, collaboration, and international educational programs, EFTN aims to nurture new playwrights and theater-makers, especially within the Nordic region.

EFTN was created in 2010 by American theater artist, Brendan McCall.  Originally from New York City, Mr. McCall has worked professionally as an actor, choreographer, and director in over 20 countries on 4 continents.  He has taught for undergraduate and graduate Theater & Dance Departments since 1994, including: Rektor, The International Theater Academy Norway (2008-10), Yale School of Drama (2002-08), New School for Drama (2005-08), New York University´s Tisch School of the Arts (1994-2001, 2004-05), and others.

To learn more about our upcoming productions, or how to enroll in one of our international theater-immersion programs, contact the EFTN Director at brendan.mccall.norway@gmail.com.

Sharing our creativity on the web is increasingly popular to do.  But how do we get the credit we are due for our creative work? How can we identify the original source? I don’t know about you, but I am eager to know everyone out in cyberspace who cares about the stuff I do. It’s empowering to get connected!

And what about all the stuff online that is ” borrowed” with no identification? It’s a tragedy; beside the possibility of  it being a homicide. Gosh, I know how easily it can happen.  We’re simply in a rush to get something we are excited about–want to shout out– to our online audience, and credit gets overlooked or cannot be found.

I truly wish it was a little easier to give credit and learn about each creator. Don’t you?

Well now it is.

Check out this video about Creative Commons. Get the Recognition you deserve while you protect your work!

Did you get your license? I just got mine today. I made a donation too. I suggest you do to. This is good self- sufficiency- capacity-building stuff for all of you wanna be arts-entrepreneur folks. And. Frankly. It’s just really good karma to give to an organization helping creativity individuals be more easily recognized for the work we do.  So Go ahead. Make a donation.  It will come back to you 100 fold.

Here is the link to ETA’s license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Hey we want you to share us proudly!!

It is also on the right hand side of the ETA blog with this symbol.