HOW WE SERVE ARTISTS:

Creative Capital Gathering
South Jersey Arts Council, 2019

The ultimate measure of our success comes with creating, identifying and expanding opportunities for artists: sharing/making transparent/recommending standard practices for contemporary professional development programs and curriculums; facilitating exhibition opportunities, speaking engagements, and intergenerational collaborations; emphasizing interdisciplinary cross-over; creating jobs; and acting as a catalyst for many other sustainable practices. We want to see artists valued beyond one central art world, working, freely expressing, garnering opportunities and further integrated in society.

PRAGMATIC PROBLEM-SOLVING PROGRAMS FOR WORKING ARTISTS

At ISC, generosity is at the forefront of all interactions and conversations, including Professional Development guidance to artists which yields ready and future opportunities:

  • Consultation, education and advisement to individual artists from generous mentors. These mentors are leaders in academia, arts journalism, small arts organizations, regional nonprofits & museums, and other diverse sectors (medical, administrative, corporate, etc).

  • Peer-to-peer town hall forums, workshops and individual artist sessions identifying and resolving artists’ needs and wants.

  • Catalytic “match-making” between artists and arts organizations, community builders, and different sectors.

  • Training for artists as community arts leaders.

  • Access to database of contacts, including mentors, thought leaders, and others with specific expertise.

  • A comprehensive website to support all inquiries when asked for advice and/or content.

  • Participants become part of a shared, accessible community (with permission to include their contact information).

  • Essential follow-up and continued conversations.

Why it’s needed:

Although Professional Development for artists has been growing over the years, we have found deficiencies that need addressing:

  1. Much of the information being disseminated is not pragmatic.

  2. Many schools do not teach models of sustainability.

  3. Underrepresented areas of the country lack an arts infrastructure that provides access to opportunities to sustain a creative life.

We bring to our advocacy more than 10 years of grass-roots data, which is based on solid, concrete research collecting and addressing artists and arts organizations needs and wants.

Sustaining a creative life includes meeting the financial, emotional and physical needs of artists. Identifying these needs and bringing communities together results in increased opportunities that enhance and grow creative lives.

DEAI focus:

All information and initiatives are transparent and shared with artists of color, different abilities, women, and those who reside in underserved and underrepresented communities in order to create tangible, pragmatic solutions for sustaining their creative lives.