Artist and Arts Business Recognition

Oftentimes artists, as well as those who run arts-based businesses and nonprofit organizations, can be bashful about what they do for a living. Although it takes a fair amount of self confidence to persevere as an artist, most who do so are not in need of personal accolades or the approval of outsiders. Artists do what they do because it is their calling and they will do anything it takes to ensure that they have an outlet for their creativity.

With that in mind, if you know of a creative professional or arts based business that has shown proven success merging creativity and business skills, consider giving them a little nudge and nominating them for the 2011 COSE Arts Business and Innovation Awards. The mission of the Awards is to recognize those doing high quality work using sound business practices. The arts and culture sector is an important part of our regional economy, and this program is a way to give a voice to those working in the sector.

There are four award categories, and the top winner in each category will receive $1,000 cash, as well as other forms of business support.    The deadline for nominations and applications is Friday, March 4 at 5:00 pm, so please visit the COSE Arts Web siteand nominate a deserving creative professional today!

Music Business Interview Podcast

Recently I had the chance to sit down with Lynne Hoffman-Engel and talk about her experiences in the music business, from her perspective as a classical musician, record industry producer and now independent consultant and artist manager. Lynne has a diverse background, and has worked very closely as a producer with world famous artists such as Luciano Pavarotti and Esperanza Spalding for music labels such as Deutsche Grammophon, London and Telarc

Please visit HERE to hear the podcast of the entire interview with Lynne.

VLA Redux

Although I may seem like a broken record blogging about the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts all the time, I really do want the arts community to become more aware of VLA’s mission and services. The group, a committee of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, has done a great deal of work over the past few years to increase their visibility and engage with the arts community. Just this past week VLA members joined the COSE Arts Network for a holiday social event at Zygote Press and offered a nice, informative presentation about issues facing freelance creative professionals.

VLA is at it again this week, as attorneys Chris Klasa and Todd Masuda are presenting a program called Drawing Lines: Legal Lessons for Creative Collaborators at SPACES Gallery Wednesday, December 8th from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. The VLA is recommending this seminar for performance, electronic media, and music artists who collaborate with other artists, publishers, or presenters. Both Mr. Klasa and Mr. Masuda have extensive arts/music backgrounds, so this event should be a good example of how VLA is accessible to the arts community and working to eliminate barriers to participation in their services.

To secure your place at the presentation, RSVP to Corey Thrush at cthrush@ulmer.com or Jessica Paine at jpaine@clemetrobar.org. For more information, please contact Jessica Paine at (216) 696-3525

Oftentimes artists, writers and musicians fall prey to the popular overly-romanticized notion that creative work can only be the result of locking oneself away and solitarily mining for the gem of creative genius within. While it is true that to develop virtuosic technique countless hours must be spent in the studio or practice room—more often than not, alone—in reality artistic and musical work is informed by much of what has come before, and by and large as a result of collaboration and interaction with other artists.

 Geniocity blogger Peter Friedman supports this “nothing comes from nothing” idea, and his writing also tries to dispel the idea that solitary inspiration is the sole source of creativity.  While Peter’s writing tends to deal more with the idea of intellectual property ownership and how it relates to the process of how artists create, I found it interesting to think about how an artist actually functions, business-wise, when not working on the task of creating their work.

Many times when an artist leaves the structure of their own studio or practice room to work on business issues, they can lose focus and make poor use of time. Working as a freelancer means that the artist is likely to be their own manager, bookkeeper and marketing professional, among wearing other hats as well. Without applying the same type of structure and self-discipline that say, a musician would use to practice a new technique or work of music, many creative types find managing the business sides of their careers daunting and frustrating.  They know they have to do these tasks, but just don’t know where to start.  Structure is a key point. In order to maximize the time spent on business matters, artists must outline schedules and structure so that they can effectively deal with their business issues and not infringe upon the amount of time they would like be working creatively. Here are just a few tips on effective time management, aimed at creative professionals who often find themselves working alone, outside of a structured work or office environment.

VLA

As mentioned in previous posts, Cleveland and the surrounding NE Ohio area are in no short supply of resources and service organizations that help creative professionals and arts entrepreneurs achieve their goals. Yet another group helping out those in the arts and culture community is the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, a division of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association. Founded in the mid-1970s, the VLA’s mission is to “facilitate access to legal services, including pro bono representation, for northeast Ohio artists and arts organizations; to develop educational resources for and build a living network of the region’s lawyers, artists and arts organizations; and to advocate for a strong and vibrant arts community.”

Through a combination of getting out in the community and providing educational programming, presentations and networking events, to collaborating with local arts service organizations, members of the VLA are interested in putting a face to the organization and helping to minimize barriers to quality legal services for the creative community.

Interested in meeting some of the VLA members in a fun, social setting? On Tuesday, November 30th from 6 to 8 pm they will join us for our COSE Arts Network Holiday Social at Zygote Press. The VLA’s Steven W. Day will give a brief presentation on common issues faced by independent contractors/service providers, and after that we will tour Zygote’s print shops, hear from their Executive Director Liz Maugans, and enjoy food and drink. For more information and to register, please visit HERE

COSE SBC

Say what you will about Cleveland’s weather, sports teams or certain other aspects, but one thing you can’t accuse our area of is a lack of support for the small  business owner.  One such example takes place in one week as the Council of Smaller Enterprises (COSE) presents its annual Small Business Conference (SBC) on October 20 and 21 at the IX Center.  The two-day conference is designed specifically as a resource and support system for small businesses and entrepreneurs across the 8 counties of Northeast Ohio.  More than 1,600 people are expected to convene each day to attend workshops, hear inspirational keynote presentations from nationally recognized speakers, network with other professionals from all walks of the business community, and learn about resources and services at the SBC trade show.  The energy during the course of the Conference is almost palpable, as business owners and their employees leave with fresh new ideas, more business insight and new contacts to follow up with after the event.  What’s best is that SBC is free to the first attendee of any COSE member, and $75 per additional employee from that COSE member business.  Not a COSE member but thinking of joining?  SBC-time is the perfect time to join as the Conference costs over $400 for nonmembers!

In total SBC offers over 90 educational workshops and presentations.  Two of those are programmed and presented by the COSE Arts Network to help creative entrepreneurs with specific business issues.  On Wednesday, October 20 from 2:45 pm to 4:00 pm  Geniocity’s own Carolyn Jack and Noelle Celeste will present Branding and Communications for Artists, a workshop discussing how to reach your customers, clients, art consumers and the general public alike, and how to build and leverage a brand, create a comprehensive communication strategy and relate the personalized story of your arts business to the world.

Then on Thursday, October 21 from 1:00 pm to 2:15 pm, leading intellectual property attorney Sharon Toerek will present Cover Your Assets! – Intellectual Property Law for Artists in Business, a look at the many tools available to protect you and your artistic work (copyrights, trademarks, patents, trade secrets, licensing and contracts).  Sharon will provide guidance on each and how to utilize them in your respective arts field.

Creative Workforce Fellowships

A few weeks back I was part of a strategic planning session with area arts leaders and funders.  We were all asked to look forward and imagine the Cleveland area in 2020, and how we might envision a best case scenario arts and culture community.  More than a few people mentioned that they would like to see the NE Ohio area come to be known for attracting artists and creative professionals as a viable place to thrive as an artist.  Many agreed that it would be ideal to be known nationally as a model city for infrastructure supporting the creative workforce. 

Luckily for our area, some of the seeds of that type of support infrastructure are already in place and positively impacting both working artists and the community.  The Community Partnership for Arts and Culture (CPAC) is engaging in its 2011 Creative Workforce Fellowship program, made possible by the citizens of Cuyahoga County through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.  The program capitalizes 20 working artists by providing $20,000 cash awards, business support and training and free memberships in the COSE Arts Network.  The 2011 cycle will focus on artists working in craft, design, media or visual arts.  In addition to supporting the careers of these 20 individuals, the CWF program has a residual effect on the arts sector as well.  Past CWF winners have gone on to partner with arts nonprofits, collaborate with other working artists, deliver arts-based educational programming to the community, and support the work of other area artists either as a patron or champion.  If you are an artist based in Cuyahoga, or know one, please take some time to look into the CWF application process and get involved if eligible.  

Small Business Summer Reading List

Have you ever wondered what books or resources a professional business coach would recommend?  Seize This Day Coaching’s Diane Helbig provided the COSE Arts Network with this reading list for aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners.  Each month Diane moderates our Arts Network roundtables and many times the books listed below have come up in our discussions about wroking professioally in the creative sector.  

Lemonade Stand Selling by Diane Helbig
Toilet Paper Entrepreneur by Mike Michalowicz
Inbound Marketing by Halligan and Shah
Emyth Revisited by Michael Gerber
How Full is Your Bucket by Tom Rath
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (as well as Tipping Point and Blink)
The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss
The Original Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
Awakening the Entrepreneur Within by Michael Gerber
Can I Have 5 Minutes of Your Time? By Hal Becker
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch (yes it has business lessons in it!)

75 computer geeks, 15 non-profits, 1 amazing weekend

Although many small and medium sized arts organizations are aware of the need to improve their technology, branding, web sites and e-marketing, often times it simply isn’t possible given the understaffed and undercapitalized nature of these nonprofit businesses.  Many times organizations with annual budgets under $500,000 have only 2 or 3 full time employees, whose primary duties include creating and delivering content or programming, managing the day to day business, human resource management, grants management  and other fundraising.  While strategic plans and other long term visions may identify the need to improve an organization’s technology, in real life it is often something that gets shelved and never really addressed properly.  I understand how this can be frustrating to nonprofit professionals; when I worked for a small arts nonprofit it took months sometimes to even update our web site or work out all the kinks of an E-newsletter system. 

Well, thanks to the folks at GiveCamp  nonprofits can receive some tech support at an event being held July 16 – 18.  Perhaps your nonprofit hasn’t  had a chance to get a web site started, or maybe you need a bit of office automation…like keeping track of your volunteer or donor registration lists, for example.  Well, that’s where Cleveland GiveCamp comes in.  Over the weekend of July 16-18^th about 75 computer professionals will camp out (yes, in tents!) in Downtown Cleveland to perform pro bono custom programming projects for about 15 nonprofits across Northeastern Ohio.  The only real constraint is to select a project that can be completed that weekend and turned over to your organization.  GiveCamp’s  team of volunteer analysts will work with you to discuss your request and define what a project team can do for you during the event. 

Camp Out Details – The event is being held at LeanDog corporate headquarters located at 1151 North Marginal Road Cleveland, OH 44114.  Doors open on Friday at 4 p.m. followed by the GiveCamp kick-off and dinner for project teams and nonprofits.  Saturday and Sunday our work starts at 8 a.m., and the weekend concludes with a reception/celebration on Sunday at 5 p.m.  For more information and to fill out an application for your nonprofit, please visit Cleveland GiveCamp’s Web site.

Made in the 216

What is an arts entrepreneur?  Is it someone who simply hangs out their shingle and sells their goods or services to the public, or does operating as an entrepreneur in the arts require a more broad skill set, capacity for collaboration and creative thinking than one would normally associate with simply running a business?  Is there an onus on the artist entrepreneur to bring fresh new ideas to the marketplace or business community?  Some argue that the entrepreneur is an innovator, generating fresh ideas, while others say the entrepreneur is an organizer who can act as a catalyst.  I would argue that the artist entrepreneur must embody all of these qualities and more. 

The Cleveland area is ripe with artist entrepreneurs; several hundred members of the COSE Arts Network identify themselves as entrepreneurs or small arts-business owners.  Several hundred artists have taken the Artist as an Entrepreneur Institute since CPAC founded it 8 years ago.  Business training, best practices, professional development and networking are no longer dirty words in the arts community, and many artists, designers, musicians, dancers and writers are realizing that a healthy balance of artistry and business acumen will not diminish their artistic integrity, but rather create a solid foundation to support their artistic vision. 

One such Cleveland entrepreneur has for many years supported other working artists, designers and artisans by organizing and presenting showcase events called Made in the 216.  As the name implies, the event “touts the design community of Cleveland and supports those that have chosen to stay and base their creative endeavors right here in the 216.”

Danielle DeBoe, owner of Room Service, and the creator and operator of the Made in the 216, designed her events to look like a fun and engaging retail space, where guests can see the products of over 60 artists and designers, enjoy food by local restaurants and hear the talents of local bands and DJs.  These events are outgrowths from her own retail lifestyle boutique, and naturally are a form to marketing that business, but more importantly the events give energy and a platform to local designers, artists and musicians to convene and celebrate the great talent here in NE Ohio.  It takes a selfless type of entrepreneur who understands that a rising tide lifts all boats to take on an endeavor such as Made in the 216.  Check it out this weekend!