Putting projects to bed and today's Society for Arts Entrepreneurship Education presentation

Oh, the semester is ALMOST OVER! Along with wrapping up grading and advising, my presentations, facilitations, and trainings are nearing completion as well. Last Thursday and Friday, I facilitated a day and a half virtual training for the City of Paducah along with their Creative and Cultural Council entitled “Creative Business Bootcamp”. It went well - see testimonial to follow - and I got to spend time with some really wonderful artists and creatives.

“Jennifer made the process of planning and hosting our Creative Business Workshop easy and enjoyable. I appreciated the thoughtfulness and organization she brought to the planning stage and the insight and experience she brought to the curriculum. Her program development and course facilitator skills were invaluable in creating and hosting our course for creative entrepreneurs.”

Lindsay Parish, City of Paducah

Also in the works - since people are asking for it - I am beginning an adventure in artist/artisan/creatives and arts administrator coaching. This is a part of my business I’ll be investing in soon with a certification.

Finally, this afternoon I present my last big talk for the semester for the Society of Arts Entrepreneurship Education on the topic “Making the Art Work: A Review of Professional Practices in the field of Creative Entrepreneurship for Adult Learners in the US”. This is kicking off my “research lane” (stay in your lane!) for my tenure track faculty position at UNC-G. This presentation does an overview of the active sector of training across the country, and then does a closer look at three programs I have participated in as a facilitator/coach: Creative Lauchcamp at Launch Greensboro, Kauffman’s FastTrac Program through the Mountain Association in Berea, KY, and the AIR Institute’s Evolve Program.

A snapshot of a crowded sector.

I have a huge whiteboard in my office/dining room. It is so satisfying to cross off my larger commitments for the semester. The Piedmont Arts Strategic Plan should be approved in early December so here’s hoping that gets crossed off too!

Over the holiday break, I will be intensively working on a journal article - slogging down the path to tenure! - and enjoying some creative time in my studio.

Upcoming Virtual Presentation & Strategic Planning Session #2

October and November are busy times for me as per usual, but in comparison to years past, I am either doing all that consulting and presentation work remotely and/or regionally. As much as I enjoy traveling and going out and about, NOT flying around the country for now is a welcome respite. I do wonder how us wayward teachers/facilitators/presenters will transition back into “travel mode”!

Here’s an upcoming virtual conference presentation I will be hosting for the Society for Arts Entrepreneurship Education.

We’re starting to focus in on the “deliverables” for the Strategic Planning Project for Piedmont Arts in Martinsville VA. Last week we had a socially-distanced and masked work session with the Long Range Planning Committee, and were able to narrow down Goals and Key Strategies. Currently the leadership team consisting of the Executive Director, Board President, and Vice Chair of the committee are writing up the rough draft of the plan. The final draft will be shared with the entire board in mid-November so they can give feedback and if all goes well, the new Strategic Plan will be voted/approved by the board in early December. Here’s hoping! Pics from the session are below.

Virtual Strategic Planning Takeaways and a First Stab at Academic Writing

Bernadette Moore, Director of Exhibitions and Marketing, giving a tour of the current exhibition at Piedmont Arts this fall. Read more about the exhibition here.

Last Friday I facilitated the first Strategic Planning Session for Piedmont Arts in Martinsville VA. As I mentioned previously, Piedmont Arts is a dynamic and award-winning visual and performing arts center in SW Virginia. The session was held on Zoom for FIVE hours with the board and staff and WE MADE IT! Individual activities, breakout rooms, crowd-sourcing collective knowledge, and “bio breaks” made it work. I am thankful for the opportunity to co-facilitate a virtual 1 and 1/2 day Creative Bootcamp through Launch Greensboro this summer - being a part of that allowed me to integrate best practices in virtual workshops.

We meet up with the Long Range Planning Committee in early October to review the information and new ideas generated in that session to begin hashing out the plan. That 3 hour session will move the needle from ideation and analysis to designing the plan.

So, that being said, I need to spend the next few weeks working on writing projects - whee! This is my first stab at academic writing - with my previous job as gallery director I wrote A LOT, including a paid article for the Surface Design Journal. Academic writing is a whole other ball of wax, and frankly fairly intimating to me. However I am a fan of picking the low hanging fruit first, and am working on a draft for a journal focused on arts entrepreneurship education to submit an article on the research, curriculum design, delivery, and assessment of my basic arts entrepreneurship course. First developed at Morehead State as part of the Arts Entrepreneurship Minor Program I created, it is now pivoted to “Micro-Enterprise for Creatives” at UNC-Greensboro where I am now Assistant Professor of Arts Administration. And of course it is now virtual, thanks to our current “situation”.

As part of the article resources include current and previous syllabi, I will be sharing a list of books that are my go-to in teaching creative entrepreneurship at the college level and to adult learners. Here it is for you! If you have any books you would recommend, please comment below - I would love to hear about them!

Take care and stay safe,

Jennifer

IN GENERAL

Battenfield, Jackie. (2009). The Artist’s Guide: How to Make a Living Doing What You Love. IN: Da Capo Lifelong Books.  ISBN: 978-0306816529

Clark, Tim., Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y. (2010). Business Model You: A One-Page Method for Reinventing Your Career. NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN: 978-1118156315

Cobb, Peter, et al. (2018, 2nd Ed.). The Profitable Artist: A Handbook for All Artists in the Performing, Literary, and Visual Arts. NY: New York Foundation for the Arts.  ISBN: 978-1621536420

Congdon: Lisa. (2014). Art Inc.: The Essential Guide for Building Your Career as an Artist. NY: Chronicle Books. ISBN: 978-1452128269

Guillebeau: Chris. (2017). Side Hustle: From Idea to Income in 27 Days. NY: Currency. ISBN: 978-1524758844

Horowitz, Sarah. (2012). The Freelancer’s Bible: Everything You Need to Know to Have the Career of Your Dreams - On Your Terms. NY: Workman Publishing Company. ISBN: 978-0761164883

Kawasaki, Guy. (201). The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything. NY: Penguin Books. ISBN: 978-0241187265

Ries, Eric. (2011). The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses. NY: Crown Publishing Group/Random House. ISBN: 978-0-307-88789-4

Andrews, Richard S. (2020). Arts Entrepreneurship: Creating a New Venture in the Arts. NY: Routledge. ISBN: 978-1-138-88974-3

MARKETING

MacNeil, Natalie. (2015). The Conquer Kit: A Creative Business Planner for Women Entrepreneurs.  NY: TarcherPerigee. ISBN: 978-0399175770

ENTREPRENEURIAL MINDSET/DESIGN THINKING

Brown, Tim. (2009). Change by Design: Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived Joyful Life. NY: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN: 976-1101875322

 Burnett, Bill, Tim., Evans, Dave. (2016). Business Model You: A One-Page Method for Reinventing Your Career. NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN: 978-1118156315

Whitaker, Amy. (2016). Art Thinking: How to Carve Out Creative Space in a World of Schedules, Budgets, and Bosses. NY: HarperBusiness. ISBN: 978-0062358271 

FINANCIAL/LEGAL/LOGISTICS

Bhandari, Heather., Melber, J. (2017). Art/Work: Everything You Need to Know (and Do) As You Pursue Your Art Career. NY: Free Press. ISBN: 978-1501146169

Crawford, Tad., (2010). Legal Guide for the Visual Artist. NY: Allworth. ISBN: 978-1581157420

Fotopulos, Dawn. (2014). Accounting for the Numberphobic: A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners. NY: AMACOM. ISBN:  978-0814434321

Luttrull, Elaine G. (2013). Art & Numbers: A Financial Guide for Artists, Writers, Performers, and Other Members of the Creative Class. IL: Agate Publishing. ISBN:  978-1932841756

Starting a Business All-in-One For Dummies. (2019, 2nd Ed.). NJ: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN: 978-1119565215

PEDAGOGY/CURRICULUM ASSISTANCE

Neck, Heidi., Greene, P., Brush, C. (2014). Teaching Entrepreneurship: A Practice-Based Approach. UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN:  978-1782540694

Hart, James D. (2018). Classroom Exercises for Entrepreneurship: A Cross-Disciplinary Approach. UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN:  978-1788971867

Adventures in virtual Strategic Planning!

Enjoying strategic planning and lovely weather in Portland OR, 2017.

I was asked “in the before times” to shepherd our wonderful arts organization here in Martinsville VA, the Piedmont Arts Association, through its upcoming strategic planning process. Piedmont Arts, accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, is a cultural hub for our small town and was a major selling point when we decided to leave Kentucky to move here. Another plug for Martinsville (halfway between Greensboro and Roanoke in SW VA) - we have the Virginia Museum of Natural History too which is a Smithsonian affiliate - and great neighborhoods full of lovely homes for frankly, dirt cheap prices, although the word is getting out about Martinsville and those houses are being snatched up now. But I digress ……

Leading organizations through their strategic planning process is consulting work I enjoy, and have facilitated with boards and staff for organizations large like the Surface Design Association to small, such as the Estill County Arts Council.

a super-sized Business Model Canvas for the 2017 Surface Design Association strategic planning retreat in Portland OR.

With Piedmont Arts, we made the decision to do the work virtually. This consists of three primary meetings I had/have with the board and staff - about 25 people approximately. We had an intro session in August, will have a working session mid-September focused on envisioning, ideation, and analysis, and then the Long Range Planning Committee will take the raw material from the working session and begin the construction of the 2021-25 strategic plan in October. The hope is to have a final draft to the board in November, and the plan approved in December for implementation January 2021. While I have a fair amount of experience both facilitating, presenting, and teaching virtually, this will be my first time doing it with the strategic planning process. It’s going to be exciting and I expect to learn much from the process.

In the working session - you can find the slide deck and other resources I have created for the process here - you can see we use some basic entrepreneurial mindsets, tools, and activities like the Business Model Canvas, SWOT analysis, market research, understanding our value propositions, audience avatars, and so forth. While I think these tools are beneficial (obviously!), they do need translating for a non-profit and/or cultural context. So, some of the worksheets in the folder were adapted by me - like the audience avatar doc - because I could not find a personae activity sheet that was the right fit.

When I take on consulting jobs like this, it has to complement and feed my work teaching arts administration and entrepreneurship at UNC-Greensboro. This time since both my teaching and consulting are virtual now, I can directly take this strategic planning slide deck and related docs to lead my Fall 2020 students through their upcoming strategic planning assignment as well.

what will have to happen virtually this fall for Piedmont Arts!

Please check out the resources I shared about this virtual process - I will be continuing to update the blog with the opportunities and challenges associated with virtual strategic planning! Oh, and if you are looking for a good basic book on the subject, I recommend THIS BOOK.

Take care!

Jennifer

Jumpstarting the blog 2x a month - Back to School and E-Commerce Resources

Greetings from my remote office, Fall 2020! I am currently teaching full time at UNC-Greensboro, and thankfully the university gave faculty an option to work remotely this semester. This is definitely the cleanest it will look all semester . . .

Other than teaching arts administration and arts entrepreneurship for the remainder of our “exciting” year of 2020, I’m also doing plenty of consulting. Upcoming this week and next are two webinars on Intro to E-Commerce, meant for the Creative who always intended to sell online and never got around to it. No time like the present! These are being hosted by LaunchLab at Greensboro’s Chamber of Commerce (greensboro.org/launch/launch-lab/) and the Association for Creative Industries (creativeindustries.org).

One thing I’ve noticed as a facilitator and participant is how important extra info docs are so people remain engaged with the talk without freaking out about missing details and resources. So, for this webinar I am creating a basic list of some online resources to help people get up to speed. Here’s some of what I found…

E-COMMERCE RESOURCES FOR ARTISTS AND CREATIVES

OVERVIEW

https://mymodernmet.com/how-to-sell-art-online/

OVERVIEW

https://www.moma.co.uk/10-ways-to-sell-art-online/

PROS AND CONS OF PRINT ON DEMAND

https://www.artworkarchive.com/blog/the-pros-and-cons-of-print-on-demand

PINTEREST

https://sproutsocial.com/insights/how-to-sell-on-pinterest/

ETSY VS INSTAGRAM

https://www.merriweathercouncilblog.com/etsy-versus-instagram/

SELLING ON INSTAGRAM

https://www.tailwindapp.com/blog/selling-on-instagram

AMAZON HANDMADE VS ETSY

https://www.junglescout.com/blog/how-to-sell-on-amazon-handmade/

ARTISTS ON PATREON

https://theabundantartist.com/7-fine-artists-killin-patreon/

SAATCHI

https://digital.hbs.edu/platform-digit/submission/saatchi-art-equal-opportunity-to-sell-and-own-original-art/

As the blog moves forward I’ll be posting more resources like this, and updates about my trainings, research interests, and tales from my life as a practicing Creative Entrepreneur (you can check out my newest venture @ www.etsy.com/shop/magpiemiscellany).

Take care and stay safe!

Jennifer

Upcoming Trips, Workshops and Presentations

Mid-Fall Traveling Teacher! October/November always seems to bottleneck for me with my business and teaching at Morehead State (MIDTERMS, anyone?!?!). This year is more hectic than usual as I am presenting more in advance of the 2019 leap into full time consulting.

This week I leave for the Big Apple, NYC, thanks to the Great Meadows Foundation and their generous support of artists in Kentucky and S. Indiana through travel grants. I’ll be going there to see the Costume Institute @ the Met exhibition Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination. If you are familiar with my artwork you’ll know why I am over the moon to see this show before it closes.

Examples of work from the Heavenly Bodies exhibition

In mid-October I’m off to the University of Colorado-Boulder for the annual Society for Arts Entrepreneurship Education conference to do a hands-on presentation of my Entrepreneurial Mindset Training for Creatives. They’ve already given me a heads-up that I am a finalist for presentation award, so time to up my game!

Then, in early November in Floyd County, Kentucky, I will be presenting a day-long Artisan Entrepreneurship training for the Big Sandy Area Development Association, hosted by MACED out of Berea. Informational flyer is below for registration link and etc.

There’s more updating in November like the Kentucky Arts Council’s Creative Industry Summit, strategic planning retreats for local arts organizations and so forth. News about that and other things TBA. Happy fall, y’all!

Getting my consulting act together, photo-wise!

I am NOT a fan of having my photo taken, but given that my site and social media is severely lacking in decent images, I have employed a local emerging photographer and videographer (and former excellent student) Kristin Busby to do the dirty work. THANK YOU KRISTIN, you made me not look totally awkward!

Answering the BASIC business questions @ the 2018 Brushy Fork Institute

If you will be around Central Kentucky in mid-September, check out the Brushy Fork Institute at Berea College (www.berea.edu/brushy-fork-annual-institute).  It is scheduled for September 18-20 and is a convening of leaders in the region committed to community and economic development in Central Appalachia.  I'll be hosting a track called "Emerging Women Appalachian Entrepreneurs" on Wednesday September 19 - Thursday September 20.

Having been to BFI as a participant, I gained so much to take into my consulting business, the classroom at Morehead State University for arts administration and entrepreneurship, as well as the programming in the community and MSU's Golding Yang Art Gallery.

Happily I was invited to be a presenter this year for an intensive track focused on leading emerging female entrepreneurs in the region through a variety of entrepreneurial mindset activities.   The track is fast-paced and is geared towards giving emerging entrepreneurs a strong foundation of knowing (and communicating!) the basics of:

WHAT we do; HOW we do it; WHY we do it; and FOR WHOM do we do it?

Sounds simple but it's not!  In the session participants will take a deep dive into investigating the basic (yet philosophical) questions about their venture.  We won't be writing a business plan - oh no! - but we will be mining the raw goods to create one in the future AND actually be prepared to do so.

Hope you can join me at the 2018 Brushy Fork Institute!

Raise your hand if you're excited for Creativation 2018!

I'm getting ready to take off to sunny and warm (here's hoping!) Phoenix AZ on this coming Friday to present "Re/Framing Your Business: Business Concept Tools for Creatives", a two hour high impact session that will run participants (quickly!) through entrepreneurship tools like the Business Model Canvas, Value Propositions, Buyer Personae Inventory, MIndmapping for Diversified Revenue Opportunities, and Action Planning for 2018.  For more information about Creativation and the Association for Creative Industries, visit www.creativationshow.org.

Raise your hand if you're going to Creativation 2018!   Thanks to Tom Musgrave from the Kentucky Arts Council for sharing this pic of me presenting on Branding and Marketing for Creatives at their 2017 Creative Industries Summit last December.