PRIORITY #2: Build a Robust Pipeline of Future Champions for and Creators of Art
Youth
Connecting Akron Schools to the Cultural Community: ArtsNow is uniquely positioned to support Akron Public Schools (APS) by facilitating the connection between students, teachers, administration, and the broad cultural community. This work should be adaptive to the needs of educational partners, and areas of exploration will include:
Appointing members of cultural organizations and individual artists on Akron Public Schools’ College and Career Advisory Committees. Advisory participation should extend beyond traditional arts curriculum to include science, technology, engineering, mathematics, humanities, and history.
Supporting Six Hour Option engagement for teachers.
Partnering to support learning opportunities during the annual two-day tech and innovation conference held by Akron Public Schools for regional educators.
Exploring opportunities to leverage the arts to communicate more effectively with families and community members.
Out-of-School Programming: Identify and support out of school time providers who are interested in developing or increasing their culturally-based learning curriculum and programming.
Post-secondary partnerships: Partner with The University of Akron’s EXL Center, Kent State University, Stark State College, and cultural organizations to develop a pipeline of internships and experiential learning experiences for arts, design, culture, humanities, and history students. This can support Akron and Northeast Ohio becoming known as a place with an established pipeline of professionals in the cultural sector.
Talent Development & Support of Artists
Financial Literacy for Artists: Leverage the City of Akron and United Way of Summit County’s financial empowerment centers to support financial literacy for artists and makers as individuals. As many of our culture creators are compensated as contract professionals, a deeper understanding of opportunities and challenges of the financial realities of their work should be explored and supported.
Talent Development: Develop the talent of the local artist community through training for artists in the following prioritized areas:
Communication tools: marketing, social media, press releases;
Event development;
Pricing structures;
Collaboration with nonprofit organizations;
Funding opportunities: grant writing, available grants, budget creation, managing a budget, microloans, crowd-sourced lending, traditional loans;
Increasing sales;
Audience development;
Customer discovery and market research;
Licensing of work;
Gallery representation;
Working with agents, labels, and industry trends;
Accounting practices;
Understanding artistic value;
Business and financial plan creation;
Developing different streams of income;
Professional development opportunities for artists to gain insight and skills in their professional field;
How to best utilize an intern;
How to be a public artist;
How to respond to an RFQ or RFP; and
Other areas as identified in an ongoing way by the creative community.