Welcome, Internet for Artists! Columbus, OH Edition

Hello IFA Participants (and anyone else visiting my blog)!

This weekend (April 13-15, 2012) I’ll be co-leading the Internet for Artists workshop in Columbus, Ohio. This is my first time in Columbus, and I look forward to making the magic happen with my illustrious Co-Leaders Dread Scott, Blithe Riley, and Steve Lambert.

I’m looking forward to meeting the artists of various disciplines interested in using the internet to take their careers to the next level. This will be a fantastic weekend!

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“The Artist Online” Workshop for Pro Arts Jersey

This past Sunday (January 15th) I taught a new workshop that I developed for Pro Arts Jersey City in Jersey City, NJ. This workshop was part of their Artist Career Development Weekend. On Saturday, Pro Arts NJ had a portfolio review, and Sunday was the workshop.

What I loved the most about this workshop was that it included a practical component. For the first half of the day, I lectured to artists on how to promote their work online. After lunch, the participants had to come up with a marketing plan for a real or imagined project or event. I was able to give specific feedback, suggestions, and just plain old encouragement – which you know I love to do!

The workshop was a lot of fun, and Pro Arts is interested in having me back to teach. How cool is that? Yay!

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Welcome, Internet for Artists!: Fort Lauderdale Edition

Hello IFA Participants (and anyone else visiting my blog)!

This weekend I’ll be co-leading the Internet for Artists workshop in Ft. Lauderdale, my old stomping grounds. I’m originally from Miami, so I’ll be extending my trip to enjoy some downtime, but tonight is the night that the Internet for Artists magic begins!

I’m looking forward to meeting the artists of various disciplines interested in using the internet to take their careers to the next level. This will be a fantastic weekend!

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Hello, Culture Builds Florida 2011!

Today (October 25, 2011), I am excited and honored to present “Untangling the Web: Marketing Arts and Culture Through Social Media” at the Culture Builds Florida conference in Tampa, FL.

I’ll be presenting two social media lectures today on behalf of Creative Capital, and although I won’t have the Creative Capital “Cool Kids” to keep me company, I’m looking forward to meeting the Florida artists who’ll be attending this event. It’s kinda fun and ironic that I was actually born and raised in Miami, Florida, so we have a lot in common. Even though I live in NYC now, I’ll be representing for South Florida!

If you’re a conference attendee visiting my blog, welcome! Feel free to check out this website and leave comments. It’s great to meet you!

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Internet for Artists – “You’re only a virgin once” Edition

So now I’m back from my maiden voyage as a course leader with Creative Capital’s “Internet for Artists” workshop, and I’m still percolating on the experience. For one thing, I’m already planning my next trip to Providence, Rhode Island. Providence is a hothouse of creative people and ideas, and I look forward to going back to enjoy it to the fullest with my new friends!

Speaking of my new friends, I’d like to give a shout out to all of the IFA artist participants:

* Marjorie Ball – 2D visual arts (East Greenwich)
* Taleen Batalian – painting/encaustic (Providence)
* Andre Brown – photography (Providence)
* Mia Chung – playwrighting/theater (Providence)
* Maria Alejandra Garcia-Corretjer – visual arts/industrial design/advertising (Providence)
* Orissa Jenkins – illustration (Providence)
* Delia Kovac – multidisciplinary arts (Providence)
* Michele Leavitt – fiber arts/mixed media (Saunderstown)
* Xander Marro – film/installation (Providence)
* Joy McLaughlin – textiles/sculpture (Providence)
* Wanda Miglus – textile design (Providence)
* Kym Moore – theater (Warwick)
* Rebecca Noon – theater (Providence)
* Nora Rabins – furniture design/sculpture (Providence)
* Kareem Roustom – music composition (Providence)
* Duhirwe Rushemeza – printmaking (Providence)
* Ambereen Siddiqui – photography (Providence)
* Keith Spencer – painting (Providence)
* Simone Spruce-Torres – drawing/painting (Bristol)
* Susan Stephenson – painting (Westerly)
* Laura Travis – sculpture/assemblage (Wakefield)
* Toussaint Wallace – architecture (Providence)

Special thanks to Alyson Pou, Ann Marie Lonsdale, and Rebekah Meola from Creative Capital; Caitlin Strokosch, Executive Director of the Alliance of Artists Communities, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and Rhode Island State Council of the Arts (RISCA). I also have to thank my new co-leaders: Eve Mosher, Steve Lambert, Blithe Riley for their warm welcome to the new kid on the block!

For more information on Internet for Artists, visit the Creative Capital website. To learn more about the techniques taught, feel free to check out the Internet for Artists wiki site at http://ifa.wikispot.org

Photo of Steve Lambert by CLH

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Internet for Artists – “But I don’t care what people had for breakfast!” Edition

Today was Day 2 of the Internet for Artists workshop. It was also the day of my first solo lecture, “Practical Toolbox” which is all about using online tools to “work smarter, not harder”. My maiden voyage went well, and the participants were interested. YAY!

So in keeping with the whole idea of sharing info, here’s another exercise to focus your social networking efforts. Underneath each step are my original answers, from when I was an IFA participant in February.

“Who Am I Online?” Exercise

Step 1: Write a single sentence describing how you want people to know you online. Begin with “I am a…”

I am a cheerful, helpful, creative musician and marketing consultant.

Step 2: Write a short list that describes who you want to reach on the web. List 3-4 kinds of people.

* Potential fans
* Other indie artists and creative people
* Music supervisors and licensors
* Music writers and editors

Step 3: Write a short list that describes what you would like to learn about or learn from other people on the web. List 3 things you would like to learn.

* Musical tips/skills
* New tech developments for social media
* Video editing techniques
* Other singer/songwriters in my genre

Once you have these answers, you then have a map to help you decide how you want to represent yourself online, as well as the people you can target.

Twitter is NOT about telling people what you had for breakfast. It’s about building relationships with people. And just about anything you do to market yourself in the real world can be done faster and more efficiently when you have a plan of attack.

If you haven’t tried Twitter or Facebook yet, what are you waiting for???

Photo Source: Susan and Kurt Blog by photographers Susan Shaw and Kurt Hoss. Susan attended IFA in Feb 2009.

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Internet for Artists – “For those of you playing at home” Edition

Steve Lambert and Dread Scott, IFA Artist Course Leaders

So yesterday was Day 1 of the Internet for Artists workshop at the Rhode Island School of Design, and we have a great group of artist participants.

One of the main philosophies behind Internet for Artists is that the information itself is open source, and meant to be shared, so if you’re interested in beefing up your online presence, here’s a good introduction exercise:

“What Is My Internet Footprint?” Exercise
(Not the official title of the exercise. I just thought it up )

Step 1: Ask a friend to Google your name, and see what comes up.

This is best done in pairs, so trade off with an artist friend. If you’re in a mastermind or other other artistic community, this exercise is even more effective if the person googling you does not know you that well.

The point of this exercise is to discover what a stranger sees when they look you up online. When googling someone else, ask:

* Do they have a website under their own control?
* Is this person easily found?
* Do they have social media accounts?
* Can you find examples of their work?
* Did you find that artists/people with the same name online made
it difficult to know if you had the right person?

Step 2: Trade the information you learn with your partner.

The results of this exercise enable you to evaluate how you are found online, and what kind of changes you need to boost your presence. Participants of this exercise are often surprised to learn what is “out there” on the internet about them. Sometimes, the wrong info is found, or worse – info they didn’t want people to know about. So it’s good to keep an eye on what can be found about you online.

Step 3: Take steps to improve the quality of your online footprint.

As the internet changes often, do this exercise at least twice a year to see your progress.

If you decide to do this exercise, I’d love to hear about it below!

Photo Source: Lorene McIntosh

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Internet for Artists – “I’m not only the president, I’m also a client…” Edition

So do you remember a little more than a month or so when I blogged about taking a kick-ass workshop called “Internet for Artists”?

Fast forward to today: I’m now a new member of the course leader team, and I’ll be making my debut TONIGHT at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)! This time around, I’ll be teaching online marketing methods to visual artists. This is a little different from teaching online music marketing to musicians and music-related companies, but the principles are the same.

I’m totally psyched about working with Creative Capital, and the other Artist Course Leaders: Blithe Riley, Eve Mosher, and Steve Lambert, as well as the 24 artist participants.

If you’re a participant checking out my blog, I look forward to meeting you!

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Internet for Artists – Kumbaya Wrap-up

A college professor once went to see a Zen master to learn more about Zen. When the professor met her, he told the Zen master everything he knew about Zen — all the scriptures he had read, all the knowledge he had, all the facts and figures he knew. He said that he would like her to tell him all of her knowledge so that he could know everything there is to know about Zen. The Zen master responded by asking the professor if he would like some tea. The professor said that he would.

To which the master responded, “Like this cup, your mind is full. How can I teach you about Zen unless you first empty your cup, empty your mind?”

This weekend’s “Internet for Artists” workshop was a breakthrough of sorts for me. The rooms were filled with energy and creativity, and a sense of sharing. After spending a weekend with these artists, I can’t help but admire their dedication to their art. There is a discipline represented, that musicians don’t always have, which I can’t help but respect.

Being in a group of artists this weekend reminded me that it is still February Album Writing Month, whose month-long songwriting bootcamp is still in session. Tomorrow night is the 3rd year anniversary of the Brooklyn Songwriter Circle, and now that my 4-month entrepreneurial class with WIBO is done, I can return to this vibrant music community on Mondays. It’s time to set up this week’s songwriting session with my writing partner. And complete a personalized song commissioned for a pair of soulmates celebrating seven years together.

Gotta go! I have music to make.

For more information about the Internet for Artists workshop, visit http://Creative-Capital.org

*Meaning of Kumbaya, thanks to Wikipedia

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Internet for Artists – Day 3

Ooh, the last day of our 3 day “Internet for Artists” workshop, and it ROCKED!!!

Reductive Artist Matthew Delegat started the day by teaching folks about WordPress blogs, and how to install it. I could have cried – WP is such a fantastic blog platform that can be learned in a few hours, and I was grateful that he was teaching artists how to fish by teaching them how to create a blog. LIBERATION!!

I’ve been to tons of internet workshops and rarely do you get tutorials on WordPress. Steve Lambert, one of the artist course leaders (not in attendance, but oft-quoted), has even built a theme for artists, WPFolio, an easy way to post your art portfolio on a WordPress blog. I’ve installed my share of a few WordPress blogs, and was still blown away at how easy WordPress is to teach newbies. Great idea!!

After that was “Sticky Websites”, which was led by public artist Eve Mosher and filmmaker/storyteller Michelle Halsell. This might have been my favorite session of the weekend, as Eve and Michelle took us through websites that are “sticky”, as in your eyeballs “stick” to the page. Sites such as Garbage Revolution, Learning to Love You More, and ceramicist Ayumi Horie were terrific examples of sticky websites that I look forward to revisiting (and studying! )

Next up was Dread Scott’s session on “Generating Revenue”. Dread gave us a tour of Etsy.com, which is an option for the artist who also has drawings, jewelry, or other objects available. By the way, musicians are also selling their CDs on Etsy, so I’ll have to take a closer look.

He then turned us on to 20×200.com, a website curated by a gallery owner to sell art at multiple price points, from $50 to $3,000. I found this idea quite brilliant actually. Artists can sell their art, and “regular people” can afford to enjoy it. Simple and effective!

This session also covered crowdfunding, getting a group of your fans to donate to your project. We also learned about DJ Spooky (also known as artist Paul Miller) who built an iPhone app (and sold over a million of them). Dread then rounded out our session with eTicketing and affiliate income. Wow, having to type all this out now, I really realize how much info we got today!

THEN photographer Sue Schaffner taught a kick-ass session on “Being Efficient”. That woman has lots of tools and tricks up her sleeve! We learned about Merlin Mann’s “Inbox Zero” technique of email organization. I’ve been ignoring people’s tweets about “Inbox Zero” because the idea sounds impossible to me.

But since Sue gave the basic premise (Only 5 things to do with your emails when you receive them; If you can’t take action, why are you reading your email??), I have to give this technique a shot. So maybe one day I’ll be the one tweeting “Inbox Zero”! Don’t hold your breath, but it really seems like something I can actually do!

After lunch, we had one on one consultation sessions. I met with Sue Schaffner to talk about generating revenue tips. Even better, she gave me insight into grant applications for artists. Apparently New York Foundation of the Arts (NYFA) posts new grant opportunities each week. The Foundation Center is also a place online to discover grant opportunities. Only over the past few months have I started to explore what grants are all about, and I was pleased to learn from someone who’s received a number of them.

After my consultation, I went to the main room where the group was reviewing their notes. Eve Mosher invited me to share some of my music marketing lessons with the group, and thanks to the announcement made by the dashing Triple Edwards, most of the artists gathered round to listen. I shared a modified version of “The 4 C’s of the New Music Biz”, wanting to be mindful of the artists in the room who might find some of my promo tactics to be inappropriate to what they do. Thankfully, my talk was well-received, but it was easy. It felt more like a conversation with a group of people – my new friends!

Special thanks to Creative Capital, New York Foundation of the Arts (NYFA), Alyson Pou, Ann Marie Lonsdale, Rebekah Meola, and Jon Carrero at NYFA. It takes a lot of work to put a workshop like this together, and it is much appreciated! I’d also like to send a shout out to Liora Beer from Boston’s ARTMORPHEOUS who attended as an observer. She’s now interested in having an “Internet for Artists” workshop in Boston. Lucky them!

For more information about the Internet for Artists workshop, visit http://Creative-Capital.org

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