ArtsMarketing.org

Marketing for the Independent Artist
Day and Time: Friday, October 30,9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Register before October 14 and enter to win free consulting with the pre-conference presenters! One registered artist will be randomly selected to receive up to two hours of free consulting with both Deborah Obalil and D'lynne Plummer.* D'lynne will happily edit your marketing materials or coach you on your artist statement, and Deborah will address any marketing strategy questions you might have from who to target with your communications, how to get the most out of your use of social media or what your marketing timeline should look like.

Attention Artists! Take control of your own marketing by learning what it can and can't do for your careers. Discover how to define targets and objectives based on overall career goals, how to construct a solid marketing strategy based on those objectives and how to make it real as a team of one (or maybe 2 or 3 if you're a collaborative).

Presenter:

Deborah Obalil
Obalil & Associates, Lincoln, RI
Deborah Obalil has fifteen years experience as an arts manager and organizational development specialist, with experience at both the staff and consulting levels in writing and implementing detailed strategic plans, marketing plans and development plans. Her consulting practice has included clients of every organization size and discipline, including independent artists, in various geographic locations across the United States. Deborah is a regular faculty member of the Artist Professional Toolbox, an annual professional development program for visual artists presented by the Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston. Deborah’s career within arts organizations placed her most recently as the Executive Director of the Alliance of Artists Communities, an organization dedicated to the advancement of America’s creative vitality through supporting the field of artists’ communities.

Artist Networking Lunch
Day and Time: Friday, October 30,12:45 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
We understand the value of uninterrupted networking opportunities and a chance to meet potential creative collaborators. Meet your friends and peers, and discover new artists in your field.

Writing Workshop
Day and Time: Friday, October 30, 2:00 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.
Visual and performance artists, as conveyors of stories, intention and feeling, are often more comfortable explaining themselves through paint, movement or music than through written and spoken language. This workshop provides tools to help artists craft statements, biographies, descriptions of their work, and turn their point of view into media-ready pitches. Bring a pen and an open mind.

Presenter:

D'lynne Plummer
Exponent Marketing, Brookline, MA
D'lynne Plummer is a marketing and public relations consultant with a background in marketing for professional services firms and ten years experience as a freelance writer. She was an arts journalist for ArtsEditor.com, South End News, and Art New England before starting her own communications collaborative, Exponent Marketing. As a consultant, she has crafted press releases, newsletters, podcasts, advertisements, annual reports, proposals, and grants for a variety of client types, and her articles have been placed in national publications. In her spare time, D'lynne writes creative non-fiction for publication and performance.

Artist Panel – Real Life Applications of Marketing and its Impact
Day and Time: Friday, October 30, 4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Meet mid-career artists, all of whom have learned to take control of their own careers by using marketing strategy to their advantage. From increased sales to awards recognition to general stability, all of these artists have improved their living situations and career trajectories through marketing. Ask questions and garner real tips from fellow artists that have experienced proven results.

Panelists:

Jason Brockert, Painter, Rhode Island
Jason Brockert is a native of Holliston, MA, and the transformation of his hometown from woods to suburb, in part, fuels his current paintings. He earned a B.F.A. from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) where he was a member of the European Honors Program in Rome. Jason returned to Providence in 1997 and works as both painter and painting faculty at RISD. His work has been featured at the CoSo gallery in Boston, the Wheeler Gallery in Providence, and the Southern Vermont Arts Center, among others. Recently he was awarded a Rhode Island State Council of the Arts painting fellowship and has been a summer fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. www.jasonbrockert.com

Deb Dormody, BookBinder, If'n Books + Marks, Providence, Rhode Island
Deb Dormody had tried all the get-rich-quick schemes. None of them worked until she created If'n Books + Marks in 2000 when she started making blank journals and photo albums by hand. Now, she's loaded.

Not to be confused with a bookmaker (who makes more money placing bets), this bookbinder credits her public high school art teacher with exposing her to the magical world of bookbinding. Deb continued her studies in college, and post-college, and a stint with a master binder. It seems to have taken. She now sells her books to about 200 very smart stores around the country.

Her continuous search for unique book coverings led her to commission fancypants artists to create exclusive designs for her that are not seen anywhere else. This collaboration helps strengthen the network of independent artists and provides a terrific opportunity for her to pawn off some of the designing on somebody else for a change.

The If'n Books + Marks studio is in Providence, Rhode Island. We make each book by hand using vintage and contemporary equipment that is beautiful unto itself. www.Ifnbooks.com

Nehassaiu deGannes, poet & actress, New York, NY
Nehassaiu completed Trinity Rep Conservatory and upon graduation was invited by Oskar Eustis to join Trinity's Resident Acting Company, where she was the Peter Kaplan Memorial Fellow 2003/04. Regional Theatre Credits include roles in Coriolanus at Shakespeare & Co., Jar The Floor and House of Bernarda Alba at Providence Black Rep, as well as Top Girls at The GAMM. Directors she has worked with include Oskar Eustis, Amanda Dehnert, Brian McEleney, Kevin Moriarty, Peter DuBois and Tina Packer.

Her poems have appeared in Callaloo, American Poetry Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, PoemMemoirStory, Tuesday; An Art Journal, Caribbean Writer, and the new anthology, After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery For Life Shattering Events. She has work forthcoming in Encylopedia Project and Quotes Community: Notes For Black Poets. A chapbook, Percussion, Salt & Honey won the 2001 Philbrick Poetry Award for New England Poets. 

Recipient of the 2008 Rhode Island State Council on The Arts Poetry Fellowship, Nehassaiu is a Cave Canem Fellow and graduate of The Brown University MFA Program, an alum of The Sqaw Valley Community of Writers and Marilyn Nelson's Soul Mountaln Retreat. www.nehassaiu.com

*The selected artist is responsible for scheduling individual one-on-one appointments with each presenter, Deborah Obalil and D’lynne Plummer.  Consulting sessions must be executed by April 30, 2010.  No extension of offer applies.

This preconference—Marketing for the Independent Artist—is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, the Rhode Island Foundation and the Rhode Island State Council for the Arts.