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Springboard’s Work of Art: Business Skills for Artists is a professional development curriculum designed to teach business skills to artists in all disciplines — visual, performing and literary arts. Artists can take the whole series, customized combinations, or individual workshops that best suit their needs, and the curriculum is available for people interested in leading the workshops and offering professional development resources.

The Work of Art series has been taught by Springboard for the Arts at arts organizations, libraries and colleges in over 80 communities in the Upper Midwest, and replicated across the country by artists, arts organizations, and colleges and universities. After teaching the workshops to thousands of artists, we decided that we could have our biggest impact by offering this resource as freely and widely as possible. The Work of Art Toolkit is available for free digitally, now with a 2020 update! The update includes:

-Beautiful, inviting new layout and design from artist Cori Nakamura Lin
-Expanded context and insights from working artists
-New exercises to help build practical working skills
-New section on Engaging Customers & Selling Your Work
-Handy expanded glossary of terms for quick reference

The Work of Art series is also available in Spanish! Translated in partnership with MACLA  /  Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana, the toolkit has been translated with additional video content created by and for Latinx artists. Trabajo de Arte: Aptitudes de Negocios para Artistas esta disponible en español. Haga click aquí por el caja de herramientas.

 
Want a hard copy of the Work of Art curriculum?

We are delighted to offer hard copies of both the Handbook for Artists Working in Community and the Work of Art: Business Skills for Artists curriculum for sale! We make our toolkits available as free PDFs, and offer the books as a supplement for study and instruction, but you can have hard copies sent to you via our Big Cartel online shop.

-$45 for an individual workbook
-$85 for a pair of both Work of Art and Artists Working in Community
-$210 for a set of 5 workbooks (5 of the same workbook, no mix & match)

Shop on Big Cartel
Work of Art: Business Skills for Artists

See the list, watch videos, and read a brief description of all Work of Art: Business Skills for Artists topics.

Work of Art: Business Skills for Artists
Attend an Upcoming Workshop

Find upcoming Work of Art workshops, panels, classes and Springboard events.

Calendar of Events
Work of Art Training Intensive

We offer a Training Intensive on how to lead our Work of Art: Business Skills for Artists curriculum and community development programming - find out more & sign up for updates!

Register here

Questions about this page?

Program Specialist

 
"[I now have] confidence in not only the comfort level with the logistics of business, but also just with calling myself an artist because I can... It is a journey and it legitimizes me by attending the class because that is a language that other people can understand."
-Work of Art participant

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