Curriculum

The following is a description of the different subjects covered in the Toolbox program. Some topics are covered in one class, some in two or more. Please see the Toolbox Calendar for more details on class times and dates.

• Executive Coaching A career coach will work with artists to broaden their outlooks and begin to develop their career plans, learning tactics for setting long and short-term goals and laying out the steps to achieving those goals. The coach will also discuss being resilient in an unpredictable world, including anticipating and preparing for problems, as well as self-imposed roadblocks and how to navigate around them.
• Peer Advisory Groups Under the guidance of a professional career coach, the peer advisory groups meet throughout the program outside of class sessions to exchange ideas and constructive feedback, provide support to one another and work with each other to integrate the tools of the program into their artistic careers. Building this community of support within the Toolbox program not only provides artists with useful information and feedback, but also helps to provide structure and accountability for integrating the teachings of the class into your artistic life, and helping to build a network of professional relationships going forward.
• Marketing Through several class sessions, artists will learn the fundamentals of marketing, including the strategic elements of marketing, understanding your customer base, crafting a marketing plan, implementing and measuring the success of a marketing plan, branding and communication strategies.
• Networking This portion of the program will focus on understanding the fundamental principles of networking, as well as debunking myths and misconceptions. It will teach artists how to create and nurture a web of relationships that best advance your career goals. It will also help people overcome their fears and concerns about networking, including getting comfortable talking about yourself and your work by practicing different ways of presenting yourself and your work to the public, including the “elevator speech.”
• Negotiation This presentation focuses on understanding and implementing "win-win," interest-based negotiation techniques. The goal of these classes is to help artists understand how adversarial approaches to negotiation and conflict can be transformed into problem-solving collaborations, producing better outcomes for all parties while enhancing long-term working relationships.
• Writing Skills This session will focus on refining writing techniques and written presentation skills. The focus will be on artistic statements, resumes, and application strategies, including tips for maximizing effectiveness and impact, and aligning your written materials with your overall career and marketing plans.
• Financial Planning Artists will meet with a professional financial planner to discuss fundamental principles of financial planning, with additional discussions of the issues affecting artists in particular, including handling a variable income stream, maximizing the benefit of your “second” job, and more. Artists will have the opportunity to engage in follow-up one-on-one sessions with the planner.
• Tax Strategies Taught by a professional tax planner, this course focuses on the tips and strategies visual artists should employ in managing their business and preparing their tax returns.
• Business Essentials for the Visual Artist This panel is designed to help give artists the information and connections they need to manage the business aspects of their career. It is structured with both a panel presentation from professionals involved in insurance, banking, health care and more, and then a clinic-style setting to allow artists to get their questions answered one-on-one.
• Approaching Galleries and Museums This panel is designed to give artists concrete information and tips on identifying, approaching and successfully working with museums and galleries. Panelists will include museum and gallery directors.
• Alternatives to Galleries This panel is designed to introduce and educate artists about opportunities beyond traditional galleries. Panelists will include representatives from residency programs, foundations, public art and alternative exhibition spaces.
• Copyright and Trademark This class focuses on the intellectual property issues affecting artists. Artists will learn the basic concepts of copyright, and work through exercises and hypothetical scenarios to make them comfortable analyzing their own situation and how the copyright laws affect them. It will also include a brief introduction to trademark laws and how those affect artists.
• Contract Law This class will include a brief overview of the basics of contract law. It will then focus on the two major types of contracts affecting artists: real estate (including rental leases and purchasing real estate) and gallery contracts, including relevant legal principles governing gallery arrangements and reviewing a model gallery contract.
• Estate Planning for Artists This class focuses on both the basic elements of estate planning, including the pros and cons of having an estate plan as well as the components of an estate plan, and on the estate planning issues unique to visual artists. It will help artists better prepare their records and inventory, as well as their personal financial papers, for meeting with an estate planning lawyer.
• Portfolio Review The portfolio review provides artists in the program with an opportunity to integrate everything they have learned in the marketing and career planning portions of the program into a portfolio review with representatives from galleries, museums, alternative spaces, residency programs and more. Each artist will have a chance to present themselves and their portfolio to multiple reviewers, and receive immediate constructive feedback on their presentation skills. Artists will also have opportunities to practice and present to each other before and during the portfolio review.