Artist INC Celebrates 15 Years of Empowering Creators

Artist INC Live Kansas City 2022

There’s more than one way to be an artist. But while creative practices and techniques run the gamut, tried and true business skills can help artists of all disciplines make a living. That’s where Artist INC comes in.

A program of Mid-America Arts Alliance, Artist INC serves thousands of artists, providing them with coaching, skills, and community to turn their artistic practice into a creative career. 

Under the administration and management of M-AAA, Artist INC has evolved into a national model for artist-centric career development. The program’s success has been built on its unique approach: artists teaching and learning from other artists, fostering community and sharpening entrepreneurial skills.

An Artist INC Kansas City 2023 small group and session facilitator talk together during a session.

Artist INC was born in Kansas City but built for artists everywhere. 

This hands-on, artist-as-entrepreneur seminar covers topics like strategic planning, budgeting, building a personal brand, and funding an arts practice. Sessions meet three hours once a week for eight weeks. Trained artist peer facilitators lead all sessions.

Artist INC was born from a need. Arts and economic leaders in Kansas City identified the necessity for professional development for artists, but no such program existed. So, like all doers and creators, local artist- and entrepreneur-leaders made it themselves. Artist INC launched in Kansas City in 2009, and in 2011 it expanded to Wichita. 

In 2017, M-AAA, recognizing the impact the program could have on artists of any discipline, anywhere in the country, acquired Artist INC as the flagship program of a new division completely dedicated to artists. M-AAA expanded the tiers of the program and its geographic reach. Now, Artist INC has served thousands of artists in dozens of communities—and it continues to grow.

An Artist INC session in Wichita in 2018.

Fellow artists provide real, applicable guidance.

With its tiered, artist-centric approach, M-AAA created a suite of programs built on the original Artist INC model. This means expanded access to rural communities and opportunities for later-stage artists to develop next-level skills, advance their professional growth, and strengthen their peer networks.

For example, Artist INC Express is a condensed 10-hour workshop that’s offered virtually and in-person in communities around the nation. The next step is Catalyze, a mid-career program that combines practice-based grant funding with the next stages in professional development.

All Artist INC sessions are led by trained, paid, local, artist facilitators who are typically alumni of the program. These facilitators have personal experience that makes their input especially beneficial. And Artist INC pays these leaders competitive rates to reflect the value they provide.

Artist INC has helped creatives flourish for 15 years.

But the initial stirrings of the program began two decades earlier. The Culture Wars of the late 1980s and 1990s spelled a dramatic reduction in federal funding for individual American artists. This crisis prompted the Ford Foundation to commission a study about the support mechanisms available to creatives. After three years of research, the Urban Institute published its report, Investing In Creativity, in 2003.

The report noted that artists needed to be empowered as entrepreneurs. The right skills and information could help them buck the cliché of the “starving artist,” build their businesses, and change the world with art and design. 

That’s when arts and economic leaders from the Charlotte Street Foundation, the Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City (Arts KC), and the University of Missouri-Kansas City Innovation Center partnered to find programming to address the needs outlined in Investing In Creativity. But artist-centric entrepreneurial development didn’t exist, and other programming didn’t address the unique needs of creatives.

“Being an artist is not like being in traditional business,” says Diane Scott, former professional development program director at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Innovation Center, now director of Artist Services at M-AAA. “Entrepreneurs find a need and fill it, creating to the needs of the marketplace. But artists create the demand. They create things that don’t exist, then have to go out and find the market.”

The way artists approach their businesses is best understood by other creatives. 

So the partnership brought Creative Capital Foundation to Kansas City for a series of weekend retreats over three years, starting in 2006. The sessions were energizing for participants—and provided useful data as leaders figured out how to meet the need long term.

“Artists teaching and sharing with other artists—that was the critical idea behind Artist INC,” says David H. Hughes, Jr., founder/director emeritus of Charlotte Street. “It was clear that artists needed help with their careers, but it was the uniqueness, excitement, and energy of learning and sharing among artists that made the experience so meaningful and valuable. It was a very high hurdle, but we wanted our own local version to help more regional artists.”

The need for artist-centric professional development wasn’t just in Kansas City or the Midwest. It was across the country. So the partnership proposed creating a curriculum for Kansas City, but with an eye on replicating it to other communities. 

“The early years of Artist INC exemplified the innovation and intelligence born from Creative Capital’s belief that all artists can realize their vision and build sustainable practices,” says Dana M. Knapp, president and CEO, ArtsKC. “Artist INC is the result of a unique and catalytic collaboration between ArtsKC, UMKC, and Charlotte Street Foundation and later M-AAA.”

Artist INC Houston WorkShare, 2018. The WorkShare is the culminating showcase where each artists presents their work to a public audience.

Now, more than 2,500 artists have benefited from Artist INC programs.

In 14 communities across eight states, more than 1,500 artists have fueled their careers with Artist INC. And more than 1,000 artists have participated in Artist INC Express.

“We thought this program was mostly about sharing information,” Diane says. “But we found out fast that the most powerful part of it was the network. Traditional business people often belong to business organizations that provide a set of connections, and Artist INC fills those holes for artists. It’s almost like a secret handshake.”

Data shows that the program’s reach extends beyond participants. One year post-program, 95% of alumni report sharing information or ideas from Artist INC with other creatives. In communities where the program has been offered for multiple years, the skill sets of incoming participants increase. In Kansas City, 80% of incoming participants report having written goals. That’s compared to only 30% in 2008.

“It saddens me that the most common report I get on any program survey is, ‘I wish somebody taught me this in art school,’” Diane says. “There’s still such a huge demand for this, not just in our region but across the country.”

Artist INC is meeting that demand at a grassroots level.

The program’s reach continues to spread.

“Many artists are independent business owners when it comes to their art,” says Maria Meyers, executive director of the UMKC Innovation Center and vice chancellor, commercialization and entrepreneurship. “Having the tools and networks to capitalize their talents brings more art to this world.”

Getting that art into the world in a way that supports and rewards creators is a tenet of Artist INC.

“Making art isn’t enough,” Diane says. “Is it actually art until it interfaces with humans? Nobody makes things not to share them. And the sharing is all business.”

Artists interested in applying for Artist INC should visit artistinc.art and select an offering in their location. Want to bring Artist INC to your town? Contact artistservices@maaa.org. 

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