SC Artists LINC
The project
South Carolina has been selected for a national initiative known as Leveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC), a ten-year project designed to improve conditions for artists in all disciplines, so that artists can more readily do their creative work and contribute to community life.
The first convening
Thanks to everyone — artists, LINC staff and artists, facilitators, recorders, other Arts Commission staff, listeners, Richland School District One, SC Arts Alliance, and all — for making the SC Artists LINC Convening on August 28 a great success! It was an exciting day and a great start to a long term effort to improve conditions for artists here in South Carolina.
Four topics selected as "most important issues to work on":
- Coordinating among ourselves — 29 votes
- Making a living with my art — 29 votes
- Professional development — 14 votes
- Space — 21 votes
- SCAC should help artists work together by developing a web site for SC artists (along the lines of Facebook)
- Develop a SC Artists Association (all disciplines)
- More face-to-face discussions
- Develop leadership to build collective political force and find our voice
- Explore why we are artists in the first place and how we participate in our communities
- Business skills
- Accounting/tax
-
Marketing/advertising/promotion
- Planning/organization
- Creating a business plan
- Technology/IT
- Networking
- Soliciting advice/best practices
-
Planning for retirement
- Communication
- Generating capital (donors, etc.)
- Legal knowledge
- Insurance (health and liability)
- Lobbying
- Effective bartering/trade
- Knowledge of loans/financing
- Opportunities to sell, show, teach
- Statewide network--online and convenings
- Artists connecting
-
Marketing
- Sharing knowledge.resources
- Master lists of guilds, artist directory (all disciplines), organizations
- Climate that supports artists
-
Political climate
-
Laws, taxes, public art, etc.
-
Advocacy
-
- Use statewide organization for necessary benefits
- Health
-
Retirement
- Etc.
Professional development/business plan development
- How do we overcome isolation and build on existing frameworks to help each other grow as individual artist and as a community of artists?
- How do we access opportunities beyond state borders?
- How do we improve national/international connections?
- How do we build discipline/business/life planning and technical skills to accomplish that while living in SC?
- Needs for space for performance/exhibition, preparation, and creation (generative) intersect in a variety of ways with the needs of individuals, groups, and the statewide community of artists
- Need lots of space
- Statewide retreat
-
Local venues
- Municipal
- Institution
- Private
- Shared/non-shared
- "Green" space
- Live
- Live/work
- Rehearsal
- Studio
- Preparatory
- Educational
- Temporary
- Source of the issue
- Cultural
- Artist orientation
- Strategies
- Make a case that "sponsors" (elected officials, developers, landowners, people of power) can understand
- Research (what exists, what's needed, what are costs); case studies; numbers
- Artspace as agent for positive social, cultural, economic change
- Creative partnerships
- Creative space
- Increase availability/accessibility of public art (canvases/spaces)
- Buses
- Doors
- Walls
- Buildings
- Billboards
- Also, places for poor/rural people to experience art
That's the summary on what happened at the meeting, but now we would like to hear from you --other SC artists: If you have any thoughts on any of these topics that you'd like to share, or if there are other topics you'd like to discuss, here's the place to go:
SC Artists LINC Blog
Other resources mentioned during discussions:
- Tad Crawford
- Legal forms — visual artists
- Copyright primer
- SC Visual Artist Listserv (contact Paul Matheny at the SC State Museum
- Columbia Visual Artist Listserv: @yahoogroups.com (contact Mary Gilkerson )
- Upstage/Onstage