Kansas City has a vibrant arts community, but very few artists are able to make a living solely off their artistic talents. Therefore, we created this project to teach these artists entrepreneurial talents so they are one step closer to reaching their greatest potential.

 

In the past two years, we’ve thrown a gallery competition to give artists active selling and networking experience and organized a series of artist-led workshops educating on skills like marketing artwork, financing your career, finding studio space in the city, and owning your own brand, as well as giving artists their own personal business plan. If you want to explore and enact creative ideas to bring artists closer to their goals, this is the project for you.

 

This year, we’ve found that most emerging artists find that they can’t reach their artistic goals without the aid of a mentor: a professional artist experienced in their craft. However, mentors can be, if not pricey, hard to find altogether. Mid-career and professional artists we’ve met want fulfillment in influencing a younger artist who reflects their goals, being an aid to others and getting rid of the divide and competitive edge within the art community.

 

What if we found a group of advanced artists willing to advocate, advise, and assist emerging artists entrepreneurially?

 

We created a mentorship program to have artists pair up and form a unique and mutually beneficial partnership to advance a younger artist’s success. We want them to collaborate on improvement strategies like sales, marketing, brand ownership, or anything pertaining to the success of the older artist or the goals of the emerging artist.

 

Artists have said that they feel that they can’t find internships, studio spaces, buyers, or opportunities because their trade school was focused on talent and generalized artists, as well as neglects to teach business components crucial to an artist’s success. No artist is the same, so they should be provided with individualized help. The Arts and Entrepreneurship Project wants to create a mentorship program that allows artists to reach their goals.

 

In our newest initiative, we’ve partnered with Bridge Space, a coworking space open to learners, innovators and creatives in Downtown Lee’s Summit, to launch Bridge Space Mural program. We’re looking for a large group of emerging painters to paint large murals to color the walls and contribute to the identity of Bridge Space through their artwork. Any artist with a collection of painted work can apply – and earn anything from $350 – $2,000 for their mural, gain valuable experience collaborating with an entrepreneur on design and learn from a muralist mentor on site. This is an opportunity for a passionate and artist, who wants to learn, apply themselves creatively and make an impact doing so. If this sounds like you, we’d love to talk to you!

 

 

The project is led by Salem Habte, and a diverse team of students all involved in an organization called UMKC Enactus. Learn more about the efforts of Enactus teams worldwide here.