Over the past 11 years, Creative Capital’s Professional Development Program (PDP) has empowered more than 8,000 artist participants to think big, while giving them the tools they need to sustain their practices. In our artist to artist teaching method, workshop and webinar leaders are not only trained in the PDP curriculum, they speak from personal experience, sharing how they apply the concepts they teach in their own practices.
This fall, PDP hit a major milestone: through our online learning program and on-location workshops, we have served individual artists in 400 distinct communities! Here’s what that looks like:

In 2014 alone, our PDP workshop leaders have conducted workshops for artists in 23 communities, including: Miami, FL; Des Moines, IA; Ann Arbor, MI; San Francisco, CA and Queens, NY, right in our own backyard. And that’s just a sampling. To date, workshop leaders have traveled over 230,000 miles (from Bemidji, MN to Reno, NV to London, England) and served a total of 6,369 artists.
Last week, we presented our 300th in-person workshop, a Verbal Communications workshop with the Montana Arts Council, and are looking forward to the 19 workshops already slated for 2015. According to many artist participants, our workshops have been invaluable to their career development:

“What an inspiring conference! It felt so good to have leaders in their field telling me what was possible and how to make it happen. So much of being an artist is deflecting naysayers and those that don’t value what we do. I feel empowered and have real tools to get me to the next step.”
— Katie Roche, Iowa Arts Council Core Workshop, August 2014

“I have learned more in these three days than four years in grad school… This was a life-changing experience. Being an artist was a pipe dream of mine and now it seems like it could become a reality.”
—Jill Taffet, Florida Division of Cultural Affairs Core Workshop, June 2014

“This has been an incredibly useful and transformative experience for me. It was so incredibly well-organized, well-staffed, and well-run. It far exceeded the expectations I had, and I made some friends and colleagues I believe I will have for many years to come. My only question for myself is: why didn’t I do it sooner!”
—Participant, Artists Summer Institute, August 2014

Our Online Learning Program, which offers a diverse suite of webinars for artists, has presented 105 live webinars to 1,848 artists since 2011. We’re reaching artists where they live, whether that’s in Terre Haute, IN, Kamuela, HI or Box Hill, Australia! From “Artists Raising Kids” to “The Seven Elements of Strategic Marketing”, we’re exploring topics that enhance artists’ professional lives without compromising their artistic practice:

“I loved that we were from all different parts of the country and that people shared resources in the chat… It was really good to connect with different artists even if they weren’t in my discipline I could still relate to their stories and struggles. I was very impressed with Andrew’s honesty and the diversity of his examples. I really hope I get to meet him one day, he seems like a really amazing artist and dad!”
—Participant, Artists Raising Kids Webinar with Andrew Simonet, September 2014

“Wonderful! Especially like the access to the video after. Learned a lot and felt personally attended to in both responses to my questions and the intent itself. Appreciated the honesty and ‘in the trenches’ sharing. Liked the non patronizing, deeply useful ‘tutorial’ for webinar use.”
—Participant, Applying for Grants & Residencies Webinar with Ethan Nosowsky, September 2014

“Creative Capital webinars are particularly rich. They are all excellent, and I appreciate that they are led by artists and others who are closely linked to the creative process.”
—Participant, Kickstarter School Webinar with Stephanie Pereira, July 2014

PDP is grateful to our presenting partners as well as to our workshop and webinar leaders for helping us impact so many artists across the country & abroad, and we look forward to continuing this trend in 2015!
For more information about upcoming webinars and workshops, we encourage you to visit our online calendar. Interested in partnering with us to host a workshop in your area? Find out how.