Artists’ Toolkit: The Business of Art is a mini-professional development series presented by the Somerville Arts Council and the Somerville Museum. In collaboration with Somerville Open Studios, this program provides useful resources to the Somerville cultural community to elevate their artistic practice.
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"What's Your Story?" - Enhancing Your Digital Image
Tuesday, April 4, 2023 | 5pm–7pm
Join experts, Dave Ortega and Christina Balch, and learn how to better market your work to the public.
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The Price is Right: The Art of the Sale
Tuesday, April 18, 2023 | 5pm–7pm
Join experts, Lynn Gervens from Mudflat Studio and Marie Craig from Fountain Street Gallery. Learn the art of pricing your work, how to sell it, and where.
Marie Craig, Co-Founder and Director of Fountain Street Gallery
Marie Craig is co-founder and director of Fountain Street, (fsfaboston.com), a contemporary art gallery in Boston’s SoWa arts district. Fountain Street, founded by Marie Craig and fellow artist Cheryl Clinton in 2011, exhibits a wide array of media from over 30 emerging and mid-career artists in its Main and Annex Galleries, and 24/7 in the Sidewalk Video Gallery. Fountain Street’s membership-based model allows artists to focus on artistic practice while also gaining experience in curation, business operations and critical dialogue. Marie’s passion is to make original fine art accessible, approachable and affordable for everyone, while engaging artists in the process of marketing their work to the public. In her role as gallerist, Marie has curated numerous exhibitions, and has juried several international calls for art.
An artist herself, Marie uses alternative process photography to explore the overlap between concrete bodies, or still moments, and the life instilled in them. Her photographs capture places of formative choice, incorporating both intention and chance. Her work has received a number of awards and has been shown in galleries and museums throughout New England.
Dave Ortega, Author
Dave’s self-published comic book series Días de Consuelo is about the early life of his grandmother, who was born during the Mexican Revolution. Those issues were collected, edited and published as a graphic novel by Radiator Comics in March 2022. Días de Consuelo was selected by Society of Illustrators for their Illustration 65 annual. Dave is a grantee of the Collective Futures Fund, a program of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. He is also a recipient of multiple artist grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. His comics have been published in several periodicals and anthologies, including Tales from la Vida: A Latinx Comics Anthology, New Frontiers: The Many Worlds Of George Takei, Irene Book 5, and Beautiful/Decay Book 6. An excerpt of Días de Consuelo appeared in the Illustrated PEN section of the PEN America site. Dave’s short comic Hacienda won First Place in the 2013 Comics Composition Competition by Comics Workbook.
Christina Balch, Multi-Disciplinary artist, producer, and technologist
Christina Balch (she/her) is a multi-disciplinary artist, producer, and technologist. Christina mainly exhibits her work in the Boston and New England area, and also exhibits globally. Christina is part of the artist collective FeministFuturist and received a Collective Futures Fund grant with them in 2021. Curatorial projects include a pair of exhibitions about artist representations called AVATARS and a show called Performing the Home that explored public/private performances in a home-based art gallery. Christina works as an experienced digital producer and digital marketing consultant for small businesses, advertising agencies, and corporations. This commercial work directly influences her art practice and research for projects. Christina is based in Western Massachusetts and a Southern California native.
Lynn Gervens, Executive Director of Mudflat Studio
Lynn Gervens has been the Executive Director of Mudflat Pottery School since 1993. She first came to Mudflat as a studio artist and faculty member in 1978, after receiving a BFA in Ceramics from the University of Illinois, and she has continued to teach and create her own clay work since, for over 40 years. She was instrumental in Mudflat’s relocation to East Somerville in 1985, and again in 2011 when Mudflat undertook a $4 million renovation of the Broadway Theatre into a new home for Mudflat’s 350 students and 36 studio artists.
Lynn has served on the executive board of The Studio Potter Journal and as a board member for East Somerville Main Streets, Somerville Open Studios, and Artisan’s Asylum. She has led professional development workshops for Somerville Public Schools art faculty and has been a visiting instructor at Wentworth Technical Institute, Massachusetts College of Art, DeCordova Museum School, and Emerson Umbrella Center for the Arts. Lynn has been a juror for Somerville Arts Council grants, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts scholarships and technical assistantships, and DeCordova Museum School student exhibition.