Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay Area

Local Partner: Center for Cultural Innovation

www.cciarts.org

Creative Communities Project

Business of Art:

CCI’s core work focuses on providing knowledge-building resources that lead artists towards greater self-sufficiency and improved business competency. The Business of Art, launched in 2002, is an entrepreneurial training program combining traditional business training curricula established for women and minority entrepreneurs with specific arts-related career and business development information pertaining to artists across disciplines. Since its founding, CCI has developed a new curriculum covering issues such as career and business planning for artists, marketing and self-promotion, budgeting and financial management, and the funding environment for artists’ work. As a complement to the workshops, artists have access to counseling and coaching services from leaders with expertise in business, law, entertainment, and the arts. In April 2008, CCI released a companion Business of Art publication to make its training information more widely accessible.

Business Opportunities for Artists:

Business Opportunities for Artists provides artists with access to group discounts on a wide range of equipment and office supplies, legal and financial services, dental coverage, and professional development programs and tools. In collaboration with the Actors Fund, members have access to online and live support and referral services for health care and health insurance options.

About Center for Cultural Innovation

The Center for Cultural Innovation (CCI) was founded in 2001 with a mission to promote knowledge-sharing, networking, and financial independence for individual artists and creative entrepreneurs. Towards these goals, CCI provides business training, grants and loans, and incubates innovative projects that create new program knowledge, tools, and practices for artists in the field. CCI serves artists in all disciplines throughout California, and maintains offices in both Los Angeles and San Francisco. CCI believes that by linking the natural creativity and tolerance for risk of artists and creative entrepreneurs to the latest business tools and practices, and by helping to connect them to new financial resources, and to one another, CCI can give artists the knowledge and economic independence needed to bring their work and ideas into the marketplace, and establish a new voice for artists based on their collective clout.

Grantmaking Period and Focus

June 2003 – September 2008

Health Insurance, Training and Professional Development

Category:

Los Angeles