Recorded March 16th, 2024

Relax with Tax for Artists and Creative Freelancers! with Jeffrey Thompson

Jeffrey Thompson

Jeffrey Thompson, MA, MBA, EA, actor, writer, magician, and partner at Thompson, Cherry & Associates LLC. The tax season seminar for creative freelancers! Learn how to efficiently track income and expenses throughout the year, and don't miss the deductions you can make as a self-employed creative. Topics will include record keeping, form 1040, form 1099, Schedule C, the self-employment schedule, deductions, hobby losses, home offices, and more.

Recorded November 30th, 2023

The Arts, the Economy and Social Impact

Dr. Genna Style-Lyas

Watch Genna Styles-Lyas, Director of Arts & Economic Prosperity, and Community Engagement & Equity at Americans for the Arts, for an insider’s glimpse at the new national findings measuring the economic and social impact of arts and culture. This year-long study reveals a sector of immeasurable value. Fresh off the press, findings can be fundamental in advocating for the arts through the lens of both its economic and social impacts, with important information on the degree to which BIPOC communities face systemic challenges.

Recorded November 16, 2023

Reporting & Data Tracking 101 Workshop

A walk-through of your Reporting System and Toolkit. These tools will streamline your data collection and sharing processes – between you, the grantee; us, the Administering Organization; California Arts Council; and beyond! Your participation in data collection and reporting is critical to the success of this pilot program, and the funding of future grantees.

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Recorded November 14, 2023

Marketing and Social Media Strategy for Creative Corps Grantees

with Sheila Cameron

Media and communications consultant Sheila Cameron led a marketing and social media strategy session specific to your role as an Upstate California Creative Corps grantee. In this session, Sheila shares critical tools to build public awareness and support for your project and project goals, while benefiting future generations of grantees and strategies to become the exemplary case study.

In the session, Sheila guided grantees towards a social media content strategy for awarded projects, keeping in mind that the goal of the program is to create campaigns that raise awareness around one or another critical issue that affects our communities.

RESOURCES:

Sheila Cameron

Sheila Cameron is a highly creative professional consultant with years of experience in all aspects of media production, fine art, PR, strategy, business development, strategic partnerships, and marketing for large media companies, government, small businesses, and non-profits. She is a seasoned film, television, and web producer. She has experience overseeing projects from concept to completion, and as an integrated media strategist, she is able to deliver consistent messages across all media platforms and create written content to strengthen online presence. Sheila loves “projects that exist in the middle of the creative and marketing languages I speak. These tend to be where I shine; in the nexus of Digital Media, Politics, Fine Art, Pop Culture, Activism, Entertainment TV/Film, Print Magazines, and Advertising. Often these groups work together but have different cultural norms, business models, and organizations. Strategy gets lost in siloed efforts or misunderstandings.”. Sheila is also an award winning painter and fine artist.

Recorded October 16, 2023

An Introduction to Mental Health and Trauma-Informed Practice 

With Dr. Tasha Golden, PhD

We hope the resources provided here, following Dr. Tasha Golden’s session, support grantees towards becoming trauma-responsive, Treat these resources as an introduction to caring for your own health, and supporting the mental health of those you are serving. Dr. Golden offers a unique approach that reframes trauma-informed practice as a doorway to creativity, compassion, and greater impact, beginning with discovering who benefits from trauma-informed practice, and why it has to begin with you.

RESOURCES:

Dr. Tasha Golden

Tasha Golden is Director of Research at the International Arts + Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins Medicine, and a national leader and consultant in creativity and public health. As a career songwriter turned health scientist, she helps leaders, creatives, and change-makers apply the science of arts and health to grow their impact and their wellbeing.

Recorded September 12, 2023

Decolonizing Community Organizations and Art Workspaces

with Mo Harper-Desir

An interactive, hands-on workshop where participants will conceptualize the impacts of colonization within community and art spaces, learn how it shows up even within equity efforts and how we can truly decolonize the spaces we create to support all walks of people. Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of social justice, and techniques to enhance their own equity work while working on their own Upstate California Creative Corps projects.

FURTHER YOUR UNDERSTANDING:

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Recorded September 18, 2023

Art-Train | Artists Working in Community

with co-facilitators Sam Buffington and Ricardo Beaird

The free Art-Train Individual Artist Training is for Upstate California Creative Corps artists who are interested in building on their existing skills to collaborate in and with their communities through their local agencies, non-profits, and arts councils. Artists will deepen practices around creative problem solving, equitable community engagement, and creating arts-based strategies to address recovery, rebuilding and ongoing community and economic development. After taking a synchronous virtual training, artists receive ongoing virtual support through an online resource library and optional bi-weekly group coaching rooms with Art-Train staff, experts and an expanding network of peers (every other Thursday). The goal of this training is to help artists identify how they can contribute to equitable recovery & rebuilding by a) understanding and advocating for local artists’ role in community and economic development, and b) by building their skills in equitable collaboration. We will share ways to engage and influence agencies and organizations, as well as general approaches to accessing resources for community-focused projects.

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Recorded September 18, 2023

ART-TRAIN | Organizations and Artists Working In Community

with co-facilitators Sam Buffington and Ricardo Beaird

Art-Train equips practitioners with tools to design and support cross-sector, equity-centered, locally-rooted and culture-based collaborations that address Upstate California Creative Corps projects. This is for organizations and artists working in community. Whether a member of staff at a government agency or community-focused organization, or an artist - with desires to make change - we're here to help you look for new ways to address your community’s most pressing issues. Art-Train will help you develop strategies to reach and engage more people, increase community relevance and connection, and find innovative ways to be more effective - and create authentic, equitable and lasting change. Tackle critical issues such as social cohesion, civic engagement, public planning, equity, workforce development, public health, housing, and economic growth by supporting and working with local artists. Artists are in every place: from people who weave stories and craft meaning, to those who perform and create art in public places, local artists represent different cultures, experiences, perspectives and demographics. They bring not only their ability to make and produce, and to engage across sectors and people, but also to use critical processes to reconnect, reimagine and rebuild in their own places.

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