CHF strives to deliver education where working artists and creative professionals actually live, work, and hang out—and in multiple, digestible formats, ranging from granular to comprehensive. We do this (currently) through a podcast, digital courses, extended Fellowships, Virtual Conferences, Brown Bag Lunches for peer networking, and now Thriving Tuesdays^TM! We kick off Thriving Tuesdays^TM this Tuesday, Dec 1st at 2 PM Eastern Time on Facebook Live with CHF’s Creative Director & The Thriving Artist Podcast^TM host Daniel DiGriz. “Instagram for Artists: Build A Storied Brand” will address some of these questions:

• How do you do effective storytelling in Instagram—so you’re consistent but don’t run out of material?
• What are some models of effective Instagram accounts you can follow that aren’t just more (bare) photos of art?
• How can you do more effective shoutouts to extend your Instagram network?
• What demographics can you reach on Instagram, and are they people who can or will ACTUALLY buy your art?
• What price points are most effective for Instagram art sales?
• How do you grow your Instagram sales if you’re represented by a gallery?
• How does it actually WORK? Is there a template for being successful on Instagram?
• What is the best way to interact with buyers on Instagram?
• How much work is involved?
• How do you avoid fraudulent purchases?

This is NOT a comprehensive “class.” It’s a lively presentation with LOTS and LOTS of examples of real-world working artists, some famous, many not, who are selling their work successfully on the Instagram platform. Join us! WHEN: Tuesday, December 1st at 2:00 PM Eastern (and watch for the Thriving Tuesdays series continuing on the first Tuesday of the month!) COST: FREE OPEN: To anyone interested in growing their career as a working artist or creative professional. RSVP: on the Facebook Event, add it to your professional calendar, remember any time zone difference, and follow our page: facebook.com/ClarkHulingsFund so you receive notice of future events. To be doubly sure, sign up for our email list. Stay tuned for more! We’ll be hosting a free Thriving Tuesdays^TM event on the first Tuesday of the month. Each “Vidchat” in the series is for creative professionals and working artists, and will be led by one of CHF’s instructors: Daniel DiGriz (Brand Story & Marketing), Carolyn Edlund (Sales Strategy), Elizabeth Hulings (Career Blueprint). Topics will focus on a pain point or concrete solution in building an art business or creative professional career.

This is the ideal time to focus on your business. There are incredible opportunities for artists who go virtual right now. It’s time to do something fun for yourself, meet people, grow, and get out of your shell. Join us digitally for the CHF 2020 Virtualize Your Art Career^TM Conference for Artists October 19th-30th. The Conference is eight sessions of virtual interactive learning for creative professionals, delivered by seasoned business leaders through live streaming video and digital chat. Visit our Conference Hub for details, schedule, and registration. The new normal is here to stay: the culture won’t ever go back to 2019. This is a moment for your business to pivot and thrive: the virtual world is prospering! As one of our partners said recently in a podcast interview: “Artists really have to fend for themselves. And it's not hard. It's a social event; it’s belonging to a community.” —Eric Sparre.

What works about the new normal?

As someone committed to CHF, you’re at the vanguard of a fast-moving arts community. We’re all in the middle of virtualizing. Everyone has gone from pandemic panic, to Zoom fatigue, and back. But as we roll out our yoga mats to stretch online, meet our friends for happy hour on Skype, or book a video consult with our doctors, we’re starting to realize this is a world alive with possibilities. Suddenly, geography is not a barrier. The virtual world is a powerful tool that will serve us long-term, and it’s not going anywhere.

We’re excited about the enhanced possibilities for connection. We’re opening up even richer opportunities for learning and collaboration for visual artists & makers—and the organizations that serve them. CHF is co-producing the Virtual Santa Fe Indian Market with SWAIA and partnering with Artspan to produce artists’ websites. CHF is offering cutting-edge art-business training to hundreds of Native American artists. This is a groundbreaking collaboration with the best possible partners, and we launched August 1st.

Our Digital Campus just got a huge upgrade: it’s a lighter, faster, more powerful experience with a continually growing library of courses in nine curriculum areas. It’s still free to register for your first nine courses and access the shiny new online community, and full access is still less than a Netflix subscription. Stay tuned: we’ll be telling you even more... We’re proud to preview our October conference: Virtualize Your Career ^TM—Thriving in the New Normal: an 8-session series for working artists focusing on Career Blueprint, Sales Strategy, Brand Narrative, and Peer Networking. Supported by data on artists' career needs, aspirations, and capabilities, with a proven track record of success, this conference is bound to change lives, boost local economies, and positively represent our partners. The current class of Executive Fellows in our Art-Business Accelerator is getting 1:1 consulting on an ongoing, virtual basis and actively moving forward. Robin Holder recently shared her powerful, civil-rights focused work to accompany two CHF articles. Steven Lester was just featured in the United States Sports Academy article about his Jesse Owens “Race Against Hate” painting in his Olympic Spirit series. It’s essential that artists build professional networks with one another and with gallerists and collectors—so expanding the virtual space and offering even more possibilities for meaningful connections is a natural next step. Our new Facebook platform for The Thriving Art Exchange is set up to meet the growing demand!

Black Lives Matter. As we continue to engage in an essential dialogue about Civil Rights, at CHF, we’re also thinking about how this conversation applies to the art and business worlds. How does economic inequality play out in the arts ecosystem? Given that the kind of entrepreneurial training we do at CHF represents part of the solution, how can we address the specific entrepreneurial challenges involved in overcoming systemic racism? In the business world in general, The Case Foundation cites that only 1% of Venture Capital-based businesses have an African American founder, and yet companies in the top percentages for racial and ethnic diversity are 35 percent more likely to have better financial returns than national industry medians. The existing research in Inclusive Entrepreneurship shows us that there are still gaps between merit and opportunity. This makes sense given the wildly inequitable historical precedent that caused this, but as Americans, we’re often slow to realize that as much as we value being self-made, it’s hard to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps if you have no boots. That argument has a limit. We have a cultural mystique about who an entrepreneur is, and that their accomplishments somehow exist independently of who we are collectively: which families inherit wealth and own property, qualify for loans and mortgages, have access to education, clean water and food, health care, safety, self-worth, networks, and respect from other people...these matter profoundly. Class mobility is definitely possible in our society and hard work can be a key factor, but it’s a steep slope, and the more privilege built into our circumstances and racial and gender identities, the more we tend to fail to see the slope. And then there are the specific ways that artists enter the conversation. Artists are in a unique position to innovate, to show us their perspectives, and to give voice to their experiences. How are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) artists leading the dialogue, and how can we best amplify their work to ensure it reaches its target audience? We can teach artists the business skills to ensure that their careers are successful and sustained over their lifetimes—and to put themselves and their own vision at the center of their strategy rather than waiting for the endorsement and support of a gatekeeper. Artists continue to be visible advocates for social justice. Black muralists and illustrators are creating art that is alive in the spotlight of outdoor spaces and social media, showing artists’ ability to teach, challenge, and heal. The controversy over confederate and colonial sculptures is an incredible testament to the power of representation, reminding us of art’s influence over how we perceive our history. When those statues come down, what art, and whose perspectives and agendas will be represented? What does this next group of artists have to say to us about where we’re headed? There is huge potential in this moment for artists to partner with communities to guide us as we move forward. Read Elizabeth Hulings’ latest Director’s View “Creativity is Leading the Way” with co-author Penelope Thomas, with our thanks to CHF Art-Business Accelerator Fellow Artist Robin Holder—who is most definitely leading the way!—for the use of images of her work.