Business Development Programs

The BDC includes an annual workshop in February, individual business mentoring opportunities and participation in Artist Mastermind Groups.

• Our Annual Business Workshop is held in late winter/early spring before the busy arts season goes into high gear. Programming includes speakers and workshop coordinators. Attorneys will discuss legal issues from deciding on the form of the businesss to copyright and contract issues. Successful artists in many mediums bring their expertise and insight to address issues specific to your business. Accounting resources not only discuss taxes and budgeting but also provide opportunities to explore programs to keep your business on track. Experienced professionals in both marketing and public relations provide the opportunity to learn the difference between the two, understand why both are needed and beging crafting a plan for your business. And business strategists to help artists focus on both the big picture as well as the details create a balance of business support. 

• Artist Mastermind Group is a peer-to-peer mentoring group of individuals who meet on a regular basis, in person or virtually, to push each other to work to their highest potential, and hold each other accountable. While there are often speakers on a specific topic of interest to that group, the purpose of the group is to actually find support, suggestions and resources to help each other reach their goals.  Artists have formed support groups throughout history. Consider The Inklings: Consisting of the following great poets and authors: CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien, Charles Williams, and Owen Barfield or Degas/Cassat/Manet or Gauguin/Pissaro/Van Gough. Peer groups notony hold each other accountable but generate ideas to build their art.
  

Patron Base Development Programs.

City wide arts and conservation collaborative exhibitions around a particular theme create identify potential patrons by their interests. While galleries and performances are great, there is merit in reaching out to the public interested in particular topics who might not frequent galleries or performances. 

• Silent Skies St Louis  Brought a focus to artists of the natural world and those particularly interested in conservation, nature and wildlife. While postponed due to Covid, the exhibition was scheduled to be held in three locations of particular interest to this patron base: The Zoo, The Botanical Garden and the Gateway Arch. The exhibit was scheduled to be up for three months with approximately 23,000 visitors passing it every day. That is a lot of potential patrons! In addition there were educational opportunities planned and collaborations ith organizations throughout the region. Look for this opportunity to be rescheduled in the fall of 2021 or spring of 2022.
  
• Mask Up St. Louis was our annual "unique" program that was timely to the events of the day. Fabric artists created masks for sculptures seen through out the region. This created interest in what other artists were doing on the topic as well. The press coverage was extensive.
  
• Art Heals Violence is our very multi faceted project addressing art and its influence on social issues. Everyone can participate in building awareness of violence through the soul box folding project, to artist calls to artists participating in decisions and implementing work that directly affects the issue. 
  
• St. Louis Bicentennial is the annual "unique" program for 2021. By creating a large event encompassing many artists and arts organizations, the arts take center stage!
  

Members have input to our ongoing programs by identifying their patron bases and their needs as we build a strong arts and culture industry in the region. 

Annual Regional Holiday Arts Expo for all artists.

Our annual regional Arts Expo is held the weekend of Thanksgiving for several reasons; 

• It is a slow cash flow time for many artists
• We take advantage of Small Business Saturday, Artist Sunday, Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday
• Families are together often looking for unique things to do and looking to shop for unique expressions

For 2020, the event was virtual. But even at that, there were 12,000 views of the artists. Our Children's Corner pulled together 65 hours of programming in the arts including arts and crafts videos, artist talks and stories.