SPACETAKER RECEIVES FIRST GRANT AWARD FROM THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS
Spacetaker receives NEA grant to support the Artist Resource Center (ARC) Professional Development Services
HOUSTON (April 23, 2010) – Spacetaker is proud to announce the receipt of its first Access to Artistic Excellence grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support the Artist Resource Center (ARC) professional development workshops and programming. Spacetaker is one of 10 Houston-area arts organizations to receive this prestigious grant award in 2010. The NEA funding will be directed to the creation of a professional development workshop curriculum, a computer lab at the ARC, and the expansion of career-building resources on Spacetaker’s online Houston Artist Field Guide (http://www.spacetaker.org/field_guide).
The Artist Resource Center was established in 2008 with Spacetaker’s move to a new home in Winter Street Studios and has since evolved into an educational hub for young and emerging artists and arts organizations. At the ARC, Spacetaker hosts career-building classes and workshops, as well as fosters artists though affordable space rental for rehearsals, exhibitions and special events. The ARC also provides a supportive physical space for regular networking events, such as Spacetaker’s monthly Artist SPEAKEasy.
In 2009, the ARC hosted 24 professional development workshops for artists and arts organizations, assisting over 1,200 individuals. The workshops spanned a wide range of subjects, including arts marketing, financial literacy, and legal and accounting practices. The curriculum development included in the current NEA project adds the subjects of gifts and grant seeking, event and exhibition planning, art and music licensing, and PR development. The establishment of a computer lab at the ARC will furthermore allow for practical hands-on classes in subjects like QuickBooks accounting and social media management.
Spacetaker’s professional development initiatives aim to address a great need in the art community for career support and guidance. “The average art student graduates from a university or conservatory with an excellent arts education, but rarely with the business tools or savvy to have a successful career. Houston is an incredibly open city, in which artists are able to create their own opportunities for exhibition and performance. However, taking full advantage of those opportunities requires a business edge– an edge we hope to offer at Spacetaker,” says Executive Director Jenni Rebecca Stephenson.
The virtual component of Spacetaker’s professional development programming is the recently launched Houston Artist Field Guide, a clearing-house of information for artists and arts organizations. Currently, the Field Guide is a growing, centralized database of arts-related resources, including material, service, and space listings, as well as the latest career and employment opportunities. The NEA grant provides Spacetaker with additional support to not only populate and maintain the Field Guide, but to create an online Resource Library housing materials associated with the its physical workshops.
Partners for the NEA project include the Cynthia Mitchell Center for the Arts and the Art Institute of Houston. Spacetaker is funded in part by the Houston Endowment, the Houston Arts Alliance, the Brown Foundation, Leveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC) and the Nightingale Code Foundation.
For additional information, visit www.spacetaker.org or call 713.868.1839.
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About Spacetaker:
Spacetaker is a 501(c)3 professional organization and Artist Resource Center located in Houston’s First Ward whose mission it to provide artists and small non-profits access to economic development, continuing education, and networking opportunities to support their professional growth.
