WORKSHOPS
& Program Design
Art Business Training
Most artists do not receive any kind of business training in academic programs, making it particularly difficult to sustain a career. We recognize that the creativity, resourcefulness, discipline, and clarity of mission that fuels one’s creative practice can also support a sustainable art business practice.
We approach art business training by first identifying and clarifying each artist’s core values (mission), and the people who value what they do (customers and supporters). From there, we build on the knowledge and structures that are needed to grow, sustain, and thrive (value proposition, marketing plan, income streams, legal structure, etc.). Our curriculum focuses equally on the person (values and vision, goals, money management, budgeting, taxes) and their business (landscape, customer segments, financing, and planning). We do this work together, as a community, knowing that we are not alone, that our fears and frustrations are shared, and that we can lean on one another to find solutions and grow.
Guest presenters enter the space as peers and advisors, taking care to learn about the workshop participants and meet them where they’re at. It’s common for program graduates to continue working with one or more of the instructors after the workshop ends, as they continue to develop their business.
Art Business Workshop Packages
6-week virtual series (sample outline)
10-week virtual series (sample outline)
Weekend intensive
Individual topic webinars
All workshops are tailored in content & format to your artist community.
Our Approach
Rhizomatic Arts is rooted in the understanding that exchange and partnership on a person-to-person level produce a strong, sustainable community, with each of us personally invested in the success of our peers. We exist to counter paradigms of scarcity and competition with a culture of abundance, connection, and interconnected growth. Our credo is “Work independently, not alone.”
When you get artists in a room together talking about what they love – as long as they aren’t competing with one another for resources – they get excited by each other, and organically start collaborating. Creating the space for those organic relationships to build, grow, and deepen is essential. We support these relationships by creating the conditions where every participant feels seen and heard, setting a friendly and supportive tone with community agreements and informal efficiency, and frankly addressing our fears and vulnerabilities.
In short, we start with a room of strangers and turn them into a supportive community of peers with the tools and knowledge to thrive, which in turn helps our arts community to become more healthy and resilient.
Other Available Workshops
Income Strategies for Artists
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Looking to reshape your artistic financial journey? This workshop will help you discover unexplored potential earning possibilities beyond the conventional realms of art sales, grants, and day jobs. Delve into the world of consultancy, membership models, collaborations, and rentals – innovative avenues to amplify your income from expertise. Let’s also unravel the art of resource pooling, sharing spaces, tools, and equipment for mutual gain. Elevate your income possibilities while staying creative!
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West Business Development Center
Webinar
2023
How to Talk (and Write) About Your Work
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Do you get tongue tied in networking situations? Get writers block writing about yourself for grants? Think these tasks would go down easier with a partner and a glass of something bubbly?
In this fun (and practical) workshop for artists and creative professionals, we practice talking about what we do, why we do it, and why it matters.
Using structured, one on one interviews, you will learn to craft clear and meaningful elevator pitches, mission statements, and personal statements that express your unique identity for grants, publicity, and publication. We’ll make meaningful connections with peers from across diverse artistic communities as we dive deeply into what motivates us to make our work.
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This workshop has been presented in-person and virtually at the Feminist Center for Creative Work, West Business Development Center, Space 4 Art San Diego, and Silverlake Independent Jewish Community Center.
Can I Make a Living Doing This?
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This hands-on session will walk you through the why (your goals and deepest values), what (how much you need to earn to thrive), and how (options for how to structure your career) of financial management for artists. We’ll touch on the importance of getting paid for your work (if that is your goal), declaring your worth, and how to leverage the power of personal relationships and barter resources with peers.
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CA Lawyers for the Arts, Designing Creative Futures internship program
Webinar
2023West Business Development Center
Webinar
2021LA County Arts Tune-up
2019
Rhizomatic Studio: Performance Lab
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Rhizomatic Studio: Performance Lab is a forum for developing works through the exchange of peer, artist-to-artist, feedback on new material over 3-weeks.
The workshop culminates in a public showing
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Pieter Performance Space
2018
Artists: Karine Fleurima, Sophie Goldstein, J. Alex Mathews, Young-Tseng Wong.
Presented in partnership with The Dancer-Citizen.Hammer Museum
2017
Artists: Heisue Chung-Matheu & Grace Hwang, Kai Hazelwood & Sam De Leve, Sarah Belle Reid, Shaina Lynn Simmons, Juan Carlos Zaldivar, Tim Tsang.
Creating Your Artist Website
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With all the great DYI website builders available these days, it’s easier than ever for an artist to create their own website. But just because you don’t need to know how to code doesn’t mean that the task can’t be overwhelming. In this workshop, I’ll share some tips to get you organized and feeling confident, whether you’re building a new site or re-designing an old one.
We’ll discuss:
- the importance of clarifying the purpose of your site and its intended audience;
- organizing and preparing your visual and written content;
- crafting clear calls-to-action;
- leaning into your voice and what makes you unique as an artist;
- and why it helps to work with a buddy! -
West Business Development Center
Webinar
2021, 2024Art Share LA
Los Angeles
2023
Rhizomatic Studio: Collective Creation Lab
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This practice-based studio workshop offers performance makers a space to try out new ideas and ways of working.
Participants take turns leading structures for generating new material, and playing with old, new, or undeveloped ideas, in a safe, supportive, interdisciplinary cohort of peers.
The goal is not to create "a piece,” or even show anything we make to the public. The Lab is a place to play around, try out ideas, experiment with ways of working that are totally outside your wheel house, make BAD WORK in a fun, safe, private space, etc. YOU tell us what you want to experiment with, make a lesson plan, and we'll dive in together.
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Pieter Performance Space
Los Angeles
2015, 2016
“Throughout the program, I felt uplifted and supported by Allison, the fellow participants, and the guest teachers. It was validating to work with peers on problems and issues that resonated with all of us, knowing that we are not alone on this adventure toward creating our artistic dreams... While the experience was virtual and participants from many different areas in California, there was a true sense of community and solidarity. I needed that.”
“An invaluable experience to receive precise feedback on my work from other artists from various performance backgrounds.”
“One of most effective and beneficial workshops I’ve ever been to. The activities helped to really hone in on the weak spots in my ‘pitches’. It also left me feeling encouraged and inspired.”
“I’m very glad to have taken part in Performance Lab. This highly safe, community-driven setting really allowed me to freely experiment and explore my relationship to performance out loud and figure things out in the presence of friendly peers in a respectful, fun, and rigorous environment. I really did feel independent, yet never lonely in my artistic pursuits. Thanks Allison! :)”
“I was super excited for the class, knowing it would help me, but couldn’t have predicted just how much. The difference in how I view myself as an artist and business owner before and after the class is huge.”
ALLISON WYPER, PROGRAM DESIGNER & FACILITATOR
photo: Amanda Bjorn Photography
I am an artist, consultant, and arts entrepreneur with 20 years of experience providing administrative, marketing, and production support for individuals and organizations. I specialize in thoughtful professional development program design, one-on-one coaching, marketing and communications, intuitive website design, and economical administrative systems.
I am a movement-based performance artist with a background in dance, theater, performance art, and site-specific performance. Offstage, I have always been an organizer and supporter of other artists, and that has taken many formal roles, from curator to bookkeeper to workshop facilitator. I founded Rhizomatic Arts in 2014 as a way to formalize the various ways that I support artists under one conceptual umbrella, to claim my space as an independent entrepreneur, and to conceptualize that work as a creative social practice. I understand artists and their art businesses because I am an artist who cultivated a business model that reflects who I am and what motivates me to help others.
As Artists Knowledge Manager at the Center for Cultural Innovation (Jan 2017 – June 2023), I managed professional development training and communications, including the influential Business of Art program. Each year I curated and produced 20-40 workshops for artists in all disciplines and career stages. In total, I facilitated 16 Business of Art bootcamps, and oversaw publication of the 3rd Edition of the Business of Art workbook.
I have taught, produced, and facilitated workshops on art business, creative practice, experimental performance, and collaborative processes at West Business Development Center, 18th Street Arts Center, Pieter Performance Space, Feminist Center for Creative Work, UCLA, USC, CalArts, ArtCenter College of Design, CSUN, UC Riverside, Silverlake Independent Jewish Community Center, Space 4 Art San Diego, Emerson College, Zero1 Biennial, Hemispheric Institute Encuentro, Contemporary Calgary, and the Center for Interdisciplinary Arts Studios in Perth, Australia. I have produced programming for the Cities of Santa Monica, West Hollywood, Sacramento, and San José, California Community Foundation’s Fellowship for Visual Artists, Art Center College of Design, CalArts, CSU Long Beach, Play the L.A. River, College Art Association, Grand Park, and the Hammer Museum.