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Workshops designed to strengthen arts in Mahoning Valley

A series of free workshops starts this month to help Mahoning Valley artists get their work seen and sold.

The Art Is Work series is created by LOOP Youngstown, which is working to create a community arts and cultural center in the area, and funded through a $5,000 grant from the Ohio Arts Council and a matching grant from the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley.

Karen Schubert, director of Lit Youngstown and a member of LOOP Youngstown’s board of directors, said the idea for the series came after she attended an OAC conference for arts administrators and learned about some of the funding opportunities available from the state organization.

“We’ve been writing grant proposals for Lit Youngstown for years, but I didn’t fully appreciate the breadth of those opportunities,” she said. “When I came back, I thought that a capacity-building grant might be just the ticket for helping LOOP get started with some professional development for artists.”

When LOOP first announced its plans in 2023, it created a community arts survey that attracted more than 100 responses, and organizers used that feedback in deciding what kinds of workshops to offer.

Schubert said the question,“What do the artists in this community need from the community in order to thrive as artists?” guided the topics chosen.

The five workshops will focus on how to enter art shows, building an artist website, writing artist grants, accounting for artists and behind the scenes of art exhibitions.

Schubert said the name of the series, Art Is Work, was taken from something that Angela Meleca, former director of Creative Ohio, used to say.

David Wheeler, who is the manager at Art on Park in downtown Warren and who creates art as Dovey Wuvey, will lead the first two sessions of the workshop focused on how to enter art shows. He curates Art on Park’s non-juried group shows and has curated exhibitions at several other area sites, and his sessions will focus on some of the common mistakes artists make, such as not wiring their art properly for hanging.

Artist, curator and exhibit designer Robyn Maas will lead the three-day workshop on behind the scenes of art exhibitions, and she will guide participants through the steps involved as she installs the exhibition “Arcs, Angles & Sound: Tony Armeni Sculpture + students, peers and community,’ which will open in May at Trumbull Art Gallery in Warren.

Since LOOP doesn’t have its own site yet, Schubert said they drew upon existing resources for these workshops.

“Oak Hill Collaborative (in Youngstown) is the site of the workshop on how to build an artist website, and they’re already doing phenomenal work to close the digital divide or to enhance people’s experience and understanding of how to use technology,” Schubert said. “(Youngstown State University Professor of Art) Dragana Crnjak, who will be facilitating the workshop on how to apply for artist grants, this is also part of a class that she teaches at YSU. It will take place at YSU and with our partnership with Dragana, anyone from the public will be able to attend.”

Artists can apply for only one workshop or up to all five. There is no charge, but advance registration is required online at loopyoungstown.org.

Starting at $2.99/week.

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