Women artists SpringBoard into better business

A shoe designer. A dance company leader. A jewelry recycler. A sculptor. All poised to take their work to new heights; none skilled in business management.

These are the women of SpringBoard – among the first graduates of ArtWorks’ business development program aimed at helping local artists turn their passions into profits.

SpringBoard, launched just this year and based on a model from Chattanooga, includes eight weeks of classes that provide artists with business skills critical for success. It gives right-brainers a boost from the left. They learn about networking, overhead and marketing. They learn the ropes from lawyers and accountants.

Artists know these are too often skills they lack, and the interest in SpringBoard continues to grow. The second session of SpringBoard is already in session; the third is already full; and the program has already garnered national attention.
ArtPlace, a new national arts funding initiative which recently announced its first round of grant winners, chose SpringBoard for a $150,000 grant. Rocco Landesman, chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts, came to town in celebration of the honor.  

SpringBoard fills a distinct community development need, says SpringBoard director Sarah Corlett.  “There are great academic institutions in Cincinnati that train artists on their technical skills,” she says. “They come out of school with incredible skill sets and then leave, because they don’t see opportunity here.”  

That’s not the plan for the female graduates of SpringBoard’s first class.

Robin Ewers paints, draws and creates custom-painted shoes. Yes, shoes. She was voted best artist in Cincinnati by CityBeat readers in 2010, but wants to expand her shoe-painting business. She enrolled in SpringBoard for guidance. “I needed to be pointed in the right direction,” Ewers says. “I was all over the place. The course really helped me focus on one aspect of my art that I want to make my business.”

Jeanne Mam-Luft runs the only non-profit modern dance company in Cincinnati, MamLuft&Co. Dance, but currently has no permanent space. Her troupe performs at varying locations throughout the year and teaches classes around the city. The troupe leader dreams of a place of their own.  “SpringBoard really connected us with all kinds of professional in the city,” Mam-Luft says. “I now know real-estate professionals, lawyers and accountants. We want to open our own space. Finding the right one for a dance studio can be difficult, so we need all those contacts.”

Melody Wolf repurposes old jewelry or metal to create unique pieces of wearable art for her own company, Olive Branch Metals. Wolf grew up with parents who had their own business, so she enrolled in SpringBoard in order to network. Wolf met the founders of Once Blind Studios, another class member, and now the groups want space near Findlay Market to rehab and open as their own business. “There are so many vacant buildings, but if we could fill those up with artists, it could change so much,” Wolf says. “Being an artist can be lonely, it’s almost like a puddle that dries up. You can be this wellspring of creativity, but if you’re not around other creatives, it will eventually dry up.”

Susie Brand studied sculpture in school, and soon found that working with large pieces was difficult. She started working with jewelry, which she sees a small-scale sculptures. Brand worked in large jewelry companies as a consultant and in quality control, but never learned how to run a small business. So she enrolled in SpringBoard. “I thought it would be a good opportunity to learn what companies or people are looking for when they look at an artist,” Brand says. “I used one of the marketing strategies we learned to throw a gallery opening on Final Friday in Pendleton, and tripled my sales.”

Besides business help, all four artists saw SpringBoard as a way to further their reach into the arts community and help the burgeoning arts community in Cincinnati reach new levels of collaboration.

“SpringBoard gave me a connection to other artists,” Brand says. “A lot of the time, artists feel like they don’t have a big network. Imagine you work on a computer, you always have tech guys to come fix your stuff. We don’t have that, but now Melody [Wolf] and I can talk be open and share our ideas since we both make jewelry, but you wouldn’t get that in a bigger city, there is so much competition.”

All four artists expressed how positive the connections they made were and how necessary they are in the world of art. From professional contacts, discussions about business plans with other artists, finding someone to share business space, or just having a conversation about being an artist in the middle of a nine-five, corporation-filled city.

Wolf sums it up. “I heard a story once about a lady in Kenya who planted so many trees she changed the climate,” she says. "You can’t stand alone and be strong by yourself.”

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