Chicago - Eyes On Your Mission

In partnership with the Self-Employment in the Arts Conference and the Coleman Foundation, “The Artist/Entrepreneur Conundrum” is a 5-part series currently premiering digitally and on the broadcast network CAN TV.

The premise? As artists, we must make a decision about whether we plan to monetize our artistry or work a job that pays the bills then do art on the side. We must also decide whether to fall victim to the “starving artist” phenomena or learn how to make a great living to pay for the best art supplies money can buy! In this series, the Eyes On Your Mission Chicago apprenticeship program has created a 5-part series explores the inner conflict that many artists experience when learning to build a business. It’s not enough to be a great artist; we must be great promoters of our own work if we are to be paid what we’re worth. Success in balancing creativity and self-employment will magnetize new clients, deepen emotional relationships with existing clients, and amplify your extraordinary artwork to attract supporters in ways you can’t even imagine until you try.

As part of its dedication to Chicagoland Entrepreneurship, the Coleman Foundation, funded a modified EOYM Academy that paired five video production apprentices with five young self-employed artists who strategically leveraged the SEA Conference to propel their trajectory learning into the real world. Michael Hennessy, President of the Coleman Foundation, commented, “After 17 years of funding the local SEA Conference, The Eyes On Your Mission Project appealed to us because the research will provide insights that will allow us to think past the conference alone into cultivating a community-sourced pipeline of inspired and dedicated artists who have developed core self-employment skills, know where to find and how to use community resources, and who feel confident supporting themselves financially being self-employed.”