Learn the Business of Crafts from the Experts

Olympia, WA (PRWEB) January 4, 2007

Every year artists try to make a living selling their craft, but find that running a business is a challenge for which they are not prepared. While there are many art schools, the focus is on teaching art - not practical skills such as selling at retail shows, moving into wholesaling, setting up production schedules, getting in galleries, and a host of other issues. Pamela Corwin and Manya Vee hope to help artists with these questions and many more during their weekend Business of Crafts seminar in March 2007.

Corwin, a successful designer and merchandiser of whimsical clocks and magnets, has over twenty-five years of arts business experiences. Manya Vee, a jewelry designer of fifteen years is also the founder and operator of a successful and respected gallery of contemporary fine arts and crafts.

Corwin and Manya Vee have independently instructed artists in the business of crafts for several years. This spring, artists can take advantage of their combined experience. "Together, we are able to provide the perspectives of both sides of the arts business - artist and merchant," Corwin notes.

On March 17 and 18, 2007, Corwin and Manya Vee plan to offer a weekend workshop designed to help artists build their businesses and travel the same road the instructors once traveled. "It just makes sense," says Corwin. "This is not information that comes naturally, and every artist needs to know it."

Manya Vee agrees. "It's everything we wish we'd known when starting out so many years ago."

The Business of Crafts weekend workshop offers the following benefits for artists who want to learn industry techniques in marketing their craft and operating their arts successfully as a business:

• Retail 101
• Artists Panel (successful artists offer advice about the best business practices for new and established artists)
• Demystifying Wholesale
• Display Tips
• Marketing and Pricing Tips
• Retailers Panel (respected gallery owners offer insight into what they expect from artists today)
• Group Consultation and Mentoring Session (small groups provide feedback on artists' ideas and concepts)

Corwin owns Paper Scissors Rock and creates clocks, magnets and alarm clocks in her studio in Olympia, Washington. She has been in business as an artist for 25 years. She recently joined the West Coast faculty of Arts Business Institute. Her local classes include an eight-week class on running a viable arts business and a workshop on transitioning from retail to wholesale in the crafts world.

A jewelry designer since 1990, Manya Vee has sold her jewelry at markets, fairs, trade shows, on the internet and through galleries and boutiques across the country. Since 2000 she has owned and operated Kindred Circle Art Gallery in Edmonds, Washington, which features contemporary fine art and craft by American artisans. An instructor for over six years with Discover U and Edmonds Community College's Arts Now program, her course, Basement to Big-Time, uses business skills to turn aspiring hobbyists into income earning artists.

To register for the workshop, artists can download the registration form at http://www.businessofcrafts.com or call 360-357-3480 or 1-800-969-0869. The fee of the weekend seminar is priced at an affordable $190 (an earlier registration discount is offered at $160). Lunch is provided for an additional cost.

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