PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP SERIES 2011-2012

The Queens Council on the Arts offers individual artists and arts organizations arts management training and professional development services through interactive workshops designed to promote artistic and professional growth. In addition, QCA sponsors a variety of networking and resource exchange opportunities designed to connect and build partnerships among the arts and cultural communities. A leading example is The 2011 Queens Art Express, a festival of dynamic exhibitions, performances, and special events spread across the borough’s finest venues, large and small, supporting the broad range of talent within the Queens diverse artist communities.

This year, QCA will present professional development workshops to assist artists and arts organizations to build their business, marketing and fundraising skills. How do you create a strong narrative to share the importance of your artistic work? How do you write a successful grant application? What can you do to build your online presence? We will explore these questions through a series of workshops led by field experts and provide practical tools and information to help you succeed.

Upcoming Events

 

GRANT WRITING PLUS+:

GRANT WRITING 101 & PANEL REVIEW

This two-part workshop led by experienced grant writing consultant Melissa Sandor includes a hand-on writing workshop followed by a mock panel review workshop that explores how to create a thorough and successful grant proposal and offers a look into how a panel of arts professionals would discuss your proposal

The first 12 participants who register and submit a draft proposal by May 16th are eligible to receive feedback on a their proposal by a mock panel at the second session.  THESE PARTICIPANTS MUST ATTEND BOTH SESSIONS.

Other participants will gain valuable information from the first workshop presentation as well as gain insight into how a panel reviews proposals.

Registration is on a first come first serve basis.

Workshop Part 1:
Wednesday, May 9th at 6:30pm
Laguardia Community College, Room E501

Workshop Part 2:
Wednesday, May 23rd at 6:30pm
Laguardia Community College, Room E501

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

 

PAST EVENTS

Google/AdWords 101

Wednesday, March 7, 2012, 6:30pm

Learn how to effectively promote your work with Google/AdWords. A field expert from Brooklyn-based search engine agency Ajax Union will walk you thorough how to make Google work for you.  This workshop will cover the following:

Google 101

• Facts about Google
• Search Engine Anatomy
• Search Engine Optimization Basics (SEO)
• Google Places Listing and Optimization
• Google Analytics Overview
• Google Adwords Introduction
• Office Productivity -  Google Apps Overview

Adwords 101

• Introduction to online advertising & Google AdWords
• Types of online advertising
• Basics of pay-per-click advertising
• How do decrease your Adwords Costs
• Features, Benefits,  Basic terminology
• Understanding how Google charges for Adwords
• Finding and implementing keywords and search terms
• How to make your campaign relevant
• Optimizing your quality score
• How to define and meet your online marketing goals.
• Creating a more productive online environment for your clients

Wednesday, March 7, 2012, 6:30pm

Kaufman Astoria Studios
34-12 36th Street, Astoria, NY 11106
Between 34th & 35th Avenues

R/V Trains to Steinway Street
N Train to Broadway

Kickstarter: Bring your Creative Idea To Life

Wednesday, January 11, 2012, 6:30pm

Join us as we explore Kickstarter, the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects. Kickstarter’s own Stephanie Pereira leads off the evening with a presentation on how to bring your project to life. Learn how to structure a project, what kind of rewards work best, and other helpful tips and valuable stats. Next we’ll take a more detailed look at the anatomy of a successful project. Filmmaker Theresa Loong, the Asian American Arts Alliance, and Flux Factory will share their experiences using the platform.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012, 6:30pm
Flux Factory
39-31 29th Street, Long Island City, NY 11101.

N/Q to Queensboro Plaza
E/M/R to Queens Plaza
F to 21^st Street Queensbridge

Building Your Web Identity

Wednesday, November 9, 2011, 6:30pm

How do you create a brand identity online? Taking a look at how artists and arts organization present themselves online we will explore key ways to build a web identity that suits your needs and works. How can you create a unique artist or organization statement for your website? What can you do to use social media to your advantage? What do you need to do to focus your message on Facebook and Twitter? Our facilitator Colleen Ross, the Marketing Director for BRIC Media Arts, will share valuable tools and resources to help you be successful.

*Please note that this is a content based workshop and NOT technical instruction on how to use social media. Successful participants should have a basic understanding of social media including Facebook and Twitter.

Wednesday, November 9th at 6:30pm
Greater Astoria Historical Society – Quinn Building, 35-20 Broadway, 4th Floor
Long Island City, NY 11106
R/M to Steinway Street, N/Q to Broadway

Thu, May 19, 6:00pm-8:30pm
Greater Astoria Historical Society

Following up on our What’s Your Pitch? Grant Writing workshop, the Putting it Together workshop will discuss how to be effective in securing funding. Led by grant writing consultant Melissa Sandor this workshop provides a mock panel review of draft grant submissions from participants of January’s workshop. Open to all, participants will gain insight into the thought process of panels and how to make your grant stand out.*

Connect in Your Community!

Thursday, April 21, 2011, 6:30-8:30pm, Jackson Heights

This “How-To” workshop highlights how a Queens initiative from a local city council office succeeded in promoting partnerships between the arts, culture, business and government to create “June in Jackson Heights”. The panel will include: District 25 City Council Member Daniel Dromm, Andrew Ronan who is the Chief of Staff for the District 25 City Council Office, the Coordinator of 2010 “June in Jackson Heights”, and Hector Canonge, New Media Artist and Director of Queens Media Arts Development and Dan Karatzas, Jackson Heights Historian and Director of the Jackson Heights Beautification Group.

Location: The Renaissance Charter School 35-59 81st St / No. 7 train to 82nd St.

Your Online Presence!

In this rapidly changing online world, how do you strengthen your web presence efficiently and effectively? What are the tools other artists and arts organizations have used and what are the benefits they have to offer?

Led by social media consultant and trainer, Rebecca Krause-Hardie, our professional panel will share what has worked for them and the lessons they learned along the way. To discuss best practices and their successes our panelists will include Nora Gomez (formally Queens Museum, currently Alliance for Young Artists & Writers), Meg Cotner (We Heart Astoria) and Man Bartlett (Flux Factory)

Thu, March 24, 6:30pm – 8:30pm
Frank Sinatra High School
Black Box Theatre
35-12 35th Ave
Astoria, NY 11106

N/Q train to 36th Ave or E/M/R to Steinway Street

STORYSELLING : MARKETING TOOLS AND THEIR EFFECTIVENESS

What basic marketing skills and techniques do you need to promote your work and build your brand? This two part workshop will explain how to use marketing tools and explore how to tell your story with video.

Marketing expert Chris Schimpf will help determine the effectiveness of marketing techniques to tell your story. Second, Roslyn Nieves from QPTV will show you how to create a Public Service Announcement and discuss the free services that QPTV has to offer.

Thursday, February 24, 2011 6:30-8:30pm
Location: Crossing Art, 136-17 39th Ave, Ground Floor, Flushing, NY 11354

GRANT WRITING PLUS+:

WHAT’S YOUR PITCH? & PUTTING IT TOGETHER PANEL REVIEW

Can you talk smartly and succinctly about your art or organization? What is unique about your story?

Launching the 2011 QAX Boot Camp Series, in January What’s Your Pitch? will outline the grant writing structure and help you build an effective pitch. In May, the Boot Camp Series will book end with Putting It Together a final look at how all the various components of telling your story fit into a grant proposal.

This two-part workshop led by experienced grant writing consultant Melissa Sandor includes a hand-on writing workshop in January and mock panel review in May.

The hands-on/mock panel component of the workshop is limited to 12 participants. THESE PARTICIPANTS MUST ATTEND BOTH SESSIONS.

Additional participants may attend to observe and learn these techniques, but they will not be able to receive direct feedback or hands-on assistance from the expert.

Registration is on a first come first serve basis.

THE GRANT WRITING PLUS+ WORKSHOPS ARE FULL, REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED

Grant Writing: What’s Your Pitch

Thursday, January 20, 2011, 6:00pm-8:30pm

Location: Juvenal Reis Studios, 43-01 22nd Street, Long Island City, NY 11101

Grant Writing: Putting it Together & Panel Review

A mock panel where grants from the January Workshop will be reviewed and critiqued by a panel of arts professionals.

Thursday, May 19^th, 2011, 6:00pm-8:30pm

Location: TBA

BRAINSTORM! WORKSHOP SERIES

Brainstorm! is a new series of lively workshops with ideas and tools for artists to develop sources of earned revenue. Brainstorm! features presentations by artists who are successfully generating earned revenue as well as insights from expert discussants and audience participation. Brainstorm! workshops for 2010 include Selling Work Online; Teaching; Touring; and Self-Producing. Brainstorm! is a program of Asian American Arts Alliance, co-produced with New York Foundation for the Arts and Queens Council on the Arts.

Brainstorm! Selling Work Online
A workshop for artists on developing a web presence and generating online sales.

Thursday, March 18, 2010, 6:30pm

NYFA/A4 space, 20 Jay Street, 7th Fl, Dumbo, Brooklyn

Brainstorm! Teaching
A workshop for artists on integrating education into your work to support your career.

Thursday, May 6, 2010, 6:30pm

Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, Long Island City, Queens

GRANT WRITING BOOT CAMP SERIES

An opportunity to learn valuable lessons from experienced grant writing consultant, Melissa Sandor, in a hands on 2-part series that includes a writing workshop and mock panel review. LIMITED to 12 participants. Registration is on a first come first serve basis. PARTICIPANTS MUST ATTEND BOTH SESSIONS.

Grantwriting: Writing Workshop
A workshop for artists and arts professionals to develop, write and edit a grant for a project or organization.

Thursday, April 15, 2010, 6 ­­– 8:30pm

The Irish Center, Long Island City, Queens

Grantwriting: Mock Panel
A mock panel where grants from the Writing Workshop will be reviewed and critiqued by a panel of arts professionals.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010, 6 ­­– 8:30pm

New York Irish Center, 1040 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City, Queens

The Business of Filmmaking

Film clips, a roundtable discussion with Queens filmmakers, representatives from Tribeca Film Institute’s Tribeca All Access program, and an audience Q&A on lessons learned and the business side of making a film. Including: funding, budgeting, networking, marketing and distribution via film festivals, television, and DVD release.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010, 6:30pm

The Secret Theater, 44-02 23rd Street, Long Island City, Queens

BBQ for Bloggers

writers.bloggers.lyricists.screenwriters.playwrights.novelists.journalists.translators.poets
An Informal BBQ and networking event for writers and bloggers as part of a new initiative to develop and strengthen the art of writing in the borough of Queens.

Thursday, June 3, 2010, 6pm

LHaus, 1102 49th Avenue, Long Island City, Queens

Quill: Queens in Love with Literature

TIME // VENUE CHANGE – NEW LOCATION
Letters to our Mothers: Meera Nair, Arun Storrs, Amy T. Paul, Adhikaar’s Arts and Activism Group, performed by Megha and Shradha Lama

In Letters to our Mothers, five writers celebrate the multi-faceted voices of South Asian women in Queens and what it means to be heard across distance. This rare joint production curated by Adhikaar’s Executive Director Luna Ranjit, in collaboration with Queens Council on the Arts and The Asian American Writers’ Workshop, showcases readings by Asian American Literary Award and PEN/Amazon Award-winning fiction author Meera Nair and poets Arun Storrs and Amy T. Paul. Shardha and Megha Lama—theater members of Adhikaar’s Arts & Activism Program—will perform “I wish I could tell my Aama,” a theater piece incorporating dance and visual arts to tell bridge the difficult distances between mothers and daughters, asking “Aama did I ever tell you, I want to sing?”

Saturday, June 12, 2010, 6pm

TIME // VENUE CHANGE – NEW LOCATION: Jackson Diner, 37-47 74th Street, Jackson Heights, NY 11372-6337

PUBLIC ART TALK

Thursday, October 15, 2009, 6 pm to 9 pm

What is Public Art? Who has access to create Public Art? Does Queens want or need more Public Art? From ancient cave wall paintings, sculpture and graffiti to murals, installations and government sponsored commissions, these questions and more will be discussed by a panel of artists, public art organizations and arts professionals. The panel will be moderated by Kendal Henry, Public Art Consultant and Artist, and will be followed by open discussion and a Q & A segment.

Panelists include: Hector Canonge – New Media Artist; Chin Chih Yang – Media Artist; Sara Reisman – Director, Percent for Art; and, Alan Ket – Artist, Activist, Entrepreneur.

Crossing Art

136-17 39th Avenue (at Main Street) Ground Floor

Flushing, NY 11354

www.crossingart.com

THE CULTURAL DATA PROJECT

Tuesday, October 20, 2009, 6 pm to 7:30 pm

The New York State Cultural Data Project (New York State CDP) is a powerful online management tool designed to strengthen arts and cultural organizations. This emerging national standard that was first launched in Pennsylvania in 2004 and has grown to include Maryland, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, and New York, enables participating organizations to track trends and benchmark their progress through powerful reporting tools, empowers researchers and advocates with information to make the case for arts and culture, streamlines the grant application process to participating funders, and equips funders with data to plan and evaluate grant-making activities more effectively.

Queens Borough Hall

120-55 Queens Boulevard Rm.213 part 2

Kew Gardens, NY 11424

www.discoverqueens.info

QUEENS ARTS CONNECTION

Saturday, November 7, 2009, 2 pm to 5pm

The 3rd annual Queens Arts Connection citywide networking event brings together artists from all disciplines and arts service organizations to share information on professional development, grants, venues and the business of art. This event is known throughout the boroughs as an opportunity for artists and organizations to connect with the most diverse artistic community in New York City – Queens. With attendance by 100s of artists and informational networking and presentations by 25+ arts service organizations each year, this annual event, open to the public, will continue to grow and expand as an invaluable tool for the arts and culture community and its constituents.

United Nations Federal Credit Union

24-01 44th Road

Long Island City, NY 11101