Luis De La Torre's art studio in a Bridgeport warehouse is classic, but threatened by a tough market. That is one of the themes that may emerge from Studio Chicago, a year-long project to promote events for or about artists and the spaces where they create--one of several new initiatives to help market arts events. DeLaTorre artist from Flickr, used w/permission.

I love this picture of Luis De La Torre’s studio. I also know from my co-worker Diana that it’s touch and go for Luis (who is her husband) to maintain his space because of economic hard times disproportionately affecting the arts market.

Two new arts-marketing initiatives highlight collaboration and capacity-building to help local organizations build audiences and patronage: Studio Chicago and the Chicago Art Exchange.

Studio Chicago

Hate to get into a post a day late and a dollar short, but… as Kelly Reaves on Gaper’s Block noted yesterday, the deadline is today to apply for the first round of Featured Programs in the new Studio Chicago program. The application (a downloadable word doc) is here. In journalism we used to call that a news peg, no? Do not worry if this is the first you’re hearing about it, because:

1. it’s a new program,
2. this round just covers events January through March (plan is for a March 1 deadline for events beginning in April and June 1 for events after that, but it sounds like it would be good to check back for updates on this)
3. the primary mission is to raise awareness this coming year about the who-what-when-where-why-how of artists and the places where they work.

“We realized there were all these exhibitions and programs people were thinking about and planning already,” says one of Studio Chicago’s organizers, Jackie Terrassa of Museum of Contemporary Art. Working together, they have packaged it as a theme. According to the Studio Chicago Website, here’s the plan:

Through exhibitions, talks, publications, tours, and research, participating organizations will celebrate the working artist and reveal their sites of creative production from historical and contemporary perspectives. With concepts ranging from the “studio as muse,” “virtual studios,” “street as studio,” and “gallery as studio,” Studio Chicago invites participation from artists and the art-curious.

Jackie says events highlighted by the project will get additional promotional help such as featured placement in the Department of Cultural Affairs Chicago Artists Resource eblasts, inclusion in news releases and other support. There is a flickr photo group and of course a Twitter hashtag, #studiochicago.

Incidentally, there’s not specially any new money to support the project, which is coordinated by “core partners” Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Columbia College, Gallery 400, Hyde Park Art Center, MOCA, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and threewalls.

Chicago Arts Engagement Exchange

Another new resource is the Web site of the city-Chicago Community Trust-Wallace Foundation arts marketing partnership, Chicago Arts Engagement Exchange. It went up November 10, (read more in a news release on PR Newswire) and a quick lookover shows:

• Notes from a recent National Arts Marketing Project conference in Providence are up on the site’s blog,
• Help on “Asking the Right Questions: Using Research to Build Your Audience” is in the resources section,
• Workshops (including ahem some of ours) are listed on the events calendar and
• A couple hundred posts on arts marketing topics are in the forums.

The online network site is designed by Workshop instructor Tim Frick of MightyBytes.