What We Believe:
We believe that every single artist needs leadership and entrepreneurship training to develop the skills they need to realize their creative vision(s). We believe artists have an extraordinary amount of yet-to-be-realized economic potential if their creative vision(s) can be realized. Artistic training, in our opinion, should be viewed as a high level educational pursuit similar to the training of a doctor or lawyer. And because most artists are intelligent enough to have become a doctor or lawyer, there is simply no reason they cannot become vibrant, relevant, and meaningful contributors to society if offered the rest of the training they need to do so.
To become meaningful contributors, artists need four years of professional artistic training, and at least one year of applied training to realize their artistic vision(s)- allowing them to create meaningful, sustainable careers in the arts.
What We Know:
We know that while most institutions of higher education are unable to offer this level of training, it is impossible for them to do so. As it is, it takes four years of intense undergraduate study for an artist to build enough artistic skill and the maturity needed to become a working professional at their craft. There is simply no time left to help an artist access and develop their creative vision into a productive life sustaining tool.
In an attempt to bridge this training gap, increasingly there are workshops and short training programs available for artists at the undergraduate and post-graduate level. However, it is not possible to teach an artist the skills they need in a series of short lessons or workshops. It is not book knowledge artists need, but experiential learning models, an investment of time to build habits of mind, and mentorship to assimilate their arts focused creative training into a sustainable career model. This is not all that dissimilar to how one learns to be an artist in the first place.
What We Do:
At The IAE, our goal is to help our students define and shape how best to use their talents to make a living in their medium and for the community they can best serve. Our role is to teach our students how to economically leverage all of their skills and creative talent(s) to profit ethically from their artistry, as they become a leader in a niche market they uniquely can fill with their creative vision(s).
Why should artists become arts entrepreneurs?
Through their professional training artists develop the essential, albeit under-developed, traits of a social entrepreneur. Social entrepreneurs often seem to be possessed by their ideas and access their success in terms of the impact they have on society, as do artists. Both social entrepreneurship and artistry embrace common ground in their philosophical roots. Almost like a religion, both desire to spread the “good word” through the integrity and thoughtful reflection of their creative ideas and passion to share them as the basis for how they prosper.
Social entrepreneurs are individuals with innovative solutions to society's most pressing social problems. Rather than leaving societal needs to the government or business sectors, social entrepreneurs find what is not working and solve the problem by changing the system, spreading the solution, and persuading entire societies to take new leaps. Whereas business entrepreneurs typically measure performance in profit and return, social entrepreneurs assess their success in terms of the impact they have on society.
Social entrepreneurs commit their lives to changing the direction of their field. They are both visionaries and ultimate realists, concerned with the practical implementation of their vision above all else.
Now that you more clearly understand social entrepreneurship, if you did not already, please re-read the last two paragraphs. But this time read them and replace the word social entrepreneur(s) with artist(s).The artist as social entrepreneur is almost as natural an expression of artistry and entrepreneurship as it gets. As such, The IAE believes that entrepreneurship training is essential training to the sustainable career path of a devoted professional artist.
What impact can artists as social entrepreneurs make to society?
Small businesses play a major role in the vitality of our economic landscape because they account for half of the United States private gross domestic product and employ more than half of all workers in the U.S alone. More importantly, over the past decade, small firms have provided 60 to 80 percent of the new jobs in the economy, and according to a U.S. Bureau of the Census working paper, almost all of these new jobs stem from start-ups in the first two years of operations.
There is simply no reason that the arts cannot be a vibrant part of the development of rebuilding the future of America, as they should be for all the value they hold.
To learn more about our philosophy, please read our vision/mission statement.
"At The IAE, we help our students shape their creative vision(s) into economic opportunity. We are preparing the next generation of artists with the skills they need to change history and blaze a trail of emotional and financial success.""~ Lisa Canning, Founder and Executive Director