elevate your creative practice in ten weeks
what does it actually take to be an artist?
being an artist is a ten week program designed to develop the skills you need to energize and sustain your artistic practice.
Starts Jan 21, 2025
15 min
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Coming together each week in our group offering feedback makes it feel like, ok, I can do my art today, and I'm not alone in this weekly battle!
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Ian Stephens
photographer
Program information
For upcoming course dates & information, click here.
The Being An Artist program takes place during 6 sessions over ten weeks and is co-led by Allie Wilkinson & Liam Alexander, two visual artists. The course is conducted as a group, and includes artists of all different backgrounds, experience levels, and disciplines. In addition to the weekly sessions, we have independent assignments and group activities, small group meetings during the week, and optional community activities throughout the course.
​There are no prerequisites to participate, the only thing you need to bring is a vision for yourself and the future of your creative practice.
Participants discover how to bring their dreams into reality, and more importantly, sustain them. Our goal is that every artist leave this course in control of their career and life as an artist.
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I walked away having produced more for my documentary and filmmaking in the 10-weeks than I had in 6 months.
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jessica martinaitis
filmmaker and producer
what you will get
structure
structure your life so you have the freedom to create
support
create your financial life so that you can thrive as an artist
inspiration
learn how to be the source of the inspiration you need to keep your practice going.
what people are saying
The program helped me figure out how I can realistically fit the hours I need to make
progress in the studio into my actual life, balanced with all my other needs and commitments.
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With the help of the other artists in my group I was pushed to not only work on my portfolio but to seek work at the moment, which led to assignments covering the effects of COVID-19 for various news outlets.
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I had been struggling for a few months to find energy, focus, and momentum in my work, with the lack of structure outside an academic institution. I took the program as an opportunity to light a new fire in the studio.
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testimonials
evelyn beliveau
painter
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I had been struggling for a few months to find energy, focus, and momentum in my work as a painter, scattered by the pandemic and the lack of structure outside an academic institution. The program helped me figure out how I can realistically fit the hours I need to make progress in the studio into my actual life, balanced with all my other needs and commitments.
I took small tasks and big goals and broke them into bite-sized pieces so I could make progress each week, with room to experiment and not be perfect every step of the way. Making verbal intentions and having peers to hold me accountable spurred me to take actions, examine my own habits, and stay committed to what I set out to do. I made drawings and paintings that I’m really excited about and found new questions to explore in my work, which I never would have reached without setting aside chunks of time to, well, be an artist.
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take the first step...
there are a few problems with how we approach our creative practice:
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we are way too serious.
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we mostly have no idea what we are doing or why.
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we have no idea when we will be done, should be done, or when to stop.
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our solution: turn your next project into a game!
how do we do that?
click below to download our guide.
about us
liam alexander
Liam Alexander is a fine artist and community leader. He works in the medium of collage, using his own photographs and videos as subject matter and source of inspiration. His work has been featured in gallery exhibitions and art fairs across the United States, published in magazines like Kolaj, Nylon, and Rolling Stone, and he has created film, art, and other projects for major brands like Wix.com, The City of New York, Volvo, Samsung, SAP, The Glenlivet, and Renaissance Hotels.
Liam currently serves as the President of the American Society of Media Photographers, New York Chapter, is a graduate of Parsons School of Design.
allie wilkinson
Alida (Allie) Wilkinson was born and raised in New York City and received a B.A. in Visual Arts from Bowdoin College. Her paintings and installations have been exhibited in galleries across the United States, notably at Slag Gallery, Pen + Brush Gallery, Ki Smith Gallery, and Deanna Evans Projects.
Her debut solo show in New York opened at Slag Gallery in 2022. She has been an artist in residence at the Byrdcliffe Residency (NY, 2021) and the 77Art Residency (VT, 2019).
Her work is held in private collections in the United States, France, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn.