Celebrate Innovation Week at Central Library with Business 101 for Artists on July 10

What: Business 101 for Artists
When: Tuesday July 10, 2018, 6:00-7:30 p.m.
Where: Central Library, Linn-Henley Research Library, Arrington Auditorium, 4th floor
Details: Free workshop by Octavia Kuransky of Bizart designed to help artists, writers, musicians, painters, and crafts professionals learn more about business management skills and how to promote their products. Attendees will create a two-page business plan. Advance registration is required.

As part of the 2018 Innovation Week observance, the Central Library in downtown Birmingham on July 10 will host Business 101 for Artists, a free workshop designed to help artists, writers, musicians, painters, and crafts professionals learn how to run their businesses better and market their products more effectively.

The workshop instructor is Octavia Kuransky of Bizart, a Birmingham company that hosts workshops designed to equip artists for entrepreneurship success. “This 90-minute workshop demystifies business and will include an explanation of business vocabulary, business models, and business practices such as pricing, marketing and promotion tailored towards the unique need of artists and craftspeople,” Kuransky said. “This is a unique opportunity to network with other artists.” Attendees will leave the workshop with a better understanding of their commercial potential and a two-page business plan that is focused on their unique needs as an artist.

Kuransky will share tips she gained as a business owner and former program development manager for the Central Alabama Women’s Business Center in Birmingham. She is currently an instructor of the Emerging Leaders curriculum underwritten by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Please register for this program online through the BPL events calendar or email Jim Murray in the Business, Science and Technology Department at jmurray@bham.lib.al.us. Kuransky led similar workshops April 9 at the Avondale Regional Branch Library, June 18 at the Vestavia Public Library, and will instruct one Thursday, June 21, 6:30 p.m., at the Homewood Public Library. .

“If the beauty and life enhancing work of art is to live on in the real world, then artists need real world skills,” Kuransky said. “This includes understanding the business side of art. Bizart is offering this financial skill building through the public libraries because of the accessibility of education through the libraries and the public library commitment to public education, art and culture.”

This program is part of BPL’s contribution to Birmingham Innovation Week, being observed July 6-13, 2018. Innovation Week is a celebration of creative people, risk-takers and innovators. Through a series of collaborative events produced by Birmingham’s most pioneering public and private institutions, Innovation Week showcases transformational ideas and ventures evolving in Birmingham. For more information about Innovation Week programs, events, and activities, check the website at https://www.innovationweek.tech/.