Fortify.
Resist.
Build.
Financial Health: Big Picture //
Financial Health: Personal //
Financial Health: Business //
Financial Health: Legal //
The Funding Ecosystem //
Solidarity Economy //
Communication //
Wellness //
Math for Creatives //
FINANCIAL HEALTH:
BIG PICTURE
Before delving into the nitty-gritty of financial health best practices, it is important to understand its context. These lessons discuss personal history, mindset, and economic systems as critical influences and potential tools.
FINANCIAL HEALTH: PERSONAL
Learn to build a healthy foundation for your financial life with confidence to take control of the numbers.
FINANCIAL HEALTH: BUSINESS
Learn the vocabulary, concepts, and strategies for resilience in business.
FINANCIAL HEALTH: LEGAL
Legal protections for artists, designers, and freelancers have the potential to play a significant role in creative careers. When you choose a business entity, license your work, sign a contract, or market your work on social media, know your rights.
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THE FUNDING ECOSYSTEM
Every project, practice, and organization needs resources to survive and thrive. Learn about the interconnected web of support and how to access what you need.
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SOLIDARITY ECONOMY
Creatives around the world are working together, placing people and the planet over profit to create thriving homes, businesses, investments, and creative work. You can too.
In partnership with Art.coop. Back to top
COMMUNICATION
At some point, your ideas and your work need to connect with others in the world. These courses help you to transmit a clear, and effective signal.
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WELLNESS
It's impossible to separate professional well-being from personal health.
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MATH FOR CREATIVES
You really can't avoid numbers when talking about business and financial health. These short tutorials inspire confidence with analytic calculations and applications.
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Courses
Amy Whitaker
Author, Faculty Member at New York University
Holding an MFA and an MBA, Amy studies the friction between art and business and proposes new structures to support economic sustainability for artists. Her third book, Economics of Visual Arts, was published in the fall of 2021 with Cambridge University Press. Amy is also author of two other books, Museum Legs and Art Thinking. Serving on the arts administration faculty at NYU, Amy researches what would happen if artists retained equity in their work. Her work on fractional equity has appeared in Management Science (with Kraussl) in the "Fast Track" intended for "high-impact research that is of broad interest.”
Amy's work has been featured in The Guardian, Harpers, The Atlantic, the Financial Times, Artforum, and The Art Newspaper. Her early work with the artists' cooperative project Trade School was covered in the New York Times and The New Yorker. She speaks widely including at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Meaning Conference (Brighton, UK), and The Conference (Malmö, Sweden). She has taught at Williams College, the Rhode Island School of Design, the School of Visual Arts, and California College of the Arts, and is a past recipient of the Sarah Verdone Writing Award from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.
Image © Shieva Rezvani
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Courses
Luke Blackadar
Attorney, Deputy Director of Legal Services at the Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston (A&BC)
Luke Blackadar is an attorney and the Deputy Director of Legal Services at the Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston (A&BC). An artist himself, he helps artists, creative start-ups, and arts nonprofits manage legal issues involving copyright, trademark, contracts, entity formation, and corporate governance. Luke also enjoys talking to groups of law students and artists and has recently spoken on art legal issues to the Americans for the Arts, the City of Boston, and students at Brown University, RISD, MassArt, and Lesley University. In addition to managing the A&BC’s legal interns, he teaches at the Boston University Metropolitan College and the Roger Williams University School of Law, and mentors students through the Northeastern University and Northeast Regional Black Law Student Associations. Luke is a graduate of Clark University and Northeastern University School of Law. In his spare time, he enjoys drawing, running, reading, and playing video games.
Courses
Marci Blackman + Diana Y Greiner
Founders of Treehouse Taxes
Treehouse Taxes, run by Diana Y Greiner and Marci Blackman in Brooklyn, New York, caters specifically to self-employed individuals and small businesses. They built the Treehouse so you will have a safe, fun, and friendly place to get your taxes done.
Marci has been providing a combination of tax preparation, bookkeeping, and accounting services to a wide range of clientele, including individuals, partnerships, and small corporations for the past 20 years. As a longtime freelancer and award-winning novelist, Marci understands what it means to “hustle” for your dreams, particularly as it pertains to taxes. As a partner in Treehouse Taxes LLC, Marci believes transferring knowledge and helping artists and freelancers become savvy taxpayers is a form of social justice.
Diana Y Greiner knows about cobbling together an income, tracking expenses, and pursuing a dream. She has spent over 20 years juggling the life of a performing artist while developing and maintaining her left brain as the managing director of an arts organization, a waitress, an acrobatics instructor, an office manager, a massage therapist, a bookkeeper, and finally a full-fledged tax nerd by earning her EA. Through it all she maintains that connection is the point of everything.
Courses
Pamela Capalad + Dyalekt
Hosts of Brunch & Budget
Pamela Capalad is a Certified Financial Planner™ and Accredited Financial Counselor™ and has been in financial services since 2008. She founded Brunch & Budget to help people have a safe place to make real financial progress and get shameless about money!
While doing deep research into the racial wealth divide and how it directly affected her clients of color and cohosting the Get Shameless About Money Podcast (FKA Brunch & Budget Podcast) with her husband Dyalekt, they created the See Change program. See Change is a financial coaching and advocacy program specifically designed for People of Color to heal their relationship with money, navigate a predatory financial system, and build 2nd generation wealth.
Pam has been featured in the Washington Post, Teen Vogue, Huffington Post, Vice Magazine, and was named New York Magazine’s Best of New York 2019. She was named one of Investments News 40 Under 40 in 2016, Financial Advisor Magazine's Young Advisors to Watch in 2019, received Jump$tart's 2022 Innovation in Financial Literacy Award, and AFCPE's Financial Planning Center of the Year award in 2022. Pam is a Global Good Fund Fellow, class of 2022.
Brian "Dyalekt" Kushner has been a hip-hop MC, theater maker, and educator for nearly 20 years. He’s the director of pedagogy at Pockets Change, where he uses hip-hop pedagogy to demystify personal finance and help students take control of their relationship with money. He is the recipients of Jump$tart’s 2022 Innovation in Financial Literacy award. He’s rocked (performed/taught/keynoted) everywhere from conferences like AFCPE and Prosperity Now, to stages like SXSW and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, to classrooms that range from Yale to your cousin’s living room.
Pam, Dyalekt, and their friend Andrea Ferrero also co-founded Pockets Change, a hip hop and finance organization for youth with a mission to change the way we talk about finance.
Courses
Laura Levin-Dando
Former Staff Attorney at Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts of NY
Laura Levin-Dando, former Staff Attorney at Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts of NY, advised clients on a range of issues, including disputes, contracts, and intellectual property matters. Laura also taught and facilitated VLA’s educational programs. Laura received her J.D. from George Washington University Law School and graduated summa cum laude from Yeshiva University, where she studied history and music. A lifelong musical theatre nerd, Laura feels very fortunate to be able to help artists from all disciplines. She is currently in the career department of Cardozo School of Law.
Courses
Miata Edoga
Actor, President and Founder of Abundance Bound
Miata Edoga is an actor and the President and Founder of Abundance Bound, the premiere financial education company for creative entrepreneurs. She created The Artist’s Prosperity System™, which has provided thousands of artists with a step-by-step process to significantly improve their financial situations, giving them more time and freedom to focus on their creative careers. Miata and other Abundance Bound facilitators, all working artists themselves, lead workshops and seminars on financial empowerment for organizations including: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, The Television Academy, WGA, DGA, SAG-AFTRA, The Actors Fund, The Motion Picture & Television Fund and The Center for Cultural Innovation.
Yanely Espinal
Director of Education Outreach at Next Gen Personal Finance
Yanely Espinal is the Director of Education Outreach at Next Gen Personal Finance and the Creator of the MissBeHelpful YouTube channel, where she posts weekly videos about money. Born and raised by Dominican, immigrant parents in Brooklyn, New York, Yanely is a proud product of NYC public schools. She majored in Art at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School before going on to receive her bachelor's degree in History of Art/Architecture and Visual Art at Brown University. She later earned her master's degree in teaching and after struggling with credit card debt, became passionate about personal finance education. When she isn't working, she sews, paints, listens to podcasts, and babysits her 8 nieces and nephews.
Ana Fiore
Director of Artist Services at Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC)
As Director of Artist Services at LMCC, Ana Fiore oversees re-grant programs in support of community-based arts programming in Manhattan; artist residencies providing work space for creative development; the SU-CASA program, connecting artists with senior centers; and other artist service initiatives within the organization. The core of these programs is to increase the range of resources available to artists. Prior to LMCC, Ana aided fiscally sponsored artists at the New York Foundation for the Arts with a focus on demystifying the fundraising process. She has also served the Center for Performance Research, The Joyce, and Danspace Project.
Courses
Ian Fuller
Co-founder and Partner of Westfuller
Ian Fuller is a co-founder and partner of Westfuller, a financial and wealth management firm that provides advice, strategy, and investment management for values-aligned global individuals, families, and institutions.
A specialist in evidence-driven, global wealth advisory and planning, strategic investment management, and philanthropic giving, he works closely with people and institutions to empower wealth with purpose. Ian is also the board chair of Common Justice, a restorative and criminal justice reform organization, and serves as the treasurer/finance chair for many social justice organizations, including: civil rights organization Color of Change, economic justice impact fund The Workers Lab, the private foundation Proteus Action League, and Amalgamated bank’s Charitable Foundation.
He holds a B.S. in Economics from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and an M.S. in International Affairs and Global Finance from New York University. He also holds a Chartered Financial Consultant designation for the Series 7, 66, 24 securities licenses. He lives on the Lower East Side of New York City with his family.
Joel Kwabi
Math Educator, Personal Finance Advocate
Joel Kwabi was born in Ghana and moved to the United States for college. After receiving a bachelor's degree in mathematics and working in finance, he obtained a masters degree in mathematics education in pursuit of his passion for teaching. For over a decade, he has taught math in the classrooms of Brooklyn. He is passionate about personal finance and helped lead a Financial Peace University course in his church community after an eye-opening experience paying off student debt and saving to buy a home. He currently lives on Long Island with his wife and two kids.
Courses
Jessica Lee
Partner in the Advanced Media & Technology Practice at Loeb & Loeb
Jessica Lee is a Partner in the Advanced Media & Technology practice at Loeb & Loeb, where she counsels clients on the privacy and intellectual property issues that arise when launching, marketing, and monetizing digital products and content. Named one of New York’s Notable Women in Law by Crain’s, Jessica has helped a variety of media and technology companies negotiate the agreements that support their digital media initiatives. She is a member of MoMA’s Friends of Education and sits on the board of directors for The Laundromat Project.
Anibal A. Luque
Founder and Managing Attorney of Luque PLLC
Anibal A. Luque provides legal advice and practical counsel to creatives and entrepreneurs across the globe. Following today's progressive merging of industries, Anibal caters to the needs of companies and individuals who create products and provide services utilizing technology in the areas of music, art, and fashion. His clients consist of companies that provide services and innovative products in the technology, media, apparel, and beverage industries, as well as those with an eye toward social enterprise. As an enthusiastic young entrepreneur himself, Anibal strives to help like-minded people achieve success with the right legal planning.
Courses
Renata Marinaro
Managing Director of Health Services for Entertainment Community Fund (Formerly The Actors Fund)
Renata Marinaro is an experienced social worker and current Managing Director of Health Services for ECF, a human services organization that helps all professionals in performing arts and entertainment. Her accomplishments include starting the Friedman Health Center for Performing Arts, a primary and specialty care center in partnership with Mount Sinai Doctors in New York City; training and managing a national team of health insurance navigators and agents; and developing creative health literacy products. Her overarching goal is to create educated healthcare consumers with increased access to affordable care.
Courses
Kay Takeda
Executive Director of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts (FCA)
Kay Takeda has worked for over 25 years to support the advancement of artists and the arts sector. Currently, she is Executive Director of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts (FCA), which recognizes artists making innovative work through unrestricted grants and responsive project support. Previously, she developed strategy and oversaw artist-focused initiatives at Joan Mitchell Foundation, including the launch of the multi-year Joan Mitchell Fellowship. In prior roles, Kay expanded local grantmaking community partnerships and professional development at Lower Manhattan Cultural Council; led national grantmaking programs at Arts International, and managed exhibitions and programming at the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Snug Harbor. She serves on the board of Movement Research, frequently sits on funding panels, and lectures widely on professional issues affecting artists.
Courses
Aaliya Zaveri
Immigration Attorney
Aaliya Zaveri is an immigration attorney whose practice focuses on extraordinary ability petitions. She represents individual and institutional clients from a diverse range of professions, including architectural design, classical music, and visual art. A graduate of Wesleyan University and Fordham Law, she worked in corporate securities litigation before practicing immigration law. Born in India and raised in Hong Kong, she now makes her home in Brooklyn, NY.
Rad Pereira
Artist, Cultural Worker
Rad Pereira (they/them) is a queer (im)migrant artist and cultural worker building consciousness between healing justice, system change, reindigenization and queer futures based in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn) and Haudenosaunee territory (northern Hudson Valley). Their work in performance, education, and social practice has been experienced on stages, screens, stoops, and sidewalks all over Turtle Island through the support of many communities, institutions, and groups. Their book, Meeting the Moment: Socially Engaged Performance, 1965-2020, By Those Who Lived It, is available through New Village Press. They are building a Native led food sovereignty project called Iron Path Farms.
Ebony Gustave
Community Architect, Cooperative Journal Podcast Host
Ebony Gustave (she/her) is a web weaver, community architect, and storyteller. She is the host of Cooperative Journal podcast, an archive of interviews highlighting international examples of the solidarity economy. As a co-steward of its multimedia umbrella, she is bridging the gaps between political education, imagination, co-creation, and actualization. The common thread between all of her work is bringing awareness to, and activating, collective autonomy, care, and trust.
Amani Olu
Founder of Olu & Company
Dubbed the “King of multi-tasking” by Anthony Haden-Guest in The Art Newspaper, Amani Olu is a serial entrepreneur with a strong background in exhibition making and art writing. He is the co-founder of Humble Arts Foundation, a 501c3 that began to support and promote new art photography in 2005. From 2008 to 2012, he curated numerous exhibitions of contemporary photography, and spearheaded the four-part series Young Curators, New Ideas. In 2011 he joined Nadine Johnson & Associates as an art publicist for clients such as the Brant Foundation Art Study Center, Marlborough Chelsea, and the Dallas Art Fair. Eighteen months later, he was named managing editor of Whitewall, having previously contributed articles on artists William Eggleston, Zoe Crosher, Elad Lassry, and Rashaad Newsome. He left to establish Olu & Company, a marketing and business consultancy for individuals, businesses and organizations in the arts. Amani makes art under the name "Scott Avery,” and is currently developing IMG SRVR, a visual cloud storage service for creative industries.
Image © James Adams
Image © James Adams
Courses
Mike Strode
Founding Coordinator of The Kola Nut Collaborative
Mike Strode is a writer, cyclist, IT consultant, facilitator, and solidarity economy organizer residing in southeast Chicago whose community engagement work has included ride leadership with the Chicago chapter of Red, Bike & Green; editorial and archival oversight for Fultonia; and co-facilitation of Cooperation for Liberation Study & Working Group. He is founding coordinator of the Kola Nut Collaborative, a time-based service and skills trading platform which promotes timebanking throughout Chicago. He also serves as a current board member for Dill Pickle Food Co-op.
Courses
Marina Lopez
Artist, Somatic Educator, Cultural Organizer
Marina Lopez (she/her) is a Mexican American performing and social practice artist, massage therapist/somatic educator, and cultural organizer. Her experience as a bodyworker is essential to her practice as an artist because we can’t separate the art from the body that makes it. Care work is culture work. As an artist, her work is an interdisciplinary weaving of many voices that links to history, social movements, and tradition. She is a co-organizer and creative collaborator with Art.coop. Marina seeks to create work that articulates and provides an embodied cognition of the ways in which art, culture, and care are foundational within a thriving society. Her work challenges the status quo of who we as a society uplift as expert voices, and inspires curiosity, collaboration, and solidarity.