Jessyca

Jessyca is the Executive Director of C4 Atlanta.

Kaiser Permanente Bridge Program – March Enrollment

Feb 162012
 

On Monday, March 19, 2012 Kaiser Permanente will be accepting applications from eligible C4 Atlanta members in the Kaiser Permanente Bridge Program. Enrollment slots are limited.

Where: Academy Theatre
Time: Register for an application time HERE

Enrollment Guidelines
Individuals will be required to attend an “orientation” session BEFORE applying. There is NO cost for this session. The orientation will be offered twice on March 19, 2012 at Academy Theatre. This session is mandatory. You will not be allowed to apply without attending the orientation session.

Bridge Program Monthly Premiums*
$27.00 – Single Subscriber
$49.00 – Subscriber & Child(ren)
$55.00 – Subscriber & Spouse
$82.00 – Subscriber, Spouse & Child(ren)

*Premiums are subject to change.

Income Guidelines (max income):

Family
Size*		 Monthly Gross Income Annual Gross Income
1 $2,723 $32,670
2 $3,678 $44,130
3 $4,633 $55,190
4 $5,588 $67,050
5 $6,543 $78,510
6 $7,498 $89,970

C4 Atlanta announces next graduating class of artist-entrepreneurs

Feb 142012
 

Participants in business seminar, called Ignite, will deliver presentations to practitioners in the field

ATLANTA, GA — C4 Atlanta, a non-profit arts service organization, will graduate 13 artists from its flagship professional development seminar, Ignite, on Wednesday, February 15, 2012.Image of a small note that reads: To do: buy milk, pay rent, earn a living as an artist...

As part of the graduation, Ignite participants will deliver presentations of their business plans to experienced practitioners in the arts industry, for evaluation and feedback.

The six-week seminar was created in response to a growing demand from artists and other creative professionals to learn the tools necessary to develop critical skills in entrepreneurship and small business management.

“The class has enabled me to feel more confident about ideas that I’ve had that I put on the back burner and bring them to the surface,” said Corrina Sephora Mensoff, a sculpture artist. “I feel like I have a whole new edge and angle to who I am as an artist and what I contribute to my community.”

Participants in Ignite will leave the course with five tools to help their careers: Mission and Vision Clarity, Framework for a Business Plan, Resources for Creating a Budget, Financial Planning Resources, and an Action Plan.

“All this information, especially applied to an individual artist is really something new to me,” said Jane Garver, a visual artist. “It will be really useful.”

The class participants come from a variety of backgrounds, including the visual arts, literary arts, and performing arts. “Our goal is to support Atlanta’s creative economy by teaching artists of all disciplines the skills to create sustainable businesses that support their work and creativity,” said Jessyca Holland, Executive Director of C4 Atlanta.

The next class will be offered Wednesdays, March 7 – April 11. There is a $200 tuition fee for the seminar. Artists may register for the class through the C4 Atlanta website, at http://c4atlanta.org.

The Ignite seminar is made possible, in part, with funding from the City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs, and from the generous support of more than 70 donors. Scholarships were made available through a grant from the Possible Futures Foundation.

The content for Ignite, formerly called “Entrepreneurship in the Arts: The Art of Self Promotion,” was created by Kamal Sinclair, principal consultant with Strategic Arts, a consulting firm for artists and arts organizations.

A list of graduating seminar participants follows:
Teresa Bramlette Reeves
Claire Christie
Danae Cowart
Jane Garver
Erica Hensley
Rebecca Holohan
Ememofon “Emy” Imoh
Chelsea Raflo
Chantelle Rytter
Lorenzo Sanford
Corrina Sephora Mensoff
Gregor Turk
Lisa Tuttle

Paying it Forward

Feb 092012
 

When my oldest daughter was three, she loved for me to read to her a little book titled, Sweet Surprises. I am not sure why she liked that book so much. Three-year-old children are mysterious–or maybe adults are too predictable. Nonetheless, for a short while I read that book to her at nap time, bedtime, and sometimes in the morning before I was barely awake with coffee in hand. The story featured a little girl who performed good deeds throughout the day for her mom. These good deeds, as you may have guessed, were the sweet surprises.

I don’t know if my now-thirteen-year-old daughter remembers this book. From the looks of her room, probably not. However, I remember the story. On occasion, I snicker to myself when I think about the book. The simplicity. I also think about how cynical I can be sometimes when I here about these supposed random acts of kindness.

Yesterday afternoon, after our Ignite class ended class participants milled around talking. One of the participants (whom I really admire) approached me with a check. C4 Atlanta offered her half off tuition through a scholarship. The scholarships we offer are made possible by individual contributions dedicated to Ignite and by the Possible Futures Foundation. She said she was in a better position financially this month so she wanted to pay back the scholarship. She mentioned that she really enjoys the class and it has helped inspire the next phase of her artistic journey. I was moved. Sincerely. It was a sweet surprise.

This money will allow us to open up one more scholarship for our March/April seminar. It’s not a million dollar grant, but the gesture means so much to C4 Atlanta. Artists are severely underemployed in this city. It is not easy to come up with money for professional development; however, this year I have learned to never make assumptions about who will give and who will not. Some of our greatest supporters are artists.

For everyone who has given to C4 Atlanta to help support our artist community, thank you. You know who you are.

An Analytics Tool You Should Know About

Feb 042012
 

One tool we like to show artists and arts organization is Quantcast. Similar in spirit to Google Analytics (also a great tool), Quantcast allows site owners to gather data about visitors to their websites. Unlike Google Analytics, the information is available to the public. If your site doesn’t receive a ton of traffic like popular commercial sites, then Quantcast doesn’t really have enough data to supply information on usage, demographics, etc. However, there is a solution! Quantcast will help you generate a code tag to paste into your site. This allows your site to be “Quantified!” If this sounds to “techie” for your liking, don’t worry. The Quantcast site/support team will help you with adding this piece of code to your site. In deed, our site has been quantified. Wanna see?

What we found out using Quantcast…

Well, our visitors are highly educated & poor. This makes sense, as according the National Endowment for the Arts’, Artist in the Workforce findings, artists are not unemployed but remain severely underemployed, despite typically having more education than other U.S. workers.

Two pie charts. One shows high education, graduate level. The other shows low income.

C4 Atlanta Website - Education vs. Income

We also discovered that while our online audience is majority Caucasian, the C4 Atlanta website receives above average usage from African American visitors (compared to the whole internet) at 19%.

Bar chart showing site user ethnicity

C4 Atlanta Website Users - Ethnicity

 

How do they find that data? And isn’t it a little creepy?

Quantcast provides some info as to how they collect this information. If I had to guess, the info is tied to IP address and that address is tied to a physical address. They use direct measurement mixed with machine learning. The U.S. Census would be an example of direct measurement.

About creepy…

Remember the phone book? Once upon a time we could look up any person’s (unless they suppressed their contact info) address and phone number in an easy-to-use guide that made great use of very thin paper. Quantcast doesn’t reveal that information about people. It’s all aggregate. Also:

Quantcast Measurement is the first and only syndicated online traffic measurement service to gain MRC accreditation for compliance with IAB measurement standards.

That’s good. Very good.

As far as marketing is concerned, I think consumers are in control. It may not feel like it, but marketers want to get to know us. We tell them what we want advertised to us. Sometimes, we are right. Sometimes they get it right. But as we get deeper and deeper into a service economy, consumer voice is going to more important than ever. Building relationships with your patrons or audiences is key to survival. That relationship starts with understanding your core.

To review:

  • Visit Quantcast
  • Get a code to track info on your site
  • Insert code
  • Check out the marketing tips on how to use such data. Quantcast has some cool tips.
  • Use the demographic info as one of many tools in your toolkit to help measure mission impact
  • Have fun! Charts and graphs are pretty.

It’s 8 PM. Do you know where your patrons are?

Jan 182012
 

The Atlanta Arts & Culture Census can help you find them!

Arts patrons look board watching T.V.

Your Arts Patrons

Join your peers in the Atlanta Arts & Culture Census this March. The Arts & Culture Census is brought to our community through a partnership with TRG Arts, one of America’s most respected marketing consulting companies. Nearly 400,000 unique arts patron households currently represented!

We will be adding more companies to the Arts & Culture Census March 2, 2012. The deadline to express interest in being a part of the Arts & Culture Census is Friday, February 17, 2012.

What can the Arts & Culture Census do for my organization?

  • Get to know your patrons
  • Discover how to find new patrons
  • Secure list trading with your peers in just a few clicks of the mouse
  • Identify areas of growth and collaboration within the Atlanta region
  • Pull instant demographic reports for board meetings, grant proposals & more

How do I join the Arts & Culture Census?
Fill out this short interest form!

What do your peers think?

Atlanta Ballet has been both a consultant and database client of TRG since 2005.  TRG’s knowledge of performing arts marketing and specific focus on database marketing have been invaluable.  Their eMerge product has allowed Atlanta Ballet to create an aggressive direct communications marketing plan using mail, email and phone as methods to stay in touch with our existing and future patrons.   The launch of a community arts database in Atlanta will allow us to continue to grow strong arts patrons by reaching out to non-ballet patrons, and allowing other organizations to connect with Atlanta Ballet patrons., creating stronger arts patrons who crossover multiple Atlanta arts organizations. -Tricia Ekhom, The Atlanta Ballet

Although we had a broad understanding of our Schwartz Center arts patrons, we didn’t have much real data to support our media buys and who we were targeting. Once our info was loaded in TRG, I could easily print out demographic reports–showing zip codes and demographics like age, income and buying habits. Some of the research data was surprising to us; particularly the average age being a bit younger than we thought. The Arts & Culture Census has also made requesting mail lists from other arts organizations a breeze. – Jessica Cook, Emory Arts, Schwartz Center for Performing Arts

Organizations currently participating in the Atlanta Arts & Culture Census (as of 01/16/2012)

  • Academy Theatre
  • ArtWorks! Gwinnett
  • Atlanta Ballet
  • Atlanta Jewish Music Festival
  • Atlanta Lyric Theatre
  • Atlanta Opera
  • Brooks & Company Dance
  • CORE Performance Company
  • Essential Theatre
  • Full Radius Dance
  • Georgia State University School of Music
  • Kennesaw State University College of the Arts
  • MINT Gallery
  • North Fulton Drama Club
  • Rialto Center for the Arts
  • Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts
  • Synchronicity Performance Group
  • The Georgia Ballet
  • The New American Shakespeare Tavern
  • WonderRoot

February Enrollment for Health Insurance

Jan 122012
 

On Monday, February 13, 2012 Kaiser Permanente will be accepting applications from eligible C4 Atlanta members in the Kaiser Permanente Bridge Program. Enrollment slots are limited.

Where: Academy Theatre
Time: Register for an application time HERE

Enrollment Guidelines
Individuals will be required to attend an “orientation” session BEFORE applying. There is NO cost for this session. The orientation will be offered twice on February 13, 2012 at Academy Theatre. This session is mandatory. You will not be allowed to apply without attending the orientation session.

Bridge Program Monthly Premiums*
$27.00 – Single Subscriber
$49.00 – Subscriber & Child(ren)
$55.00 – Subscriber & Spouse
$82.00 – Subscriber, Spouse & Child(ren)

*Premiums are subject to change.

Income Guidelines (max income):
 

Family
Size*		 Monthly Gross Income Annual Gross Income
1 $2,723 $32,670
2 $3,678 $44,130
3 $4,633 $55,190
4 $5,588 $67,050
5 $6,543 $78,510
6 $7,498 $89,970

Arts Day at the Capitol!

Jan 112012
 

From our friends at Georgia Arts Network…

Join the Georgia Arts Network on January 24th for Arts Day at the Capitol!

The arts community is partnering with our friends in Georgia’s tourism industry for Tourism Day at the Capitol on Monday and Tuesday, January 23rd & 24th. In these tough times, focusing on the positive economic impact of the arts as a vehicle which attracts tourism dollars to Georgia is a great way to convince skeptics of the need to invest in the arts now!

For the event, the Georgia Arts Network is partnering with: Georgia Association of Convention & Visitors Bureau, Georgia Chamber of Commerce, Georgia Restaurant Association, and the Georgia Hotel & Lodging Association.

You can find out more details about the event at the GACVB website, and you can register to attend HERE (it’s free to attend, other than the optional luncheon). Please plan to to attend the January 24th arts break-out session at 9:30am.

If you plan to attend, please register your attendance now with the GACVB and then inform the Georgia Arts Network by writing to us at contact@gaartsnetwork.org (please include the full names, email addresses, and organizations of all attendees).

You should also plan to schedule meetings that day with your local legislator; we would appreciate it if you would let us know when your meetings are, so we can facilitate coordination between arts groups in neighboring areas.

This year it is critical to speak with legislators about the need to increase funding for the Georgia Council for the Arts in order to secure that Georgia receives the full matching funds from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).

Please help advocate for the arts in Georgia by attending this event and letting your voice be heard in support of the arts community! Register now!

 

October is Funding for Arts Month

Sep 272011
 

The programs are listed below; to see the details, simply go to the October calendar page where each program has the red arts symbol:  http://grantspace.org/Classroom/Training-Calendar/Atlanta/(month)/10/(year)/2011   

State of the Arts

Monday, October 3, 1:00pm – 2:00pm

at the Rialto Center for the Arts

Hear Lisa Cremin, director of the Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund, discuss the current state of the arts.

 

Resource Market for the Arts

Monday, October 3, 2:00pm – 4:00pm

at the Rialto Center for the Arts

 

Reality Fundraising: Lessons Learned from Successful Arts Organizations

Thursday, October 6, 2:00pm – 4:00pm

 

Art on the Atlanta BeltLine

Wednesday, October 12, 2:00pm – 3:00pm

 

Why Arts Organizations Should Collect Data

Friday, October 14, 10:00am – 11:15am

 

The Artist’s Survival Guide

Friday, October 14, 11:30am – 12:30pm


Funding for Arts Organizations

Tuesday, October 25, 10:00am – 11:30am

 

Grantseeking Basics for Individuals in the Arts

Wednesday, October 26, 10:00am – 11:00am

 

Getting Started with Foundation Grants to Individuals Online

Wednesday, October 26, 11:15am – 12:15pm

 

Know your patrons?

Aug 292011
 

Do you know what your patrons look like? Do they donate to your company? Do they have kids? What do they like to buy?

Do you have a picture in your head? Good. Imagine that people who don’t see your shows, visit your art openings or attend your lectures are out there aimlessly wandering around waiting to learn about your organization. Imagine that those friendly wanderers look an awful lot like your current patrons. How do you reach them?

We can agree that knowing your patrons is a good idea, right? You need to know everything about your patrons because chances are you haven’t exhausted all avenues to reach and retain them.

What excites us about the Arts & Culture Census: it helps the Atlanta region’s arts community connect more meaningfully to patrons. The more avenues your organization has to reaching audiences that look, act, and behave like current patrons, the less money, time and frustration your staff will spend on marketing initiatives. Even if you know your patrons, making assumptions (without data) about all of the region’s arts consumers provides an anecdotal approach to marketing at best.

What the Arts & Culture Census is NOT: A replacement for your current ticketing system.

The data co-op is designed to augment marketing strategies for maximum impact. We get a lot of questions about Tessitura. TRG’s system is not designed to compete or replace Tessitura, or any ticketing system. It is designed to help create an efficient means to cultivate, grow and retain patrons. It is designed to foster community collaboration. You should have in place a system (whether it be software or a comprehensive marketing plan) to help you track and understand your patrons. The Arts & Culture Census allows you to not only look at your patrons, but you can get to know the habits of patrons in other disciplines, companies, regions, etc. You can also track where your patrons are spending arts bucks elsewhere. Maybe this leads to some creative marketing between two companies? Maybe it tells you that your assumptions are correct? Maybe you will be surprised!

When It Comes to Marketing, Your Gut Is Still Not Smarter Than Your Head

A more audacious goal…

C4 Atlanta is an arts service organization. We have goals for the ENTIRE arts community. It is our hope that this service will encourage a standard of marketing accessible to all budget sizes, disciplines and audiences. The more we share information, support each other and raise awareness as a community, the more we are visible within the entire Atlanta ecosystem. The more we are all elevated to success, the stronger we all become.

Join us

Not only will your membership allow you access to the Arts & Culture Census, but you will also be supporting community-wide social innovation initiatives. It has been a tough couple of years for many of us in the arts community. When I was laid off, my world was turned upside down. So I understand that paying membership isn’t necessarily on the top of your to-do list. But I am asking you to invest in the long term. To look ahead at the possibility of greatness. I believe that a strong recovery comes with the right long-term investment. I believe in an Atlanta community where the arts are at the forefront of innovation. Join C4 Atlanta.

Interested, but you need more info? Email Jessyca@c4atlanta.org

– Jessyca Holland, Executive Director

P.S. – Direct mail is still relevant.

Young Adults Prefer Offline Marketing Offers

Direct Mail vs. Social Media Marketing & Email

 

Laptops, hotdogs and cannon balls – A board story

Aug 262011
 

August 20, 2011

11am – Board members arrive at the home of John and Debbie Holland in Ringgold, GA, a two hour drive from the heart of Atlanta. One by one, they walked in the house, located the bathrooms, got settled at the meeting table and plugged in various devices for communication and note taking. Why did they drive all this way…for a meeting?!

The WHY…

Powering Up for THE MEETING!

The reason we all committed to traveling 2 hours outside of Atlanta was so we could journey through unfamiliar space together. C4 Atlanta has only been in existence for a little over a year. It took us several months to build a board. We focused a lot on tasks and organization in year one. Last Saturday was about building solidarity, celebrating successes and embracing challenges ahead. C4 Atlanta board members talked about WHY we serve. As we talked one by one about the mission of C4 Atlanta through our own lenses, it was really awesome to hear a unifying theme: community. C4 Atlanta board members want a better Atlanta.

Their desire stems from wanting a place for families, businesses, better schools, and the desire to create a safe and encouraging space for artists. We want artists to thrive in Atlanta. Side note: some of the members of our board are a part of the arts community to some extent or another. Several come from outside of the arts, but recognize the tremendous value of what the arts brings to our city.

We are the champions, my friend!

As staff, we forget sometimes that our board members lead lives outside of our company. I mean…I guess that’s okay, right?

We can’t expect board members to know every little detail about everything we do on a day-to-day basis. In fact, that would be counterproductive. I once attended a board meeting (not C4 Atlanta) where we spent over an hour talking about an email template. During that discussion, staff could’ve been actually working on the template. Wast-O-time.

Photo of Board member writing on legal pad

Low tech note taking

So, we get that micro-managing is bad. I got some advice from one of our donors (who knows board service). She suggested that we ask board members to champion one program. Ask that they become intimate with it. Speak about it passionately. Some of our board members like technology. Others totally get why many artists (and most entrepreneurs) need help with business planning. I like this approach. This takes the pressure off of board members to become regurgitation machines that spew out a static list of services & products to potential donors or other supporters. It helps our board members make a personal connection to C4 Atlanta that resonates with people outside of the organization.

Commune over food

1pm – It is important to break bread with friends and colleagues.  It is important to eat. Food. I honestly believe that the world changes one meal at a time.

A picture of our meal for the day
Food is good. During lunch,  friends from Chattanooga, Enoch and Hannah Elwell (they are newlyweds, Awww) joined us. Enoch is with The Company Lab (Co.lab) in Chattanooga. Co.lab acquired the Springboard program– spun out of the Create Here initiative. Springboard is a program to help entrepreneurs take an idea to business. We met Enoch a few months back when the C4 Atlanta team visited arts groups in Chattanooga. Enoch and I have been sharing ideas on entrepreneurship. I hope to continue picking his brain as our program matures. Enoch and Hannah are very sweet people. I really believe the younger generation of workers are adept to collaboration. They get it. Atlanta has a lot to learn form our neighboring cities, but we also have a lot to offer.

After lunch we talked about fundraising, a very audacious goal for C4 Atlanta (more to come), and how board membership can help us reach our personal goals and visions. My husband, Spencer Holland, led a brief session on visioning. Spencer is a leader in his own company and a great guy. Really. He cooked all of our food for the Board meeting. He also asked us to think about our own impact within the community. Impact that lasts well after our tenure with C4 Atlanta is over. Well after we leave this earth.

It was a very successful board retreat. The most important principle to remember in these types of meetings is to trust the process. When we talk about vision and personal goals, we become vulnerable; however,  it is important to be vulnerable from time to time to become a strong leader. I wanted to write about this retreat because it isn’t always easy keeping perspective on the long-term. Challenges arise. Starting a new business, nonprofit or otherwise, is tough. But I know that I have a team supporting me. You have a team supporting you. C4 Atlanta cares about the future of our city.

5pm – It wouldn’t be a C4 Atlanta meeting without some type of explosive energy.

Board Member Does a Cannonball into a Pool

Cannonball!!

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