WORKSHOP PROGRAM PARTNERS:

With thanks to Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts and the Margaret E. Burnham Charitable Trust for financial support for these sessions.

Get Ready with CERF+: How to Protect Your Career from Emergencies

Workshop fee: $0, no MCA membership required – join us for this remote workshop from wherever you live!

Workshop Format: This workshop will be held in two parts from 3:00-4:30. Attending both workshops will provide more complete emergency readiness – but not required to register. Topics will cover assessing and addressing risk to your studio and business and making a plan to mitigate risk.

Dates + Overview:

Week 1: Wednesday, January 27, 2021 3:00-4:30pm

Week 2: Wednesday February 3, 2021 3:00-4:30pm

Workshop description:
Can your artistic practice and livelihood withstand and survive a career-threatening emergency? What can you do to be more ready and resilient as an artist? In this workshop, Carrie Cleveland, Education and Outreach Manager at CERF+ will share information and resources so you can better prepared for, respond to, and recover from crises both big and small. Learn about the non-profit organization CERF+, conducting a risk assessment, studio safety, disaster and emergency preparedness, documentation and safe storage, business insurance and key actions to take to protect your career.

Carrie Cleveland, Workshop Leader:
Since 2008, Carrie Cleveland has participated in all aspects of CERF+’s work to help artists have resilient careers, from counseling artists seeking assistance to spearheading fundraising appeals to teaching emergency preparedness workshops across the United States and territories. She holds a bachelor’s degree in history, with extensive work in the visual arts, from Marlboro College and prior to her time at CERF+ she spent several years living in New York City where she was an entomologist’s assistant by day and a tenor saxophone player by night. In addition to her work at CERF+, Carrie is a student of Facilitated Communication, an alternative communication method to support people with disabilities; and she is also a beginning metalsmith.

About CERF+:
CERF+ — the Artists Safety Net, a national non-profit based in Montpelier, Vermont now in its 35th year, has become a “go-to” service organization both for emergency assistance (for personal or natural disasters) and for information and resources about sustaining a creative career through its ups and downs. Our financial and educational program services have expanded to meet the ever-evolving needs of professional artists at all phases of their careers. CERF+ began as the Craft Emergency Relief Fund, a modest, grass roots mutual aid organization and has grown into CERF+, now providing emergency grants of $3,000, brokered assistance from suppliers and manufacturers and other businesses to artists working in craft disciplines. CERF+ also provides a strong complement of information resources and educational training opportunities to help all artists prevent or mitigate loss and safeguard careers.

Learn more about CERF: https://cerfplus.org/