The Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville is excited to announce its Periscope: Artist Entrepreneur Training Class of 2017. Comprised of promising artists of varying disciplines, Periscope is a dynamic, year round professional development opportunity that helps accomplished artists take their careers to the next level of sustainability and growth by looking at their artistic practice through an entrepreneurial lens.
The class is chosen through a competitive process. Applicants were scored by panels of high-level community reviewers including leading curators and critics in Nashville’s arts scene, representatives from program partners such as the Metro Nashville Arts Commission and Mayor’s Office of Economic Development, and the winners of the 2016 Periscope Pitch, Megan Lightell (painter), Amélie Guthrie (sculptor) and M. Simone Boyd (author).
This year, the Arts & Business Council focused on increasing the diversity of the applicant pool for the program with the help of a Creative Communities Initiative grant from Launch Tennessee. The grant was used to develop a grassroots outreach campaign that was coordinated by poet and artrepreneur, Stephanie Pruitt.
“We couldn’t be happier with the diversity and talent of this upcoming class,” said Casey Summar, executive director of the Arts & Business Council. “Periscope is built on the same ‘secret sauce’ that makes Nashville so great: collaboration among unlikely partners and cross-sector relationships that really bloom when the cohort is as diverse as the city it represents.”
The 2017 Periscope class is: Alysha Malo (multi-disciplinary), Andrés Bustamante (visual art), Brian Somerville (visual art), Chip Boles (visual art), Colleen Phelps (music), Danielle Duer (visual art), Donna Woodley (visual art), Jama Mohamed (multi-disciplinary), James Adams (metal sculptor), Jordan Holland (music), Julia Whitney Brown (multi-disciplinary), Kat Jones (music), Kristin McCalley (drama/theatre), Rebekah Alexander (performance art), Richard Barrow (photography), Ryan Rowland (multi-disciplinary), Saran Thompson (music), Susan Prado (visual art), Tony Sobota (visual art), and Tony Perrin (jewelry).
Periscope is a partnership with the Nashville Entrepreneur Center (training and host partner), Metro Nashville Arts Commission (artist mentorship partner), Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce (promotional partner), and the Mayor’s Office of Economic & Community Development and Southwest Airlines (opportunity partners).
The class starts on June 1 and continues through July 6, meeting once weekly. Following the training portion, artists are matched one-on-one with mentors to help them prepare for the Periscope Pitch on Sept. 6 and further develop their business strategies.
Please join us in congratulating these outstanding artists!