Workshops
Guided by Anita Verna Crofts, elevate your self-representation in the world of creativity and business by learning to craft impactful artist statements and bios.
Dates:
Jun 1, 2024 - Jun 2, 2024
Levels:
Beginner,
Intermediate,
Advanced,
Workshop Fee: $350
Workshop Duration: 10 hours over two sessions (Saturday & Sunday, 11am-4pm ET)
Workshop Location: Online
Class Size: 24
Note: This workshop will be held in a live, online format utilizing the Zoom platform.
Class meets Saturday & Sunday, Jun 1-2 from 11am-4pm ET.
How we describe our work and promote ourselves as artists matters. This course is designed for a spectrum of artists—from photographers to writers, from filmmakers to book designers, who find themselves flummoxed by the task of crafting a compelling statement about their work. It could be the author bio for a dust jacket or an artist statement for your first exhibit. Perhaps you need a bio on your homepage, or you’ve been asked to submit an artist statement for a juried show.
No matter the format, this workshop will use teachings and exercises from life story writing to help students produce a finished product that is personal, succinct, meaningful, descriptive, and adaptable for various audiences. Students are encouraged to bring existing artist statements and bios to the class, though there will be time dedicated each day for crafting a new version based on class lectures and exercises. Each day will include a short lecture to frame the day, discussion prompts and exercises to help each participant tailor their statement or bio, one hour of writing/editing time, and then group feedback for further refinement.
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Instructor: Anita Verna Crofts
Anita Verna Crofts is on faculty at the Department of Communication at the University of Washington. Her memoir published by Chin Music Press, Meet Me at the Bamboo Table, showcased a combination of prose, illustration, and photography. Anita teaches about the interplay of culture, identity, and communication and is the 2023-24 Artist in Residence for the Communication Leadership graduate program, where she offers courses on long-form writing, as well as listening for user design. Her classrooms are collaborative spaces that provide substantial time for individual reflection and skill sharpening. Anita’s writings on food and identity have been published in Gastronomica, Saveur, Seattle Met, and Comestible, with a particular emphasis on the preservation of foodways in post-conflict societies as a means of preserving community identity. Her work appears in the four-volume set, Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia. Anita is a German Marshall Memorial Fellow, Thomas J. Watson Research Fellow, and serves as a judge for the James Beard Foundation book awards.