BOMH to host ZOOM Workshops

During these times of Shelter-In-Place, the board members of the Best of Missouri Hands are working hard to bring our members together. We are working on setting up a series of online workshops and talks. Our goal is to stay connected with you, our art family….to educate, share information, inspire, and keep those creative juices flowing.

We know this time of isolation has its challenges, we want you to know we are here to listen, encourage, and celebrate our members because you are the heart and soul of this organization. As a statewide art organization we are jumping on the ZOOM bandwagon and going virtual. While we have some experience with Zoom for board meetings, hosting a workshop through Zoom will be something new for us. While we have confidence that we will make this work, your kindness and patience will be much appreciated as we jump into the world of virtual workshops.

As you may know, we postponed our bi-annual ArtSmart conference which was to take place this month. We moved it to July of this year….However with all the uncertainty of our current situation with Covid-9, it was agreed that in the interest of everyone, we would cancel the conference for this year. As sad as we are to do this, we have some excellent news. One, our guest speaker Carolyn Edlund of Artsy Shark has agreed to join us next year for ArtSmart 2021! So, we will all still have the opportunity to hear her speak in person and learn from her vast wealth of knowledge.

The second part of good news, despite cancelling the conference this year, we will still have Carolyn to share bits of wisdom with us this year…only it will be virtually. Right now we have two exciting online ZOOM workshops set up with Carolyn. The first date will be May 12th at 3:00 pm and the second will be May 26th at 3:00 pm. The first section of the workshop will be prerecorded by Carolyn specifically tailored to our membership. At the end of each session will be a live Question and Answer segment with Carolyn. Below are the workshops Carolyn will be presenting.

SELLING ART ONLINE – This presentation focuses on ecommerce options for artists and how to use them. Options for third-party sites and their differing business models, benefits, costs, pros and cons. Best practices for individual artist websites including hosting platforms, site structure, functionality, visual and written content with accompanying checklist to be downloaded. Attendees will be able to understand the variety of choices they have and what fits them best, as well as gaining a clear overview of selling through their own artist website successfully.

MARKETING ART ONLINE – This presentation will cover online marketing for artists, ranging from social media posts and advertising, to email marketing, search traffic, and gaining backlinks from press and other sites. Materials will address messaging, creating incentives, structuring offers, and growing a subscriber base, as well as direct social media platform sales. Downloadable marketing checklist will be provided to all attendees.

We are very excited to bring these workshops to our membership, but that’s not it….we will be offering a ZOOM workshop every other week starting next week, Wednesday April 29, 2020. Our first ZOOM Workshop will be more of a round table type discussion as we figure out how to properly work a ZOOM Workshop, we want your feedback as to suggestions for other workshops? How are we doing at the BOMH? What things would you like to see more of? Do you have questions about jurying into the BOMH? How to upload info and images to your BOMH page? Bring your questions and we will do our best to answer them or point you in the direction of someone who can. This is simply a discussion with no real subject matter in mind other than finding out what is on YOUR mind.

Just so you know, we have more workshops on the planning board including a segment on Infrared Photography, Instagram, How Do They Do That? Building a Sustainable Art Practice, How to turn your art into note cards, and more. We are open to suggestions, so please email us at admin@bestofmissourihands.org or connect with us on our Member Only Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/678962638874863/

While we miss getting out and mingling, we hope this will be a fun learning opportunity which will allow us to stay connected. In the meantime, stay healthy and make more art!

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