Creative Exchange

📣 Join us for the second annual Creative Exchange— A one-day professional development experience designed to strengthen the capacity, sustainability, and economic mobility of artists across Northeast Ohio.

✅ Light breakfast and full lunch included.

THE WORKSHOPS

•  Art Activates Change

Discover how art fuels resistance and drives social change. This dynamic session explores protest imagery, powerful slogans, and storytelling rooted in lived experience. Participants will collaborate to craft a bold, unifying message with the potential to be featured on Akron Black Artist Guild merchandise.

• “Am I a Business?”

Turn your creativity into a sustainable business. Led by a small business counselor, this practical session breaks down LLCs and sole proprietorships, budgeting for artists, tax write-offs, and studio setup options. Walk away with clarity and a simple 6-month financial action plan.

• “What Does Your Portfolio Say About You?”

Make sure your work speaks before you do. This interactive session helps artists evaluate their portfolio through a curator’s lens, strengthen their artist statement, refine their brand message, and craft a confident elevator pitch. Leave with a clear checklist to elevate your presentation and impact.

•  Rest Is Resistance

Recharge your creativity and embrace rest as a powerful act. This wellness-focused session teaches grounding techniques, helps recognize burnout, and guides artists in building sustainable creative habits and personal affirmations for resilience.

• Bringing Your Character to Life

Build characters that feel real and stories that resonate. This engaging workshop guides writers through character development, world-building, conflict creation, and authentic dialogue equipping you with practical tools to strengthen narrative consistency and bring your stories to life.

• Panel: Creative Exchange Design Showcase: “Meet the Artists!”

Step inside the creative process. Meet the Design Challenge teams as they share how they transformed blank spaces into immersive artistic experiences. Learn about collaboration, sourcing, and execution while connecting directly with artists and exploring future partnership opportunities.

Info: Light breakfast available.

Info: Kick off the day with a welcome and opening remarks, followed by conversation with Sneaker Academy Founder & Executive Director, Dominique Walters on Culture, Commerce & Creative Ownership. Where culture meets business. This high energy plenary explores how fashion, streetwear, and design shape economic ecosystems and build powerful brands. Discover how to monetize your creative identity without losing authenticity, turn everyday objects into storytelling platforms, and move from idea to product to distribution. Leave inspired to see your creativity as both cultural influence and economic power.

Info: Menu TBA

Info: Challenging artists, designers, and cultural leaders to rethink the value of creative work, not only as expression, but as a powerful force for economic empowerment, community impact, and cultural legacy.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

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Host or Publisher The Black Artist Guild