Consortium of Arts Related Entrepreneurs (CARE)
Is your cat the only one you have to talk to about work?
Has a client’s request for your "standard contract" sent you panic-searching "arts consultant contract help now please"?
Are you wondering if you’re the only one who feels like a creative genius and a total imposter at once?
If any of this sound familiar, CARE can help!
The Consortium of Arts Related Entrepreneurs (CARE) is an online community where independent arts and culture workers ditch the isolation for connection. It’s your professional nest for support, celebration, and the entrepreneurial nudges you need to fly.
Forging your own path can be exciting and rewarding.
And it can bring loneliness, self-doubt, and impostor feelings. CARE is the co-worker sounding board you deserve without having to report to an office to get one.
Members are consistently surprised to find that the challenges they thought were uniquely theirs (pricing, marketing, client relationship management) are ones the whole crew shares. They gain new collaborators, sharper skills, and clarity about where they're headed.
CARE is:
a community to share practical tips and ask questions
a structured space to keep us moving forward with encouragement and accountability
a hub of skill-building and thought-partnering
CARE is a place where people working on their own don’t have to work alone.
This is your professional nest
doors currently closed
A community for independent workers and thinkers to collaborate
“I’m really struggling with the ‘aloneness’ of running a solo business… That’s been a lot to manage but CARE has helped to alleviate some of those feelings when I’m able to talk through something or simply talk TO someone.”
Lynde Pratt, Fiercely Independent Rebel, LP Design Collaborative
Your wins are too good to celebrate alone
Imagine
You hit five years in business. Five years! You’ve made it work, despite COVID and all the see-sawing the economy can throw at you.
You want to celebrate, thank your repeat clients, maybe share publicly about what you've built. But there's no team to bring donuts, no HR manager announcing work anniversaries, and no social media coordinator to come up with a creative post.
So you note the date, feel quietly proud, and move on. The milestone passes like any other Tuesday.
What if, instead
You hit five years in business and bring it to CARE.
The virtual meeting screen fills with ❤️ and 👏🏻 and 🎉 reactions. When the cheers fade, your crew helps you come up with a nice thanks for your most loyal clients without it feeling awkward, some fun social posts to publicly share what you've accomplished without feeling braggy, and meaningful ideas to give yourself the time to take it all in.
The milestone gets the moment it deserves.
CARE is for independent workers in the world of arts and culture: artists, educators, designers, curators, writers, makers, and everyone in between.
If you work outside of an employing institution in a role you connect with arts and culture, you're welcome here. You define that for yourself. I won't be checking your membership against some mystical database.
We've had:
If you make things related to the arts, you belong here
curators
web designers
editors
creative writers
educators
facilitators
coaches
graphic designers
archivists
artists
experience designers
education reformers
zine makers
stylists
and more!
exhibition designers
strategic planners
museum evaluators
copy editors
futurists
If you saw yourself in that list, you’re in the right place!
A wonderful tool for people at a turning point in their career
“This was a great way to process my accomplishments since starting my own design practice, and to set intentions for how I want my work to grow. I struggle to extend the same care and patience to myself that I give without question to others. CARE put me in a mindset of self-discovery and appreciation for my work.”
B Milder, Art Director and Zine-Maker, B Milder Studio
Here’s what you’re getting
monthly facilitated session
1.5 hours (1x/month)
We’ll gather around a topic of common interest based on community suggestions so you get your concerns addressed.
Facilitated by me and/or guests with particular expertise.
Recorded for members who can’t join live.
private community
ongoing
A private forum to stay in touch asynchronously and access the event schedule and resources, so you have a place to share stories, seek advice, and find answers.
You never have to worry about your pricing in silence again.
twice monthly co-working sessions
1 hour (2x/month)
The Co-Working Clubhouse offers set times to work in the virtual presence of your fellow CARE members, so you have some built-in accountability with familiar faces.
Not recorded.
network directory
ongoing
As part of your CARE membership, you’re gaining access to all the other members: their collective brain trust, skills, and feedback.
Your next best collaborator might be right around the corner.
welcome gift
when you join
I love physical postal mail, so I’ll send you a little welcome gift when we get started.
What members have to say
Lasting connections for arts workers
“this is really a fabulous resource for any of you in the arts-museum-interpretation-creative fields! I met people I'm still in touch with, and got so many ideas. Entrepreneurship can be tough, as can doing anything in the arts.
Definitely check it out if you are looking for something more 'care'-ful in your professional community.”
Kristin K. Robinson, The Impact Story
A community focused on thinking and growing
“Of all the aspects of the community, the one that made me smile the most was just seeing the faces of the group as they popped up on Zoom. It was nice to be part of a community focused on thinking and growing, and not a specific project. This was a great way to meet other consultants. It inspired me to commit to consulting.
CARE is a great opportunity to get to know other consultants in a space that is open and honest. And it’s so nice to have a working community!
—Rebecca Shulman, Principal, Museum Questions Consulting
Your captain on this voyage
I’m an educator, adventurer, facilitator, experience builder, and pirate 🏴☠️ charting courses for progressive change in the seas of art and culture with a treasure chest of strategic smarts and playful innovation.
I guide curious people and their organizations to dance with uncertainty and change. I’m the catalyst to help them make creative, surprising, lasting transformations and connect people across difference. Imagine a team retreat where artwork inspires empathy for unseen struggles, or a mischief-filled, mysterious activity that sends people home thinking, ‘I never thought I could do that!’
My compass headings for these adventures are my core values: collaboration, curiosity, playfulness, and strategy. As an empathetic listener and an adaptive leader, I steer clients toward impact with clear communication, curiosity, and wonder.
Before setting sail on my own, I spent two decades navigating the art world, from my quiet campus art museum—the Davis—to busy urban ones like the Brooklyn Museum and the Guggenheim. I’ve lived and worked in multiple countries, in a couple of languages. I’ve taught grad students who opened my eyes to new realities and also four year olds who gave me unfiltered sass about Cy Twombly. I’ve sat on professional boards, introduced teens to their first fresh-baked Parisian baguettes, and mentored up down and across my field. I’m also a great storyteller. Ask me about the time I held a lost Leonardo da Vinci painting.
I view my leadership as being a node in a network, and there’s little I like more than connecting people with new resources, ideas, and business buddies.
Connecting people about work and life
“You have a wonderful skill and talent at bringing people together who don't know each other well, finding these points of connectivity in ways that are meaningful to us as individuals. Of all the aspects of the community, the one that made me smile the most was the genuine interest that each of us held for the others' work and experiences.”
Kristin Scarola, Creative Sparks Consulting
Invest in yourself… and your crew
I do my best to keep membership affordable to as many as possible. I know the financial realities that can come with non-profit and freelance life.
I encourage you to consider this an investment in yourself, a chance to make a financial commitment to fostering the supportive connections that keep us all going.
Everyone’s membership benefits are identical. I offer tiered pricing, so you can choose the level that fits your circumstances (no proof of income or financial disclosure statements required).
Pay quarterly or annually (10% discount on annual payments at Root or Mycelium levels). A percentage of all payments goes toward carbon removal.
Roots Level
$78/quarter or
$312 282/year
Roots are the foundations and support for growing, connected things.
For folks who want to build their connections and skills in the company of other members.
Mycelium Level
$102/quarter or
$408 368/year
Mycelium is the underground network of fibers between mushrooms that distributes nutrients where they’re most needed.
For folks who want to invest in themselves and also make CARE available to others in tighter circumstances.
Epiphyte Level
$60/quarter or
$240/year
Epiphytes are plants that grow symbiotically on other plants, relying on them for a physical link but obtaining their own sustaining nutrients.
For folks whose finances are stretched and/or for BIPOC folks or people whose identities have been historically marginalized.
Still have questions?
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I plan these in response to interest from the group and things going on in the worlds of our businesses.
Some past topics have been telling our professional stories, identifying transferrable skills, methods for extending our networks, talking about our work’s price and value.
Quarterly, the session offers everyone a chance to share a current challenge they’re facing and seek support.
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No problem! One of the great advantages of a virtual community is that it has room for folks from lots of different time zones. I’ll be recording the Facilitated Sessions each month for members to watch whenever they can. And the asynchronous community will be there for you any time at all.
Facilitated Sessions will be scheduled at a regular recurring time, based on members’ time zones.
For those who opt in for the Co-Working Add-On, those sessions won’t be recorded, but I’ll schedule them at different times so you can hopefully catch some of them.
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Definitely not. Feel free to participate as much and on whichever channels work best for you. This is meant to feel like opening doors for you, not shoving you through them all.
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Ask me! Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any inquiries.
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I built CARE specifically with the financial realities of freelance and non-profit life in mind. That’s why membership is tiered and why the Epiphyte level exists. Whatever level you choose, you get access to the same community, the same sessions, the same connections.
I'd also invite you to think of it this way: one good collaboration, one client referral, one contract question answered by a fellow member could save you paying a lawyer/copywriter/coach separately for that advice.
CARE is an investment in the infrastructure that keeps independent work sustainable.
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A few things about CARE that separate it from other communities:
facilitated sessions are based on topics of interest from the membership, not the leader
sessions are participatory and communal, not passive webinars
the community is small enough that you can actually get to know each other
new members join only once or twice a year, so trust and presence gets built with the same crew before new faces show up
if life gets in the way for a while, the community will still be there when you're ready to come back
A warm, fun, honest space to share
“I was surprised that many of the challenges that I experience, others do too. This was a great way to develop confidence, strategize solutions and connect with others. I met new collaborators and had the opportunity to reflect through the writing prompts—I loved the writing prompts the most! I thought it was beautifully facilitated in a way that helped us to connect with one another.
CARE is a chance to reflect within a supportive community of values-driven, independent professionals.”
Jenn DePrizio, Leadership Coach and Consultant
I built CARE because the arts and culture world is full of brilliant, dedicated people figuring things out alone when they don't have to be. I know what it's like to have big wins with no one to share them with, and hard questions with no one to ask. The connections you make here will show up in your work, your confidence, and your sense of what's possible.
Come find your crew.
doors currently closed