A series of free workshops starts this month to help Mahoning Valley artists get their work seen and sold.

The Art Is Work series is created by LOOP Youngstown, which is working to create a community arts and cultural center in the area, and funded through a $5,000 grant from the Ohio Arts Council and a matching grant from the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley.

Karen Schubert, director of Lit Youngstown and a member of LOOP Youngstown’s board of directors, said the idea for the series came after she attended an OAC conference for arts administrators and learned about some of the funding opportunities available from the state organization.

“We’ve been writing grant proposals for Lit Youngstown for years, but I didn’t fully appreciate the breadth of those opportunities,” she said. “When I came back, I thought that a capacity-building grant might be just the ticket for helping LOOP get started with some professional development for artists.”

When LOOP first announced its plans in 2023, it created a community arts survey that attracted more than 100 responses, and organizers used that feedback in deciding what kinds of workshops to offer.

Schubert said the question,”What do the artists in this community need from the community in order to thrive as artists?” guided the topics chosen.

The five workshops will focus on how to enter art shows, building an artist website, writing artist grants, accounting for artists and behind the scenes of art exhibitions.

Schubert said the name of the series, Art Is Work, was taken from something that Angela Meleca, former director of Creative Ohio, used to say.

“She said in Ohio there’s this perception that art is a luxury, it’s for rich people,” Schubert said. “It’s our job as arts administrators to reframe that understanding, because art is work. There are so many jobs, so many Ohioans who are employed in the arts as individual entrepreneurs and all the way up.”

David Wheeler, who is the manager at Art on Park in downtown Warren and who creates art as Dovey Wuvey, will lead the first two sessions of the workshop focused on how to enter art shows. He curates Art on Park’s non-juried group shows and has curated exhibitions at several other area sites, and his sessions will focus on some of the common mistakes artists make, such as not wiring their art properly for hanging.

His first advice for artists is to become art show patrons.

“Artists are often emailing me, saying I’d like to be in a show, but they’ve never come to a show,” Wheeler said. “They don’t know what Art on Park looks like. They don’t really know if they really want to be in Art on Park, because they don’t really know what it is. It’s important to know a little bit about a place before you go asking to be there.”

Artist, curator and exhibit designer Robyn Maas will lead the three-day workshop on behind the scenes of art exhibitions, and she will guide participants through the steps involved as she installs the exhibition “Arcs, Angles & Sound: Tony Armeni Sculpture + students, peers and community,’ which will open in May at Trumbull Art Gallery in Warren.

“Primarily my background is exhibition design, and I’ve helped a lot of people through my experiences to help figure out the best design for their installations,” Maas said “I thought it would be a good chance to kind of look at things from behind the scenes.”

Since LOOP doesn’t have its own site yet, Schubert said they drew upon existing resources for these workshops.

“Oak Hill Collaborative (in Youngstown) is the site of the workshop on how to build an artist website, and they’re already doing phenomenal work to close the digital divide or to enhance people’s experience and understanding of how to use technology,” Schubert said. “(Youngstown State University Professor of Art) Dragana Crnjak, who will be facilitating the workshop on how to apply for artist grants, this is also part of a class that she teaches at YSU. It will take place at YSU and with our partnership with Dragana, anyone from the public will be able to attend.”

Artists can apply for only one workshop or up to all five. There is no charge, but advance registration is required online at loopyoungstown.org.

Having workshops in both Mahoning and Trumbull counties was designed to broaden LOOP Youngstown’s reach.

“I really want to position LOOP as a regional organization,” Schubert said. “We want more people to see this as a whole valley, so we’re thrilled with our partnership with TAG, and I think Art on Park is doing some incredibly exciting and innovative work.”

Workshops available

LOOP Youngstown will offer five workshops, funded by the Ohio Arts Council and a matching grant from the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley, in its “Art Is Work” series.

• How to Build an Artist Website — Meets at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday and Feb. 11, March 4 and 25 and April 15 at Oak Hill Collaborative, 507 Oak Hill Ave., Youngstown.

• How to Enter Art Shows — Meets at 6 p.m. Jan. 27 and Feb. 10 at Art on Park, 180 N. Park Ave., Warren, and on March 10 at a time to be determined at the Butler Institute of American Art, 524 Wick Ave, Youngstown.

• Writing Artists Grants — Meets at 4 p.m. Feb. 28, March 28 and April 25 at McDonough Museum of Art, 525 Wick Ave., Youngstown.

• Behind the Scenes of Art Exhibitions — Meets at 6 p.m. April 28, 29 and 30 at Trumbull Art Gallery, 158 N. Park Ave., Warren.

• Accounting for Artists — Details to be announced

All of the workshops are free, but advance registration is required at loopyoungstown.org.