As part of 24 Hours of Art and Umbrella Week, Pyragraph is hosting two panel discussions on September 19 from 10am to 2pm: one aimed at helping working creatives navigate their careers, projects and collaborations more effectively; the other focused on developing approaches to growing Albuquerque’s creative economy. Both are free to registered attendees, so reserve your seat now!

SESSION 1: Indie Self-Promotion 101

How to promote yourself and your work without feeling creepy or annoying
Panel Discussion and Q&A
10am to 11:30am

Panelists share their struggles, triumphs and strategies for promoting themselves, their work, their shows and projects, both online and off. From hiring others to help to DIY approaches, this discussion and Q&A session will give you ideas and insights into non-creepy self-promotion that works. Topics to include:

• Social media (Facebook, Twitter, others)
• Blogging and/or maintaining a website
• Traditional media and press releases
• Planning effective events

Panelists will include: Jami Porter Lara, Barney Lopez (Blackout Theatre), Jessamyn Lovell (Dear Erin Hart), James Swagerty and Ryan Turri (Abe Makes a Movie). Moderated by Pyragraph Publisher Peri Pakroo. (More on the panelists below.)

– BREAK AND SNACKS –

SESSION 2: Growing ABQ’s Creative Economy

Panel Discussion and Working Group

12:30pm to 2pm

Albuquerque has a deep well of creatives—but its creative economy often seems not robust enough to keep good numbers of creatives employed regularly or compensated well. How can we change this and grow Albuquerque’s creative industries into a healthy, profitable economic sector with a high demand for well-paid creative work? This is our working topic.

Panelists will discuss and engage with the audience on issues such as:

• What are creative industries in other cities like? What kinds of firms/businesses contribute most to a healthy economy? What economic development approaches work, and which don’t? What can ABQ learn from other success stories?
• What can cities do to better support individual artists?
• What city-based funding sources of are available to artists? How can the information flow be improved between such sources/opportunities and the arts community(ies)?
• How can our city support start-ups and target economic development resources towards businesses that employ and support creatives?

This workshop will include small group sessions to develop ideas and goals for initiatives aimed at boosting creative industries/businesses.

Panelists will include: Roxanne Blair (Creative Startups), Shira Greenberg (Keshet Ideas and Innovation Center), Lori Patton (Design 5sixty4 and AIGA NM), Eric Whitmore (1 Million Cups) and Nancy Zastudil (Central Features). Moderated by Peri Pakroo. (More on the panelists below.)

Our Panelists

Roxanne Blair is the Director of Programs at Creative Startups. She works with entrepreneurs and creative professionals to grow their companies and careers in Albuquerque and beyond. She’s the host of CreativeMornings/Albuquerque, the 99U:Local Ambassador for ABQ and is trying desperately to learn piano.

Shira Greenberg is the Founder and Artistic Director of Keshet, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this season and includes the newly launched Keshet Ideas and Innovation Center, a business resource center for arts entrepreneurs.

Jami Porter Lara is a New Mexico artist whose work interrogates nature as a human construct, challenges the dichotomy between wilderness and civil society, and investigates human technology as both mythic and geologic force. She is represented by Central Features in Albuquerque and Stephanie Breitbard Fine Arts in San Francisco.

Barney Lopez is a founding member of Blackout Theatre Company and bass player for the band Red Light Cameras. He holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from the University of New Mexico.

Jessamyn Lovell is a visual artist and Lecturer working with photography, video, and surveillance as tools to document her own life experiences making connections between class and personal identity. Lovell has received international recognition for her most recent work Dear Erin Hart, for which she found, followed and photographed her identity thief, and has received other awards such as the Aperture Portfolio Prize and the CENTER Excellence in Teaching Award.

Lori Patton O’Hara is owner and graphic designer of Design5sixty4. She specializes in print design, branding and web design. Lori is passionate about design, connecting with the community, and supporting AIGA New Mexico as the Advisory Director. #bettertogether

James Swagerty, designer, illustrator and cultural creative by way of Los Angeles, has settled with his little family in the high desert of New Mexico. He is the co-owner of PRETTY FUTURE. Visual Language is life and life is visual language.

Ryan Turri is a writer and director with numerous commercials, television projects, music videos and films such as The Bigfoot Election and the soon to be released, Abe Makes A Movie.

Nancy Zastudil is a curator, writer, and administrator dedicated to making positive change through philanthropy and entrepreneurship in the arts. She is owner/director of Central Features Contemporary Art in downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Moderator Peri Pakroo is the founder, Publisher & Editor of Pyragraph. She is also the author of several books on entrepreneurship and self-employment, including The Small Business Start-Up Kit and The Women’s Small Business Start-Up Kit, which recently won the Benjamin Franklin Gold Award for Business & Career titles from the Independent Book Publishers Association.