Happy Birthday ETA! There is lots of good news signs coming our way; which makes this even more of a special day.
4 years ago on November 1st, 2006 I began ETA’s mission to create a platform for artists to learn the value of becoming an arts entrepreneur. My goal was, and still is, to create a deep resource for artists to begin to learn how to think out of their art box to grow and embrace entrepreneurship as part of their necessary development. ETA began as a single blog entry 4 years ago today.
In 2006-2007, our first blogging year, we had less than 50 readers a month. As of 11/1/2010 we now have a thriving Resource Center with over 5000 articles, books, granting organizations, coaches, workshops and free resources devoted to arts entrepreneurship. The ETA Resource Center is used by over 12,000 monthly.
My goal remains to create the largest resource center in the world devoted to arts entrepreneurship.
And, it is thanks to the volume (already) of our reach in cyberspace that we were discovered by The Aspen Institute and offered an opportunity to launch our school, The IAE, in Chicago and North Africa. After all, arts entrepreneurship, is not (yet) a recognized easily-searchable- educational-track and as a result not easy to uncover the many fragmented resources in traditional database searches. This currently makes it a real challenge to not only find resources for arts entrepreneurship but attract an audience. My goal was to create as many ways as possible to find us through keyword searches as a result– and, slowly but surely, it is paying off.
I just received, in fact, today, my first official invitation from The State Department to speak in Algeria, in early December, at a kick off meeting for the project with The Aspen Institute. What a wonderful birthday it is indeed for ETA as well as a big step forward for increasing awareness and opportunities for many emerging arts entrepreneurs to come. Now that is a wish to grow on…
