Artist Leadership Fellows
Forecasted
Artist Leadership Fellows supports artists through virtual professional development, mentorship, and peer learning to strengthen their practices and prepare them to facilitate programs and mentor others.
Funder: Mid-America Arts Alliance
Due Dates (Anticipated): January 2027 (Spring cohort nomination) | July 2027 (Fall cohort nomination)
Funding Amounts: Eight-week virtual professional development fellowship
Summary: Artist Leadership Fellows strengthens artists’ professional practices and prepares them to serve as facilitators and mentors in their communities.
Key Information: Artists are selected through nominations by community partner organizations.
Description
Artist Leadership Fellows is an eight-week virtual program run by Mid-America Arts Alliance (M-AAA). Through peer modeling, mentorship, and supportive small-group learning, artists strengthen their professional practices while developing skills to become future program facilitators. The program brings together artists across disciplines and perspectives, building a geographically broad peer network and a strategic framework for enduring artistic careers.
Fellows explore goal setting, financial strategy, marketing, contracts, legal business structure, time management, and self-care. They also refine résumés or CVs, artist statements, biographies, online presence, and presentations. M-AAA aims to diversify its facilitator pool across race, ethnicity, discipline, and geography, expand programming into new communities, and use fellows’ experiences to test and refine professional development content.
