career development artist seminar | July 21—23 2023

a Partnership between Visible Records, Rasquache Residency, UNDOC+Collective, and CuratorLove

As part of our summer programming with Rasquache and UNDOC+ Collective, Visible Records is hosting Los Angeles based curator Erika Hirugami for an intensive seminar, covering everything you need to know to succeed in the contemporary arts landscape--locally, nationally, and internationally. Erika has curated over 70+ exhibitions for museums and galleries, served as director for commercial galleries and written extensively about contemporary art. She is currently the CEO of CuratorLove and Professor of Art Business at Claremont Graduate University. Don't miss this amazing opportunity to learn where your work fits into the contemporary art landscape, and most importantly how to get it there.  

In this three day seminar, you'll learn how to refine your artist statement, online presence, and portfolio to highlight your specific strengths, how to reach wider audiences, and how to organize your inventory and legal documents to make selling your work easy and lucrative. 

Erika will teach you how to find and apply for grants to support your practice, describe alternative revenue streams for artists, and help you find your market value. Learn how to approach commissions, trades, and loans. Learn how to evaluate your own practice and network strategically to find gallery representation that's right for you.

The seminar will conclude on Sunday with a conversation about self-care, capitalism, and how to ensure your artistic practice is sustainable and supportive. 


Participants will have the opportunity to consult 1 on 1 with Erika to receive specific feedback and guidance. Space is limited, so please book your 1 on 1 session in advance.  

 

three days of mentorship and community

The seminar consists of two sessions per day, with one-on-one consultations between sessions. Afternoon meals will be provided. 

Friday

Writing & Legal

Improve your artist statement, protect yourself with legal documents, and organize an inventory of your work.

  • Artist statements & CVs

  • Documenting your work

  • Managing inventory

  • Portfolios, decks, deliverables, and beyond

  • Resell contracts and sales agreements

Saturday

Funding & Market Value

Determine your market value, learn how to price your work, and learn about grants you’re eligible for right now.

  • Finding and applying for grants

  • How to land residencies

  • Soft income revenue streams

  • Pricing your work

  • Trading, commissions, loans, etc.

Sunday

Strategic Networking & Contemporary Art Ecosystem

Refine your online presence to reach a wider audience, and build confidence to expand your network, approach galleries, and gain representation.

  • Research from “hello” to exhibition 

  • Capitalism and its relation to “good enough”

  • Centering self-care in your artistic practice. 

Led by erika hirugami, Founder and CEO of CuratorLove

Erika Hirugami is a first-generation transnational Mexican-Japanese immigrant, formerly undocumented.

Hirugami is the founder and CEO of CuratorLove, Co-founder of the UNDOC+Collective, the ED at AHSC, a Professor at CBMArts and SMC, Arts for LA Fellow, NALAC NLI Fellow, and CCI Catalyst. As a Getty and Kress Foundation Fellow, she has developed curatorial statements at museums across Mexico and the United States. After being a Public Art Curator for the Department of Cultural Affairs in the City of Los Angeles, Hirugami became the Curatorial Director for the Ronald McDonald House Charities while leading various commercial galleries. She has curated over seventy exhibitions for galleries and museums across the globe and written over a dozen books.

She holds an MA in Art Business from the Sotheby’s Institute of Art, in conjunction with the Drucker School of Management and Getty Leadership Institute at Claremont Graduate University. Her most recent MA from Chicanx Studies at UCLA is entitled “ Political Art Action: The Aesthetics of Undocumentedness.”  Hirugami also holds BAs in the fields of Art History, Chicano Studies, and Mexican Studies from UCLA, currently a lecturer and doctoral candidate at UCLA, where she epistemologically braids the aesthetics of undocumentedness to challenge immigration policy and politics.