The Artist Survival School is a sliding-scale community workshop and resource project designed to help emerging artists — especially Black, trans, queer, disabled, and working class artists — learn practical tools for sustaining their creative practice.

As an artist and community organizer, I’ve spent over 20 years learning how to navigate grants, residencies, fellowships, artist statements, project budgets, and creative opportunities, often through trial and error and community knowledge-sharing rather than formal institutional access. This project is about redistributing that knowledge in an accessible, welcoming, and grounded way.

The project will include:

a hybrid in-person/virtual workshop in Portland & the broader accessibility
a collaboratively created mini-zine/resource guide participants can take home and share with others

Topics will include:

finding grants and residencies
writing artist statements and bios
creating project budgets
documenting work
sustaining creative practice while surviving capitalism
building community-centered artistic careers

The workshop will prioritize conversation, transparency, and collective learning rather than gatekeeping or competition. Participants will also have space to ask questions, workshop ideas, and share resources with one another.

The zine will include practical tools, prompts, funding resources, application tips, and reflections gathered during the workshops. Copies will be distributed to participants and shared digitally online.

Portland has an incredible creative community, but many artists — especially marginalized artists — are locked out of information that could help sustain their work. The Artist Survival School is about making that knowledge more accessible, communal, and less intimidating.