Event slated to celebrate 10 R.I. creative entrepreneurs

PROVIDENCE – The R.I. State Council on the Arts on Wednesday will celebrate 10 of Rhode Island’s creative entrepreneurs and RISCA’s partnership with the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Arts’ Assets for Artists program.
R.I. Secretary of Commerce Stefan Pryor also will attend the event, from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. at the Statehouse.
The 10 awardees are enrolled through RISCA in MASS MoCA’s Assets for Artists, a program designed to help them build their arts businesses through matched-savings and professional development training.
Since they enrolled in 2013, the artists have invested more than $20,000 in their creative enterprises, helping to boost the local economy through creative entrepreneurship.
The 10 artists being celebrated work in a variety of disciplines: Beth Brandon (drawing and design), Muffy Brandt (garment design), Michael Formanski (photography and video), Alexander Jacques (product design and fabrication), Gordon Moss (architecture and woodworking), Teresa Mowery (fine metalwork), Nora Rabins (installation art and sculpture), Randy Shapiro (custom metal fabrication), Dora Szekely (jewelry design) and Liz Wikstrom (illustration).
The ceremony will recognize their achievements and celebrate the economic and creative strengthening of Rhode Island through investment in arts-based businesses, according to a news release.
RISCA also will recognize its 2016 Design Innovation Grant Award recipient Greg Nemes.
Assets for Artists and RISCA are pairing together for a second round of programming in 2015, welcoming 10 new artists to participate in a matched-savings program and professional development training over the next two years.
Thanks to a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the second round of Assets for Artists programming has enrolled artists based in the following rural communities: Chepachet village in Glocester, Coventry, Exeter, Richmond, the village of Rockville in Hopkinton, the Saunderstown section of North Kingstown, Tiverton and Westerly.

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