SPRINGFIELD — A new “innovative fellowship” is coming to Springfield in 2025 to provide emerging entrepreneurs in the arts and culture sector with what they need to grow and thrive.
The Springfield Cultural Partnership and Community Music School of Springfield recently announced the Trust Transfer Project Artist Development Fellowship Cohort, a program that will support burgeoning artists and entrepreneurs by offering resources, professional development and network-building to help them succeed.
According to Karen Finn, the executive director for the Springfield Cultural Partnership, developing this cohort program is important because there are times when many up-and-coming artists and entrepreneurs have limited access to the necessary resources they need to prosper.
This cohort will help fill those gaps and bring artists together to make sure they have the necessary connections.
“Art has proven over and over again that it really helps create vitality and a thriving community,” Finn told Reminder Publishing. “This [cohort] leads a call to action for our community to integrate artists into civic life.”
The Artist Development Fellowship features comprehensive programming that includes six in-person sessions between February and June, skill-building and economic development, community engagement and exploration, and the creation of personalized growth plans for each participant.
According to Finn, participating artists and entrepreneurs will also receive a stipend of $500 from 2025 Urban Agenda Grant, which will help them with anything they need while they participate in the cohort.
Finn said the stipend can cover things like childcare, transportation or time off from work so the artists and entrepreneurs can focus on the fellowship.
“Hopefully that will allow more artists to take part in this opportunity for community building and engaging and learning,” Finn said, of the stipend.
As for the six in-person sessions, the participating artists and entrepreneurs will receive “holistic support,” which Finn said can mean things like showing artists how to make their art a business, teaching financial resilience in their personal lives; or assisting cohort participants with establishing their personal brand.
The sessions will also put aside time for conversations with experts in professional development from all around Springfield. Finn said counselors, clinicians and social workers will be present at the sessions to offer one-on-one advice to the participating artists.
According to the flyer, the sessions, all of which will happen in-person at the Community School of Springfield, will also feature a health and wellness experience, an ice breaker program and other networking opportunities.
“Both of our organizations work so closely with artists,” Finn said. “We want to help artists create and fill those gaps that may exist and bring artists together to create community and their own social networks so that they can work together.”
To kick the Artist Development Fellowship off, the two organizations are asking those who want to participant in the cohort to register by Jan. 20 at tinyurl.com/3ms4hmpc. According to the Trust Transfer website, the fellowship cohort is open to emerging arts and culture entrepreneurs, independent artists and cultural workers, small creative business owners, gig workers and humanists living or working in Springfield.
Finn said that they plan on taking in the first 80 people who register.
“We certainly don’t want to turn anyone away and we don’t think that one creative is going to have more value or deserves an opportunity more than another,” Finn said of the registration process. “We’re not here to judge or rate or critique any artists…we really want to build the potential of the community.”
The Trust Transfer Project began a few years ago between the Springfield Cultural Partnership and Community Music School of Springfield and under the leadership of Program Director Vanessa Ford. The project, which became a cornerstone of social and economic recovery coming out of the pandemic, is “a community-centered initiative that empowers Springfield’s Black and Latinx artists to deliver impactful public health and cultural messaging while building bridges of trust and creativity.”
According to Finn, 2025 is the first year the two organizations are doing an Artist Development Fellowship, and the hope is that there will be more in the future.
“This fellowship is an opportunity to invest in Springfield’s gifted and resourceful creative community,” Ford said. “By equipping local artists and creative entrepreneurs with resources, networks, and skills, we are strengthening their individual practices. We’re breaking barriers of access for underutilized artists and building a more sustainable and thriving creative economy in Springfield.”
Readers can learn more about this fellowship program by visiting the program’s page on the Springfield website at https://tinyurl.com/mwkem67a.
