Two weeks ago I had the amazing opportunity to work with the Interdisciplinary Arts faculty members Mel Potter and Bryan Saner as they put the curriculum together for the Chicago Artists Coalition’s Launch Residency.

The Launch Residency was designed for recent graduates of BFA programs who are preparing to start their professional careers in the arts. Twenty four students were selected from eight of Chicago’s best art schools. These students where invited to participate in a three day residency that focused on professional development and community building.

Working with Bryan and Mel were Tempestt Hazel–the professional development manager at the Chicago Artist Coalition (CAC), as well as the co-founder of Sixty Inches from Center–and Claire Demos–a chicago based photographer and professional development intern at CAC.

 One of the highlights of this experience for me was meeting all the amazing artists that Tempestt, Bryan, and Mel brought in, including:

• Alberto Aguilar, professor at Harold Washington College
• Liz Born of Spudnik Press
• Anna Cerniglia, founder of Johalla Projects
• Jessica Cochran, Curator for the Center for Book & Paper Arts at Columbia College
• Natalia Ferreyra, Director of The Mission Projects
• Allison Glenn, Curator for the Washington Park Arts Incubator
• Allison Grant, Curator for the Museum of Contemporary Photography
• Regin Igloria, founder of the North Branch Projects
• Jorge Lucero, professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• Faheem Majeed, Director of Undergraduate studies in Art and Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago
• Mike Nourse, Director of Education at the Hyde Park Art Center
• John Preus, artist and founder of Dilettante Studios
• John Sission, Assistant Director of Career Services at the School of the Art institute of Chicago
• Gibran Villalobos, Project Coordinator for the Architecture and Design Society at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
• Julie Rodrigues Widholm, Associate Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art

There were so many great speakers in such a short period of time.  It was amazing. Some examples of different lectures topics were: how to talk about your work, how to present yourself and your work professionally, goal setting, and resource mapping.

Being able to participate in the Launch Residency was a tremendous privilege for me for a number of reasons, most important of which was having the opportunity to spend more time with amazing artists like Mel, Bryan, Tempestt and Claire.