WESTERN MASS. – Representatives from the Arts Extension Service at UMass Amherst and the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce, as well as others from the Western Massachusetts Creative Economy Network, have co-coordinated the “ArtsHub Virtual Summit: How to Recover and Thrive.”

The week-long series of virtual interactive workshops, training, and networking sessions, which will run from Jan. 10 to 14, is designed to provide tools to help those working in creative fields recover from the disruption created by the pandemic and learn how to position their businesses to thrive as the economy recovers. The events will include daily sessions with guest speakers at 10 a.m. and 12 and 6 p.m. each of these days.

The virtual summit was created in response to surveys, focus groups, and conversations with artists and art leaders to determine what are the greatest needs from local artists. Experts from a wide range of fields are invited to speak as guests to focus on the “how to” in their disciplines and offer advice on specific topics.

Additionally, the ArtsHub of Western Massachusetts will officially be launched during the summit as a dynamic, web-based portal that connects artists, residents, visitors, and creative businesses to promote regional commerce, networking opportunities, and collaborative business experiences. This was also created in response to conversations with artists in the area.

Lisa Davol, the marketing manager for Franklin County Chamber of Commerce as well as an ArtsHub project co-coordinator, told Reminder Publishing that the creation of a connective ArtsHub has been six or seven years in the making. After talking with artists over the years, it was clear that many creatives were looking for a centralized place that contains many of the region’s artists and organizations, resources such as grants and calls for public art, places to post opportunities such as rehearsal space for rent or studio space wanted, arts calendar, and much more. The ArtsHub will provide just that.

“Finally, it’s all coming together,” said Davol. “The summit is a part of that … it’s sort of a culmination of bringing the community back together.”

Davol and Dee Boyle-Clapp, the director of the Arts Extension Service at UMass Amherst and an ArtsHub project co-coordinator, have worked with other arts organizations on specific arts projects in the region and wrote a grant to the Massachusetts Office of Business Development to get funding for this ArtsHub and the summit. The ArtsHub project officially began earlier in April.

“It’s really geared toward addressing the needs of the arts community,” said Boyle-Clapp, when talking about the summit. “And it’s not just visual artists … it’s musicians, actors, performers, and creative workers like graphic designers and web designers. How do help these artists make a living in this changing landscape we’re in now.”

Both Davol and Boyle-Clapp agreed that artists and performers were forced to adjust during the pandemic – a time in which many of these people were crippled by the worsening health crisis and economy. Davol specifically noted the impact a hybrid formula has had on creatives, where real life and online services have conjoined as a crucial way to stay afloat.

“There’s a lot of things people learned during the pandemic that they’re going to move forward with,” said Davol. “Things they never even would’ve considered before.” Boyle-Clapp added that the summit will be the perfect opportunity for creatives to learn how to adapt to this climate.

In creating the ArtsHub and putting together an itinerary of speakers for the summit, both Davol and Boyle-Clapp, along with the committee they are a part of that helped put this all together, determined the greatest needs as emphasized by local artists and reached out to a diverse set of professionals that could assist with these needs. Community liaisons Tiana Burnett, Justin Beatty, and diversity, equity and inclusion consultant Kent Alexander have been a part of the team since the beginning to help facilitate access to the entirety of artists and creatives, according to Boyle-Clapp.

“What we wanted to do is ensure we had really good representation of folks from across the valley and the Berkshires, and also to make sure that we were much more diverse in how we were addressing [the ArtsHub],” said Boyle-Clapp. “I think we really have a good cross-section of presenters that are BIPOC folks, some people from across the region…some folks living in New York City. We have a rich group of folks to pull from.”

According to state data, one in six jobs in Western Massachusetts is directly related to the creative economy and the percentage of artists/creative businesses is higher than both the state and national averages. Davol, who was also the first RiverCulture director, said this is likely because of how well-situated the area is between New York and Boston-two major cities for performance and other art. “If you’re a performer, you can go up and down the coast pretty easily,” said Davol.

The closing session of the summit titled “Building Momentum, Building the Arts Hub,” will occur on Jan. 14 at noon. According to Boyle-Clapp, participants are invited to join committees and give feedback on phase one of the ArtsHub and share what they want to see for the future.

“This is not for us creating something,” said Boyle-Clapp. “We are actually responding to the needs of the community, and what we want people to do is join in.”

Both Davol and Boyle-Clapp are encouraging western Mass. artists to get listed on the ArtsHub website so a comprehensive list of everyone in the region can be fully formed. They are working with the New England Foundation for the Arts’ CreativeGround database to develop this online directory.

“Artists need to be found,” said Boyle-Clapp. “If you’re a performer and you’re doing really interesting work, you can’t promote yourself everywhere…nobody has enough dollars in their marketing budget. But if you are listed on this website, it’ll help to be found.”

To register for the summit and learn more about the speakers, people can visit the website listed here: https://www.umass.edu/aes/artshub. The fee is $35 for those who register before Jan. 4, 2022 and $55 thereafter. The fee provides access to all sessions and online access through January.