MARN

MARN logo
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Mission:

The Milwaukee Artist Resource Network (MARN) is a non-profit, Milwaukee-based organization that contributes to a thriving arts community by responding to the range of arts-related talent in the Southeastern Wisconsin region. By offering professional tools and resources for sustainable market cultivation, we support local talent in identifying their level of development and we encourage innovative production.

Vision:

  • Create conditions for market development in the arts, from traditional to experimental, and generate visibility of and activity within our network.
  • Model organizational behavior that focuses on production of a network for cultural and economic purposes
    Support our membership in developing skills and confidence to navigate a variety of market scales including regional, national and international arenas.
  • Emphasize the value of local production and encourage pride in our region as a nurturing and inspiring arts community.
  • Craft a range of programs and resources in response to self-organized groups within our membership that encourages the network to grow in concise and strong ways.
  • Offer clear and rhythmic communication about activities and opportunities to our network of arts-related workers and institutions in the region, as well as to interested arts supporters both local and visiting.
  • Serve as a communication hub for our network as an expanding, committed labor force that advocates for the capacity of the arts to influence regional culture.

Some of our current programs:

MARNmentors
pairs an established and emerging artist in a 9-12 month long mentorship. Within these exchanges, mentors help mentees develop project goals and overcome personal barriers that the mentee may identify. The hope is to empower and give accountability to the partnership so that 1) the mentor feels free to give aesthetic, moral and concrete support based on their experience; and 2) the mentee is able to hold themselves accountable to their own goals.

MARNsalons
is a professional development program for artists, curators, critics and cultural workers in related disciplines. MARN brings national and international curators and critics to Milwaukee for a series of in-depth engagements with members of the local arts community. Visitors provide a critical purview focused on contemporary art and curatorial experimentation for public consideration. This purview guides a roundtable discussion, juried critiques, site visits. The visitor’s experience is highly crafted, offering them insight on the bounty of the Milwaukee arts community, and is meant to stimulate increasing visibility of Milwaukee-based artists on a national and international scale.

MARNwriters
MARNwriters is a monthly workshop series tailored to meet the needs of participants. While it will occasionally feature traditional sharing and feedback, the workshops will focus on developing participants’ writing muscles through engaging exercises, sharing resources and a calendar of writing-related events, opportunities for publishing and/or performing writing, and, most of all, a safe and supportive space to write. MARNwriters participants co-create our activities, and a special guest author at the end of each year is the highlight of our time together.

Instagram Takeover/Studio Visit
Instagram Takeover – artists get access to our Instagram account for a day or two to post about their work, studio, a day in the life sort of thing. They promote it on their Instagram account prior to the takeover and so does MARN so we get cross-marketing exposure.
Studio Visit we go to artists and visit them where they work, take photos, chat about their art and take notes. Later we post about the visit and show the captioned photos. Again we promote it on social media so we get cross-marketing exposure.

Gallery Night/Day
Four times a year we ask for members to apply to be the member exhibitor at our office during the Third Ward Gallery Night/Day events. Each artist keeps their art on exhibit for several months after the opening Gallery Night/Day weekend.

To see more about the Milwaukee Artist Resource Network (MARN) please visit us at
www.artsinmilwaukee.org

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