About
We are a design research studio that develops didactic media, exhibitions, publications, and other forms of intellectual property for artists, nonprofits, and creative businesses.
Book free 15-minute consultation
Book sliding-scale hourly consultation
Staff
Wye Coday
Senior Researcher
wye@nor.la
Evan Kleekamp
Operations and Development
evan@nor.la
Client Services
Product and Publication Development for digital, print, and subscription products.
Ghostwriting for business plans, grant proposals, fundraising and emial marketing campaigns.
Business Management including lead generation, coaching and consulting, triage and austerity audits, strategic communications, web portfolio development, and competitive research.
Statement of Purpose
We pride ourselves on the quality and thoroughness of the investigations we develop for artists and creative businesses who seek to grow their enterprise and repair their relationships to money, power, labor, and personal identity.
Unlike many art professionals, we encourage artists to develop fully integrated businesses that hold no illusory distinctions between artistic expression, studio practice, commercial labor, and business administration.
This means conducting audits, interrogating financial objectives, setting measurable goals, and preparing our clients to advocate for themselves — and their businesses — with confidence while also supporting the development, production, distribution, and sale of their artwork.
In our view, this integrated approach represents a movement toward transparency and financial stability in an industry that is widely disingenuous, opaque, and exploitative.
It is also an optimistic gesture that demonstrates our commitment to advocating for artists who seek to make an independent living through their creative practices.
Statement of Method
We describe ourselves as a design research studio because we use research methodologies to define and counter the structural inequity and economic disenfranchisement that plague the arts.
Our artworks extend our research practice. To date, they have taken the form of grant proposals, photographs, sculptures, catalogue essays, legal interventions, lecture performances, and recorded conversations. We also advocate for what we described as “post-institutional” business models that allow artists to diversify their sales portfolios.
Rooted in the core of our approach is our belief that artists must reconcile their relationship to money if they want to have uninterrupted time to produce their work.
Statement of Equity
Artists with nontraditional backgrounds are encouraged to contact us for specialized consultations. We proudly work with and support neurodivergent, queer, disabled, and otherwise economically marginalized groups.
studio@nor.la
newsletter
newsletter
About
We are design research studio that develops didactic media, exhibitions, publications, and other forms of intellectual property for artists, creatives, startups, media companies, small businesses, and nonprofits.
Staff
Wye Coday
Senior Researcher
wye@nor.la
Evan Kleekamp
Operations and Development
evan@nor.la
Book free 15-minute consultation
Book sliding-scale hourly consultation
Services
THE FIRST $5,000
COMPARING NONPROFIT AND FOR-PROFIT FUNDING MODELS
+
THE FIRST $5,000 asks artists to compare the grant funding offered through nonprofit organizations with the entrepreneurial activity they can conduct by selling their work as either a product or service.
Using $5,000 to model the budgeting and application process typical of most entry-level grants, the sessions present models for making the same amount of money over the same period of time. Crucial to this exercise is a deep examination of the lack of financial transparency in the field of arts education.
As part of the seminar, participants will consider income streams available to artists seeking to supplement their earnings using their creative practice. We’ll look at examples including newsletters, online stores, client services, and educational programming.
To that end, the sessions will conclude with an exploration of creative practices that can be transformed into a branded product. Comparing services like archival documentation and photo editing to goods like functional merchandise and art objects, the session will provide means for assessing the viability of small business ventures.
Artists interested in reducing their dependency on institutional funding are encouraged to attend.
Sessions and Tickets
COMPARING NONPROFIT AND FOR-PROFIT FUNDING MODELS
+
THE FIRST $5,000 asks artists to compare the grant funding offered through nonprofit organizations with the entrepreneurial activity they can conduct by selling their work as either a product or service.
Using $5,000 to model the budgeting and application process typical of most entry-level grants, the sessions present models for making the same amount of money over the same period of time. Crucial to this exercise is a deep examination of the lack of financial transparency in the field of arts education.
As part of the seminar, participants will consider income streams available to artists seeking to supplement their earnings using their creative practice. We’ll look at examples including newsletters, online stores, client services, and educational programming.
To that end, the sessions will conclude with an exploration of creative practices that can be transformed into a branded product. Comparing services like archival documentation and photo editing to goods like functional merchandise and art objects, the session will provide means for assessing the viability of small business ventures.
Artists interested in reducing their dependency on institutional funding are encouraged to attend.
Sessions and Tickets
EVAN KLEEKAMP, BLOUSE, 2021. DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPH.