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
Workshops and Events
We host an assortment of seminars, workshops, and talks. Recurring offerings include:
THE BLACK PILL is a writing workshop that asks its artist-participants to take a daring look in the mirror and honestly answer why and for whom they make their work.
More information
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THE FIRST $5,000 is a seminar that compares the process of applying for entry-level grants with fundrasing the same amount through earned income.
More information
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HOW TO COMMUNICATE IN WHITE PEOPLE is a workshop that examines grantwriting as an activity charged by race, class, sex, and gender.
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Sessions and Tickets
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IS MY BODY MEANT TO BE READ? is two-week intensive where participants analyze and update their online portfolios.
More Information
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MONEY WOES is an intermittent seminar that demystifies the basic business concepts artists and creatives must know to grow and sustain their creative practices.
More Information
Sessions and Tickets
+
WE BELIEVE IN WITCHCRAFT is a workshop for artists aiming to strengthen written materials about their work.
More Information
Sessions and Tickets
We host an assortment of seminars, workshops, and talks. Recurring offerings include:
THE BLACK PILL is a writing workshop that asks its artist-participants to take a daring look in the mirror and honestly answer why and for whom they make their work.
More information
+
THE FIRST $5,000 is a seminar that compares the process of applying for entry-level grants with fundrasing the same amount through earned income.
More information
+
HOW TO COMMUNICATE IN WHITE PEOPLE is a workshop that examines grantwriting as an activity charged by race, class, sex, and gender.
More Information
Sessions and Tickets
+
IS MY BODY MEANT TO BE READ? is two-week intensive where participants analyze and update their online portfolios.
More Information
+
MONEY WOES is an intermittent seminar that demystifies the basic business concepts artists and creatives must know to grow and sustain their creative practices.
More Information
Sessions and Tickets
+
WE BELIEVE IN WITCHCRAFT is a workshop for artists aiming to strengthen written materials about their work.
More Information
Sessions and Tickets
NOR RESEARCH STUDIO. PAPERWORK FEATURING A FELIX GONZALEZ-TORRES’ UNTITLED PRINT; PENCIL DRAWINGS AND XEROX STUDIES DERIVED FROM ABBAS KIAROSTAMI’S CLOSE-UP; A LIMITED EDITION R.H. QUAYTMAN INSERT FROM OCTOBER #168; AND NOTES IN RESPONSE TO QUAYTMAN’S 2016 EXHIBITION CHAPTER 30: MORNING AT THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, LOS ANGELES, 2019. DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPH.