Where creative people come to connect & learn

March 1 & 2, 2024
At Reiman Gardens, Ames, Iowa
1407 University Blvd., Ames, IA

Connect. Learn. Share. Inspire.

About the Conference

The arts and other creative endeavors permeate the fabric of our lives. The arts have been shown to promote physical and mental health, learning, healing — and even to help give meaning to our lives.+ Arts and culture help drive Iowa’s economy, employing over 25,000 people and contributing $4 billion to the state’s economy.* Yet, artists can find it difficult to sustain their practices.

The Octagon Center for the Arts and the Ames Community Arts Council are partnering to present the sixth annual Business of Art Conference on March 1 & 2, 2024. We are dedicated to helping artists grow and succeed — and to supporting the impact of art in the world.

This conference is designed to strengthen skills and resources in both formally trained and self-taught creatives. Topics such as: developing a brand; finding a market through an online presence, festivals, galleries, consignment, and/or retail/wholesale sales; searching for funding; and self-care will be considered. In addition to professional development sessions, the conference will include networking opportunities throughout the day, giving participants the chance to talk one-on-one with the speakers, other professionals, and each other. Professionals and students in all types of creative work, part time or full time, in all stages of their career are welcome.

Last year’s conference drew about nearly 140 professional creatives and students from around the region for a day-and-a-half of information sharing and networking. Participants had high praise for the event: “You nailed it!”

*Americans for the Arts Fact Sheets +Americans for the Arts, Creative Industries, Iowa report, 2017; U.S.Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2016.

Introducing Our 2024 Keynote Speaker

Jill Wells

Iowa-based artist, advocate and mentor, Jill Wells (she/her) has firmly situated herself within art and advocacy work. A 2005 graduate of Drake University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, she is well known for her dynamic, colorful, and tactile multimedia works investigating race, history, stereotypes, accessibility, and human experiences. By exploring the powerful alignment between arts integration and Universal Design, Wells’ work seeks solutions for innovative pathways into accessible art.

From 2012–15 Wells served as a Substance Use Activities Specialist. In 2015, Wells was certified as a Certified Alcohol and Substance Use Counselor for the state of Iowa. In 2020, she founded Artists X Advocacy Mentorship Program (AXA). In 2021, Wells was the recipient of the Iowa Arts & Culture Resilience Grant. Additionally, in 2021, Wells was a TEDx speaker on The Power of Public Art. In 2022 Wells became the first Harkin Institute Artist Fellow and was the lecturing artist for Al-Quds Bard College for Arts and Sciences in East Jerusalem for The Resistance Course on “The Disability Art, Revolution, and Advocacy in the USA.” In 2023 she represented the United States at Zero Project 23, speaking at The United Nations in Vienna on accessible street art. Her work is represented in the permanent collections of the Havelocks, Dublin; the Center of Afrofuturist Studies at Public Space One in Iowa City; as well as the Evelyn K. Davis Center for Working Families and Disability Rights Iowa.

In her practice, Wells engages with individuals of all abilities, through various interdisciplinary art workshops and talks to create new modes of working through the arts, that is truly inclusive and representational. Jill Wells has created public art, exhibitions, and cultural programs for the last 20 years. She is currently a Harkin Institute Fellow, who is the first artist chosen to be a fellow in the organization’s history. Wells will be conducting research and programming focused on accessibility in art, breaking from the mold of what fellows have done in the past and leading discourse about accessibility from a new perspective.

Jill Says,
“My art practice has always been the pathway that allows me to live life without regret by doing something about the problems that trouble me. My work explores intersectional social issues of racism, unequal opportunity, disability discrimination, and inaccessible design, and seeks solutions in and through art. In creating, I can experience clarity and access the past and the present to increase the quality of life for others, leading to better social integration for others and myself now and into the future. I make paintings, murals, immersive/interactive installations incorporating sound and light, and tactile/touch-based art, to prompt dialogue around diversity, accessibility, and unity. I choose to make art that is itself more accessible to marginalized audiences by its physical composition; its placement in skywalk systems, public schools, and on city buildings; and by narratives of inclusivity and collaboration. My artistic representations of marginalized cultures, populations, and communities are, within themselves, acts of resistance against systems of oppression. Through my practice as an artist, advocate, and mentor, I aspire to dismantle these systems by elevating the power of accessibility through art and exhibiting the social changes that occur as a result.”

Follow Jill on Instagram: @jillwellsart

Questions?

Funding for the Business of Art Conference has been provided by the Discover Ames Community Grant Program, Brackets Custom Window Coverings, the Ames Chamber of Commerce, the Ames Writers Collective, the City of Ames Commission on the Arts (COTA) and 10Fold Architecture.