The Speakers
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Business 101 for Creatives
Kristine Merz is a RISD graduate in Graphic Design, Class of ‘92, and an entrepreneur, brand strategist, and Founder & CEO of Orange Square, a strategic consultancy that helps organizations rebrand by first understanding the business they have become and the one they are building. For more than three decades, she has used research, strategy, systems, visual thinking, and design to help leadership teams create clarity, navigate change, and build stronger, growth-oriented organizations.
Kristine’s work has earned Orange Square twelve REBRAND 100® Global Awards, and as the author of Shift, she constantly explores and implements human-centered approaches to innovation and change.
Alongside her client work, Kristine has spent nearly a decade teaching and mentoring creative entrepreneurs through DESIGNxRI’s Design Catalyst program, helping them build the business knowledge and practical tools needed to turn a creative practice into a sustainable business.
Social Media and Marketing Yourself as an Artist
November 4, 2026
Presented by Dr. Margarita Lila Rosa
Curator and Visiting Professor of Latin American and Caribbean Studies at Brown University
Dr. Margarita Lila Rosa is a Curator and Visiting Professor of Latin American and Caribbean Studies at Brown University, specializing in Afro-Latin American and Black Atlantic history and contemporary art. Rosa’s historical academic scholarship has been published in the Caribbean Quarterly, The Journal of African American History, Hyperallergic, the Museum of Modern Art Magazine, among others. She has been written about in Refinery 29, Ebony, and others.
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Taxes for Creative Businesses and Artists
Hannah Cole is a tax expert who specializes in working with self-employed people, especially creative and mission-driven ones. A long-time working artist herself, she’s helped tens of thousands of self-employed people skill up with accessible tax and money education, through her online programs, tax workshops from Florida to Alaska, and on the Sunlight Tax podcast. Her book, Taxes for Humans: Simplify Your Taxes and Change the World When You’re Self-Employed, is the most funny and empowering tax guide you’ll ever read. Hannah is the founder of Sunlight Tax.
5 Good (Legal) Habits for Working Artists
February 3, 2027
Presented by Luke Blackadar
Deputy Director
Luke manages A&BC’s Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts and Patent Pro Bono of New England programs. An entertainment attorney, Luke counsels individual artists, creative small businesses, and arts nonprofits on legal issues relating to contracts, intellectual property, legal entities, and nonprofit governance. In addition to his work at the Arts & Business Council, Luke teaches at Roger Williams University School of Law, BU Metropolitan College, and Northeastern University School of Law. He also serves on the board of directors of the Community Music School of Boston, and he’s a member of Gov. Maura Healey’s Cultural Policy Development Advisory Council. Luke is a graduate of Clark University and Northeastern University School of Law.
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Pricing Strategies for Creative Entrepreneurs
Dr. Elaine Grogan Luttrull (she/her) is the founder of Minerva Financial Arts, a
company devoted to building financial literacy and empowerment in creative
individuals through education and coaching. Her workshops and presentations
have been featured nationally by a long list of arts funders and advocates.
Elaine has experience in both academic and industry settings, and she is a collector of
letters and certifications. She holds a doctorate in instructional design leadership, plus active licenses as a Certified Public Accountant with a Personal Financial Specialist designation. She is also an Accredited Financial Counselor and completed a graduate certificate in Financial Therapy. Elaine is the author of Arts & Numbers (Agate, B2 2013), she contributes regularly to industry guides and research journals and has served on a variety of non-profit boards. She is based in Dublin, Ohio (Kaskaskia and Hopewell indigenous and
cultural lands).
Start Before You’re Ready: A Creative Freelancer’s Roadmap
Grace Rivera is a Brooklyn-based Photographer and Director, from the class of 2015, who began her career in Art Production at Wieden+Kennedy in Portland. After 2.5 years working inside one of the world’s top agencies, she took the leap into freelancing in 2018. Over the past decade, she’s built a thriving career in photography and commercial directing by learning on the job, embracing uncertainty, and carving her own path in an industry that does not hand out instructions. ​
Grace’s work is an ongoing study of beauty in its many shapes, shades, and expressions. Her images are colorful and expressive, yet grounded in sincerity, honoring individuality and the diverse ways people choose to present themselves. Whether creating intimate portraits or directing larger commercial campaigns, she fosters a space where subjects feel seen and celebrated, offering moments of recognition and grace in a world that too often feels unkind.
Her portfolio spans a wide range of clients and collaborators, from cultural icons like Kim Kardashian, Sydney Sweeney, and Jenna Ortega to major brands including Verizon, Nike, Neutrogena, Sephora, and Google.
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The Sessions
Business 101 for Creatives
October 14, 2026 @ 7pm
Whether you freelance, sell your work, take commissions, or want to start a business, understanding how your creative practice works as a business can give you greater control over your career. This session introduces the foundational thinking behind creative business, with attention to the different realities of service, product, and hybrid businesses. We’ll explore how your work creates value, who it is for, why someone might choose you, and how pricing, costs, time, and revenue shape whether the business can sustain the work.
Rather than treating creativity and business as separate practices, this session reframes business as a creative challenge: designing the system that allows your work to exist, reach people, generate income, and continue. Students and alumni will leave with a clearer framework for thinking about the business behind their creative practice and the key questions they should begin asking as they build it.
Social Media and Marketing Yourself as an Artist
November 4, 2026 @ 7pm
This webinar will train artists to design and build a trajectory from their early career to the world of galleries and museums. Dr. Rosa will discuss marketing and branding on social media, and the steps to documenting your work for the digital world. This webinar will discuss how artists can begin to see themselves as entities with a public record and brand, and how that knowledge can be liberating and not at all intimidating. Dr. Rosa is an art curator and professor at Brown with the 135K following on Instagram, who has propelled her public-facing career through accessibility and horizontal teaching and learning.
Taxes for Creative Businesses and Artists
January 27, 2027 @ 7pm
What do I do with my receipts? Do I really need to pay quarterly taxes? Do I need an LLC or an S Corp? What is a Schedule C? Come as you are--no prior knowledge needed. Through a clear, friendly "tax pictionary" interactive whiteboard drawing demo, you'll walk away understanding how your freelance or business income works with your other income, and the mechanics of paying estimated quarterly taxes for your freelance profit, why freelancers tend to underestimated their tax bill, and how to fix it. The goal is to provide clear, expert-backed answers that honor your creative work and make you feel calmer and more empowered to file your taxes this year. Bring your tax questions.
5 Good (Legal) Habits for Working Artists
February 3, 2027 @ 7pm
In this workshop, arts and entertainment lawyer Luke Blackadar will discuss five good (legal) habits for working artists: specifically, best practices in (1) treating your creative practice as a business, (2) protecting the creative works you plan to publicize; (3) key elements in a professional contract; (4) how to distinguish employees from independent contractors; and (5) starting to planning your creative legacy.
Pricing Strategies for Creative Entrepreneurs
March 17th , 2027 @ 7pm
If you panic when someone says, “What do you charge?” or “How much is this?” it’s probably time to reevaluate your pricing strategy. Four factors—cost, competition, customers, and competencies—affect the price for a creative entrepreneur’s work or time, and we’ll explore the science (and the art) behind each one – including how they change over time.
As part of this workshop, we’ll:
· Identify the four components of a holistic pricing strategy.
· Review the competitive landscape for our work or time.
· Articulate the value our customers perceive in our work.
· List our own strengths that add value to the transaction.
· Combine the analysis into a cohesive strategy.
Start Before You’re Ready: A Creative Freelancer’s Roadmap
April 7th, 2027 @ 7pm
Freelancing in the creative industry is overwhelming. There is no clear roadmap, no steady paycheck, and a hundred questions about where to even begin. But here’s the truth: you don’t need to have it all figured out before you start.
In this talk, photographer and director Grace Rivera shares a candid look at the essentials of building a freelance career in today’s creative economy. From setting yourself up as a business to finding clients, managing projects, and sustaining both your finances and your inspiration, she breaks down the practical steps every freelancer needs to know, framed through lived experiences in photography, commercial directing, and advertising.
Students and alumni alike will walk away with a clearer understanding of what freelancing actually looks like, the confidence to take their first steps, and the tools to treat their creativity not just as a passion, but as a sustainable career. Because freelancing isn’t about waiting until you feel ready — it’s about starting now, learning as you go, and forging your own pat.