Mentorship Program at Society of Arts + Crafts

The SA+C has a strong history of being actively engaged in educational programming that benefits artists and the public. One program that has had a particularly powerful impact on individual artists since 2005 is our Mentor Program. It historically provided two early-career artists with personal guidance from experienced mentors for a full calendar year. During this time, they are assisted in navigating a retail show environment and the experience culminates in their participation at a public craft fair, the Society of Arts + Craft’s renowned CraftBoston show.

Beneficiaries of the program encompass a wide and diverse demographic: our mentees range in age from 21-50, and are composed of all races, all genders, and media backgrounds. One of the short-term goals is for the program to benefit at least 20% of BIPOC participants within the first year’s mentee cohort, and offer Mentor positions to at least 20% of BIPOC within the first year. Ideally, those numbers will go up as the program continues to gain prominence and recognition nationally.

Because of Covid-19 and the current restrictions around face-to-face interactions, we believe that the best way to impact more artists at this time is to move our mentoring efforts online to reach a significantly larger audience and facilitate education around the specific skills needed in the marketplace and teaching environments at present. We look forward to being able to serve larger cohorts of artists moving forward. If you are interested to join a future cohort and learn more about the program, please email [email protected].