Budget Design with Elisheba Johnson

Budgets are crucial for public art project success, and yet they can be very challenging to create. Elisheba Johnson, an experienced curator, public artist, and administrator, will provide guidance on approaching budgets for projects in the planning or implementation phase. Gain a comprehensive understanding of budget components and their significance for various public art projects.

This session will be held online from 4:00 PM – 5:45 PM ET.

Johnson’s presentation will be followed by an interactive workshop engaging session participants.

The questions that will serve as the framework for the guest speaker’s presentation are:

• How can artists realistically pay themselves?
• How can a budget help to map a project’s scope?
• How are budgets structured?
• How are estimates and actual costs accounted for?
• How are budget failures dealt with?
• What should be considered when preparing a budget for a project?

Session Format

• Introduction
• Speaker Presentation & Audience Questions
• Interactive Workshop
• Conclusion

Workshop

Participants will be divided into breakout rooms on Zoom. Registrants will be responsible for bringing 1 – 2 questions and/or 1 – 2 items that pertain to their own project budgets (whether for a potential or actual project). Each room will be facilitated by an Office for Public Art staff member. The guest speaker will spend 10 minutes in each breakout room to answer questions and provide feedback before being rotated to the next room.

About Elisheba Johnson

Elisheba Johnson is a curator, public artist, administrator, and disruptor. Feeling left out of the traditional art world, Johnson has dedicated her career to building bridges for artists of color to grow and thrive in our local arts community.

Johnson, who has a BFA from Cornish College of the Arts, was the owner of Faire Gallery Café, a multi-use art space that held art exhibitions, music shows, poetry readings and creative gatherings. For six years Faire Gallery Café provided space for Seattle’s young BIPOC arts ecology to create new work, meet future collaborators and experiment with new ideas.

After closing Faire, Johnson went on to work at the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture on capacity building initiatives and racial equity in public art.

Johnson currently co-manages Wa Na Wari, a Black art center in Seattle’s Central Area that uses the arts to build community and resist displacement.

Johnson’s personal art practice examines the beauty and triumph of Black life in America through mixed media and poetry.

Registration

Registration is $15. The button below will redirect you to Eventbrite where you will complete the transaction.