Accelerate your
art career.
Helping artists achieve greater success by providing support and mentorship while navigating the industry.
Artwork by
Phoenix Brown
Gala, 2021
colored pencil on paper
12 x 9 in.
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gener8tor Art
A 12-week accelerator program for visual artists. gener8tor Art helps artists in Wisconsin and beyond achieve greater success by providing the support and mentorship needed to maintain a sustainable practice and navigate the contemporary art market
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gener8tor Art X Sherman Phoenix
A 7-week accelerator program that serves the Milwaukee creative community through professional development workshops, one-on-one mentorship, and grant funding for individual artists.
Grant
Opportunities to receive grants of up to $15,000.
Master Class Series
A series that explores the inner workings of the art market.
Community
Build relationships with fellow arists and the broader art industry.
Mentor Meetings
One-on-one meetings with mentors including fellow artists, leaders in the art community and gener8tor staff.
Coaching
Individualized coaching and mentorship from the gener8tor Art team during weekly, one-on-one meetings.
Showcase
Exclusive reception during which artists have the opportunity to present their work to an audience of mentors, community members and art industry professionals.
About gener8tor Art
gener8tor Art is a 12-week accelerator program for visual artists. gener8tor Art helps artists in Wisconsin and beyond achieve greater success by providing the support and mentorship needed to maintain a sustainable practice and navigate the industry.
gener8tor Art provides $15,000 grants to artists who participate in a 12-week accelerator program run by gener8tor. With a focus on supporting artists with a social activism component to their art practice, including themes of social justice, activism, creative placemaking, and community development, gener8tor Art provides funding and mentorship to artists who have a positive impact on their communities. The 12-week accelerator is geared towards serving emerging artists who are looking to establish themselves in the contemporary art market through participating in gallery and museum exhibitions, focusing on establishing and growing a collector base and reaching new audiences.
The 12-week program includes coaching, mentoring and networking with visual art leaders from Milwaukee and across the country. gener8tor Art programming is customized to best support each artist, and reduce interference with studio time and existing personal and professional commitments. It ends with a showcase for the artists to present their work to industry professionals, supporters and community members.
In addition to the 12-week accelerator program, gener8tor Art offers professional development coaching that is free and open to the public for artists who are interested in focusing on the business side of their art practice. gener8tor Art offers one-on-one office hours and mentoring opportunities, professional development webinars and workshops and a Master Class series that explores how the art market works.
Sign up for office hours here.
How the Program Works
Art programming is customized to best support each artist, and reduce interference with studio time and existing personal and professional commitments. The program is split into three sections: Design, Exchange and Activate. Expand each section below to for more detail into what each phase entails.
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Artists work with mentors and gener8tor Art program staff to customize a 12-week experience, designing a strategy to activate a seminal project that will advance their practice and professional brand. While the activity does not need to be completed within the 12-weeks, the fellowship period should lay a firm foundation for project realization financially and conceptually.
• Artists take part in the Mentor Swarm to identify partners (local, national and international) to consult on the above.
• Artists determine which part(s) of their studio practice or business would benefit from intensive focus over 12-weeks. Examples include:
• Experimentation or exploration of new studio technique with the help of mentors and professional peers;
• Redesign or revamp of portfolio, marketing collateral, CV, artist statement or studio visit “pitch”;
• New or improved market strategy via new commercial collaborations, gallery representation, or alternative programming.
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Artists individually select one or more cities to establish deeper industry connections and diversify their audience or customer base. Earmarking grant money, artists should expect to conduct at least one trip during the gener8tor Art period.
Exchange activities can include a series of informational interviews and meetings with commercial and academic professionals in another city, engagement in thought leadership, participation in a festival, additional residency or fellowship participation, exhibition engagements and more.
The exchange phase can be done virtually, depending on travel restrictions.
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• Artists work with mentors and staff to coordinate a series of 12+ high-yield studio visits or critiques in the final phase of the program, putting into practice the new themes and strategies devised in the preceding weeks. These studio visits can be attended by new mentors, collectors and industry professionals.
• Artists have a strategy for 12-24 months to complete seminal project, if not yet completed.
• Artists showcase work at an end-of-program celebration.
Meet the 2023 gener8tor Art Artist
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Meg Lionel Murphy
Meg Lionel Murphy paints a far, far away land, where violence magically transforms femme bodies into a monstrous size, so that their pain must be seen, felt, and acknowledged. The artwork wrestles between moments of horror and euphoric escape. She wants the work to land in the inbetweens: play and power, loss and hope, present and past.
gener8tor Art Frequently Asked Questions
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This year participation in the gener8tor Art program will be by invitation only. Invited applicants can apply for the program between March 2, 2023 - April 30, 2023. The 2023 accelerator program runs from August-November.
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A jury of arts professionals is engaged to select the artists. While gener8tor and gener8tor Art program staff administer the process, the selections are made by an outside jury in an effort to remove bias. We are thrilled to have worked with the following jurors for selection of past cohorts:
2022 Jury
Daniela Holban, Artfare
Laura McDermit, The Laramie Public Art Coalition
Andrew Rafacz, Andrew Rafacz Gallery
Mark Rospenda, South Bend Museum of Art
Carolina Wheat, The Elijah Wheat Showroom
2021 Jury
Danny Báez, Meca International Art Fair and Regular Normal Gallery NYC
An Duplan, Center for Afrofuturist Studies
Maria Del Mar Frederique, Titin Foundation and MECA International Art Fair
Lucy Mensah, University of Illinois
Nicole Soukup, Minneapolis Institute of Art
Vincent Uribe, LVL3 Gallery and Arts of Life
2020 Jury
Mercedes Dorame, California Institute of the Arts
John McKinnon, Elmhurst Art Museum
Joel Parsons, Rhodes College
Allison Peters Quinn, Hyde Park Art Center
Kelly Schroer, KS Art Advisory
2018/2019 Jury
Barry Blinderman, Illinois State University
Erin Cluley, Erin Cluley Gallery
Gia Hamilton, Joan Mitchell Foundation
Emily White, Gagosian Gallery
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The application process this year will be by invitation only. Applicants will be nominated by past gener8tor Art participants and a panel of arts professionals will review the nominated artists and select the grant recipients.
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We are looking for artists who are interested in growing or expanding their art practice and who are willing to spend time thinking about the “business” side of their art practice. Ideal candidates for gener8tor Art are artists with clear career goals and a strong interest in networking and building relationships, as well as a social activism component to their art practice.
Participation in the 2023 gener8tor Art program will be by invitation only. Applicants will be nominated by past gener8tor Art participants and a panel of arts professionals will review the nominated artists and select the grant recipients.
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gener8tor Art will be a hybrid of virtual and in person events, but we will try to be accommodating to everyone's needs in the program.
All workshops and Master Classes will have a virtual option.
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Approximately 10-15 hours per week to be spent on one-on-one meetings with gener8tor Art staff, mentor meetings, studio visits, or studio time and making new work.
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We want each artist define what success looks like for themselves, but will work together over the course of the 12 week accelerator to help each artist move towards their goals.
Sign up for
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gener8tor Art
Office Hours:
Questions? Grab a 20 minute session with someone from the gener8tor Art staff.
Our Artist Resources:
Recorded Info Sessions, COVID-19 Response Program, Grants and more.
gener8torArt is made possible by our Partners
gener8tor Art is made possible by community members who believe that a thriving art scene is important to Milwaukee's cultural vibrancy.
Office and studio space partners: