Kipaipai, meaning 'To Encourage and Inspire,' is a special program that focuses on professional practices in areas of gallery representation and museum exhibitions, self-promotion, use of social media in promotion, the importance of relevant critical writing, presentation and identifying and strategizing personal/professional goals.

How to apply: 14 participants will be selected by our Jury (this includes on site housing for 7 artists and the option of supplying your own housing for an additional 7 artists).  Accepted artists will be notified by Wednesday, February 7, 2018 and must pay their tuition of $775 (housing included) or $575 (without housing) in advance in order to hold their place.  Artists are responsible for their own travel and housing expenses except for those paying for onsite housing which is included in the $775 workshop price.
Workshop will run Saturday - Sunday, April 14 - 15, 2018 from 10am - 4pm, with optional morning and evening activities. Check in for artists staying onsite will be Friday, April 13, 2018 after 3pm. Deadline to apply is January 31, 2018 at 5 pm PST.

Through private one-on-one sessions and group meetings, participants will have the rare opportunity to meet with a team of guest professionals. This year's faculty includes:

Betty Ann Brown is an art historian, critic, and curator. She received her Ph.D. in the History of Art in 1978 and joined the California State University at Northridge faculty in 1986. Her research and teaching have ranged from the ancient--Precolumbian Art of Mexico--to contemporary--Los Angeles Art Today. Brown has curated retrospective exhibitions for Hans Burkhardt, Roland Reiss, The Saar Family, Linda Vallejo, June Wayne, and John White, as well as numerous themed exhibitions. Her most recent curatorial project was Time, Space & Matter: Five Installations Exploring Natural Phenomena, which featured the work of Lita Albuquerque, Suvan Geer, George Geyer, Mineko Grimmer, Tom McMillan, and Christine Nguyen.

Shana Nys Dambrot is an art critic & curator. She is based in Downtown Los Angeles, Dambrot is currently LA Editor for Whitehot Magazine, contributor to KCET’s Artbound, Flaunt, Huffington Post, The Creators Project, Fabrik, VS. Magazine, Palm Springs Life, and Porter & Sail. She studied Art History at Vassar College, writes loads of essays for art books and exhibition catalogs, curates and/or juries a few exhibitions each year, sometimes exhibits her original photography and publishes short fiction, and speaks in public at galleries, schools, and cultural institutions nationally.

Sanie Andres, MA  is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Registered Art Therapist. He is currently Program Director for College Community Services – CalWORKs in Anaheim, CA and Adjunct Psychology Professor at National University. For the past 15 years, Sanie has been a practicing therapist in private practice, community mental health, and hospital settings. Previously, he was Core Faculty at Phillips Graduate Institute and Guest Lecturer at Antelope Valley College.

In 2015, after six years of dedicated service, Sanie was honored with emeritus status as Board President of The OUTreach Center, the LGBTQ community center in Lancaster, CA. In 2012, Sanie was presented the State Farm Good Neighbor Award by Equality California for his grassroots activism supporting LGBTQ families in rural Northern Los Angeles County. Sanie served on the Lancaster Museum and Public Art Foundation from 2011 to 2012. Sanie is in his second year singing bass with the West Coast Singers - the LGBTQ Chorus of Los Angeles.

Walter Maciel has established himself as an arts professional who has worked in contemporary art galleries for the past 26 years.  After a brief introduction to gallery operations as an intern at Gallery Paule Anglim, Walter became the Associate Director of Braunstein/Quay Gallery from 1992 through 1998.  He then became the Director at Rena Bransten Gallery in San Francisco from 1998 through 2005.  Walter moved to Los Angeles to create a program for his own space that opened in March 2006.  The gallery is located in the Culver City district in Los Angeles among many of the top galleries on the West Coast.  The gallery expanded in 2015 taking over the entire building with 4,000 square feet of space.  A second gallery space at the Pacific Design Center was in operation in 2010 and featured the work of gallery artists and special projects.  The gallery has participated in several international art fairs including Pulse Art Fair Miami/Miami Beach 2005-2007, 2014-2015; Pulse Art Fair New York 2006-2008; Pulse Art Fair London 2007; Swab Art Fair Barcelona 2007; Aqua Art Fair Miami 2008-2009, 2011; NADA Art Fair Miami Beach 2010; Miami Project 2012-2014; Volta Art Fair New York 2009, 2012-2013; Art on Paper New York 2016-2017; NEXT Art Fair Chicago 2010; Edition Chicago 2013; San Francisco International Art Exposition 2010; San Francisco Art Market 2014-2017; San Francisco Art Pad 2012-2013; Art San Diego 2012. 

Walter has served on many boards and committees including Southern Exposure, Headlands Center for the Arts, Hospitality House and the San Francisco Art Dealers Association. He has been on lecture panels at University of California, Los Angeles; University of California, Berkeley; San Francisco Art Institute; California College of the Arts; University of Missouri, Kansas City; Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR; Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University; San Francisco State University; Mills College, Oakland and Institute for Contemporary Art, San Jose. Walter has been on the Selection Committee for the stARTup Art Fair for both the San Francisco and Los Angeles venues.  

Kimberly Brooks is an American painter whose work integrates figuration and abstraction to explore a variety of subjects dealing with history, memory and identity.  Brooks has solo exhibitions throughout the United States and her work has been showcased in juried exhibitions including curators from the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. For two years, Brooks maintained a weekly column, entitled First Person Artist which then led to her founding the Huffington Post Arts Section. She founded Griffith Moon publishing which focuses on artist monographs. Brooks received her BA at UC Berkeley and studied painting at Otis and UCLA. A coffee table book of her work will be available Fall 2018 (Vivant Publishing).

Andi Campognone is California-based curator, author, and film producer, known for championing contemporary Southern California artists. Andi has over 25 years of arts experience in the southern California region.  She is the Owner/Director of AC Projects, a private consulting organization focused on promoting arts and culture. Projects include developing museum exhibitions, public engagement, mentoring programs and book and film publications of historically relevant southern California artists. Campognone is also the Museum Manager/Curator for the City of Lancaster.  She is responsible for the development and maintenance of partnerships and community engagement initiatives with local artists, local businesses, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, Los Angeles County Supervisors office and higher level institutions.  She develops curatorial direction for exhibition programming and educational programming and additionally she is directing the Museum accreditation process for MOAH. She has previously served the City of Pomona as Cultural Arts Commissioner where she co-wrote and implemented the City’s Master Cultural Arts Plan and the adopted Arts in Public Places Policy. She volunteers as a regular speaker and mentor to art students at both the undergraduate and graduate level and is on the advisory boards of ARTltd Magazine and Los Angeles Arts Association.  She is a current member of ArTTable.

Mike O'Connor  For over 20 years Mike has been training, counseling and leading workshops with financial advisors throughout the Mainland, Hawaii and Guam.  Mike’s focus is on identifying one's own story and how to use it to become a more effective sales person.  Mike’s Mantra for his workshops is “to learn your story and learn to tell it effectively”. Mike not only guides participants through the storytelling process, he also spends time on presentation skills and warding off that innate fear of public speaking.  Mike’s presentation, Sell Yourself Through the Fine Art of Storytelling was developed to aid artists, gallerists and museum directors on the importance of the WHY, not the How or the What of your work. 

Mike was a presenter for the two Kipaipai workshops at the Donkey Mill Art Center and is still counseling many of the attendees on perfecting their story and their delivery skills.  Mike is a frequent stage presenter at “The Moth” where he develops stories on the fly based upon a prescribed subject and presents them in a very entertaining manner.

Application Requirements

Eligibility Criteria

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