New pitch event at Ann Arbor Art Fair will offer cash prizes for artists and art entrepreneurs

Three Washtenaw County organizations are teaming up to sponsor a pitch event for artists and art-related business owners at this year’s Ann Arbor Art Fair.
 
Event participants will be invited to pitch an idea, artwork, or other facet of an arts-related business. Cash prizes will be awarded.
 
The event is being organized by Ann Arbor SPARK, Washtenaw Community College’s (WCC) Entrepreneurship Center, and WCC’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC).
 
Michelle Julet, director of the Entrepreneurship Center, says the art pitch event is "a natural extension of the great way that all of the economic and entrepreneur[ial] resources work together in our local area."
 
Aside from the cash prizes, Julet says participants will have access to "training and coaching, introduction to entrepreneurial resources that are available within the three organizations, exposure, engagement, and introduction to people with resources that can really help them for the business aspects of their projects."
 
The official event will be held on July 22^nd, and participants will have access to practice pitch events and coaching prior to that.
 
According to Julet, the competition will be judged by a panel of local artists and entrepreneurs that is still being formed. Categories in the competition will be determined based on the contestants who enter, Julet says.
 
"We really want to make sure that everyone knows about the resources that are available," Julet says. "... By specifically going out to the artist community, [we] would like artists to know what we do and to feel comfortable using our resources and creating relationships with us so we can help them along in their journey."

The competition is open to all. For more information, click here.

Natalia Holtzman is a freelance writer based in Ann Arbor. Her work has appeared in publications such as the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Literary Hub, The Millions, and others.

The photo "Ann Arbor Art Fair 2007_42" by Corvair Owner is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/?ref=openverse.