So much has happened in the past 30 days (Verner Awards! Artists' Retreat! Legislative budget decisions!) that this note could be 10 pages long.  I'll spare you that, but we've included articles about each below.  Suffice to say that we've been afforded the chance to celebrate with many of you recently, and it's great to hear about what you're working on and who you're working with.

As summer begins, I thought I would catch you up on what we'll be working on here at Artists' Ventures Headquarters (kind of sounds like the home of a new, artsy League of Superheroes, no?)  After observing each of our entrepreneurial development courses and listening to your feedback, we're adding a course to the mix.  The new course will focus more on career management, practical tools for individual artists, and peer leadership.  This summer we will solidify course content, tools, and teaching staff.  The goal is to launch the course in at least one community in the fall. This course is not meant to take the place of Fast Trac -- we definitely still recommend that any of you who are looking to start a gallery, a touring company, a production house, etc., turn to Fast Trac.  In fact, we're super excited about the Fast Trac for Creatives course that will be offered this summer in Columbia (more information below!)

We're also taking another look at the guidelines for Artists' Ventures Grants this summer and are investigating the possibility of community-based book or topic studies.  We'll provide updates on each when we have them and value any additional input you might like to provide.

This note turned out to be pretty long anyway.  Sorry about that.  Really, though, it's all so cool that I've just gotta write about it!