What is The First Ten?
The First Ten is a year-long virtual program to advance the careers of artist mothers. It includes regular group career consulting, access to a high level grant writer, and quarterly creative workshops. We seek to serve artists all over the country in various art communities.
How it works
A group of six artists are selected annually to participate in The First Ten. Three professional services will be offered to them over the course of 12 months:
A bi-weekly to monthly group consulting cohort led by an arts worker career consultant
Access to a high level grant writer to get that dream application out the door
Quarterly creative workshops to keep the fire burning.
The group consulting fosters a community to openly ask questions and share knowledge. The professional consultant holds industry standards in one hand while guiding artists towards developing, implementing, and maintaining their own vision and values on the other hand. While the artists are united in being mothers and sustaining their studio practice, the program focus is on the advancement of their careers.
Who is The First Ten for?
We are seeking committed and devoted mid-career artists with tangible career successes in their field with children under ten years of age at the time of the application. The program commitment is 2 - 6 hours a month. The artists can be located anywhere in the United States. Mother is a self-defined label for the artist - a birthing body is not a singular definition of mother to The First Ten.
We are a small operation and this program is by nomination only at this time.
Our Partners
Corrina Peipon is an artist, curator, writer, and educator based in Los Angeles, CA. She founded Continuous Project in 2018 as a way to use her twin interests in art and business to guide art workers through the opportunities and challenges they face in their careers. She is associate professor in the graduate art program at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, CA and is co-founder of Contemporary Art League, a trade cooperative building unity, solidarity, and equity among art workers in Los Angeles County.
Elana Mann is an artist, activist, and grant writer. She is the Founder and Principal of Ears Open, which offers development services to support artists and arts organizations. Throughout her career, Mann has advocated for the arts and has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to uplift artistic voices. Successful grants include: The National Endowment for the Arts, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Mike Kelley Foundation, the City of Los Angeles Individual Master Artist Project Grant (COLA-IMP) and the California Community Foundation Individual Artist Fellowship among many others. Mann’s art and activism centers the act of listening, an approach that she also applies to the individuals and organizations she works with. Mann is based in Los Angeles, CA with her partner and their two kids.
Amanda Lovejoy Street is a creative facilitator working with artists of all kinds and anyone who seeks to deepen a relationship between creativity and the unconscious. She was introduced to this work by her extensive studies with Sandra Seacat. Amanda apprenticed with Kim Gillingham from 2013-2017 and has been facilitating with Creative Dream Work since. Amanda has taught in Berlin, London and will teach in Sydney in 2024. She was an advisor for the 2021 and 2022 New Zealand filmmaker's lab, Story Camp and holds a certificate in Contemplative Care with the NY Zen Center. It is Amanda’s continued exploration of her interior life coupled with years of esoteric inquiries, meditation, dream work and investigating the connections between dramaturgy, art and the psyche that have led her to her intuitive way of creating and facilitating.