Dreaming Through Spreadsheets

Led by artist and creative entrepreneur Hope Wang, Dreaming Through Spreadsheets is a proposal to artists that spreadsheets, data visualization, and mind-mapping can be generative (and fun)! During this workshop, we will explore different organizational systems for project tracking, budget building, and creating maps of the pre-existing resources at our f ingertips. Artists can often fixate on what we don’t have and how that’s keeping us from our goals, instead of seeing the merit of what resources are already available to us. By meticulously documenting and making visible the invisible costs that sustain artist practices, can we consider the budget spreadsheet or the planning document as a love letter to our ideas?

The structure of this workshop will be:

• 30 minute slide presentation: Practical mindsets on artists as the top funders of the art world + contextualization of sample diagrams and templates used for arts admin.
• 30 minute guided exercise: Hope will call on 2 volunteers in the workshop for a live demonstration of two templates: Drawing your Dream Studio and Building a Grant Narrative. We will break down the cost of your dreams, no matter how large!
• 45 minute breakout groups: Participants will articulate artistic goals and select templates to fill out together.

Who is this for? Artists who are looking for practical approaches to grant narratives, thinking through a project budget, preparing for new professional opportunities, and/or navigating change in your practice. Bring your own systems and favorite tools (and stationary) to share!

CAC's Professional Development series works to uncover subjects critical to professional artists outside of making art.

Rooted in our core values of knowledge-sharing and building community, this 90-minute seminar will include 30 minutes of conversation with participants. Bring your experience and your questions to the group!

Participants may attend in person or online via Zoom. Registration is required.

Tuesday, February 24th 6-8p

$10 for the general public
$5 for CAC alumni
FREE for current residents

https://www.hopewang.com/

Hope Wang is an artist and creative entrepreneur based in Chicago, IL. Her practice explores memory, loss, and longing in the ever-shifting architectural landscape. Hope is also the founder and co-director of LMRM “loom room,” is a project space fostering opportunities for art-making, research, and community programming around digital weaving. She is invested in equitable conditions for working artists, resource sharing, and moving at the speed of trust. She is a two-time recipient of an Artists Run Chicago Grant (2024 & 2025) from the Hyde Park Art Center, and a Chicago Community Fellowship Fund (2023) from the Breakout Foundation for LMRM’s contributions to the city’s art community. Her artwork has been exhibited throughout the US, which includes the Glass Curtain Gallery at Columbia College Chicago, IL; the Peeler Art Center at DePauw University in Greencastle, IN; The Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum in Milwaukee, WI; amongst others.