Join fellow artists at the St Mane Theatre at 6 pm on Thursday, November 10th for a session of the 2022/23 Artist Development Workshop Series.
A collaboration between Lanesboro Arts, the Northfield Arts Guild, Paradise Center for the Arts, and Red Wing Arts, the series offers four themed panel discussions featuring professional artists on a variety of topics. This free workshop series is a casual yet informative networking and development space for local artists and makers.
Although the first session has passed, there are three more opportunities to share in the expertise of fellow artists. Lanesboro Arts hosts Session 2: Promoting and Marketing your Artwork. This session will address how other artists market their work, best art marketing practices, and the monetary side of art marketing. The panel features Lanesboro’s own Michael Seiler, as well as Northfield based artists Glynnis Lessing, Gerie Thelen, and Cedric Briand.
Michael Seiler – Eye Prize Marketing
Master goldsmith and art fair veteran of over 20 years, Michael Seiler turned his creative endeavors towards founding Eye Prize Marketing in 2019. Recognizing the need for artists to successfully market themselves prior to and during Covid, Michael developed user-friendly programs designed to assist artists in navigating the challenging landscape of website design and e-commerce. His expertise in target marketing and keyword research equips artists to achieve successful sales results and optimum web presence. Michael Seiler is co-owner of Crown Trout Jewelers in Lanesboro, MN, and has been working in the metal arts since 1995. He has been awarded grants from the McKnight Foundation and the Minnesota State Arts Board for his signature stone cutting and lapidary talent.
Glynnis Lessing began a lifelong love of ceramics at 9 when she learned to throw from a Japanese potter at Carleton College. She made pots in high school and worked for a potter and went on to study art at Macalester and the University of Minnesota where she earned a BFA. Directly after college, a move to Chicago led her to Lill Street studios where she began working and teaching pottery as well as at several other institutions, marrying and raising a family along the way. In 2008, she started participating in shows and art fairs on a full-time basis; eventually moving back to Minnesota in 2012 where she began teaching at the Northern Clay Center. She continues to work full time as a potter selling her work at fairs, studio tours, online
and in retail stores and galleries. Her studio is in her grandfather’s old milking parlor on the ancestral farm where she lives with her family; surrounded by bees and crops, the trees her grandfather planted and the fertile earth.
Geralyn Thelen believes that everyone has a story to tell… and each of our stories is important. For some reason, my stories do not come out in words; but when I work with glass… my heart sings and the glass talks to me." Each piece Gerie creates is formed in her heart and is
produced with great love. Her designs include two-dimensional pieces, sculptures, and installations, and honor the significance of women’s hands in the history of art and design.
Cedric Briand is a self-taught multi-instrumentalist musician and producer who records, mixes and masters tracks created with his musical partner Jeenti Dutta for their project Greenvale Manitou. Cedric is also French. He likes poetry and sociopolitical comments in his lyrics, something he acquired from the French “chanson.” He supervises the tribal groove of each track. His favorite signature is to play world percussion, especially djembe. Some guitars too, which he plays like percussion regardless. He believes that niches are about borders, frontiers…and likes to explore a variety of genres and instruments with sampled beats and/or organic percussion as a common thread. The human coefficient! Both he and Jeenti are expats with rich cultural musical backgrounds which they love to fuse with popular music genres.