Writing about your work effectively unlocks opportunities. Yet it can be difficult and intimidating to distill everything you do into a few words. This session will help you develop language to harvest opportunities, cultivate and grow your network, and connect to people who can support your work. You will work through interactive exercises to help draft both an artist statement and a bio that can be used both for written and verbal communications. The session will provide insights into what jurors and panelists look for when reviewing these materials and speaking to artists.

Facilitator Kelly Olshan is a Learning Program Officer for the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). At NYFA, she oversees professional development programs for artists of all disciplines globally, including the Artist as Entrepreneur program and NYFA Coaching. Previously, she served as program manager for the Queens Council on the Arts and authored the book How You Can Commission Art.

As a practicing artist, her work has been exhibited nationally, including in a recent solo public art exhibition, Traverse, in NYC’s Garment District, and forthcoming solo museum show at Long Island Children’s Museum in 2026. She serves as a frequent panelist for NYC’s Percent for Art Program as well as on the Advisory Committee of the Department of Transportation (DOT) Public Art program. She has been an artist in residence with Chashama and serves on the board of Greenpoint Open Studios. She holds an MA in Arts Administration from Columbia University.