Artist Business Development Workshop Series

This professional development workshop offers artists a practical guide to navigating artist opportunities with greater clarity and confidence.

The session demystifies how curators and selection panels evaluate artist materials — including websites, portfolios, artist statements, and exhibition proposals — highlighting what strengthens an application and what often undermines it. Participants will gain insight into how reviews actually happen and how to better position their work and materials.

The workshop also provides guidance on how to search for and apply to public art projects, including how to understand and respond to RFQs and RFPs, and how those processes differ.

Finally, the session addresses best practices for collaborating with institutions — including shared expectations, realistic timelines, communication norms, and the professional etiquette that supports strong, long-term working relationships.

Ideal for artists actively applying for exhibitions, grants, residencies, and public art opportunities.

Participants will learn:

• How curators and panels evaluate artist applications
• What strengthens — and weakens — portfolios and artist materials
• How to improve websites, statements, and proposals
• How to find and approach public art opportunities
• The difference between RFQs and RFPs
• Best practices for working with institutions
• Professional etiquette that builds long-term opportunities

About the Instructor

Alessandra Moctezuma is Gallery Director and Professor of Fine Art at San Diego Mesa College, where she leads the Museum Studies program and teaches Chicano Art. She holds BA and MFA degrees from UCLA.

Moctezuma has extensive experience as a curator, educator, artist, and public art administrator. She has curated major exhibitions at institutions including the Oceanside Museum of Art and co-curated the retrospective Memorias de Nuestra Tierra of Chicana artist Judith F. Baca at the Museum of Latin American Art (2021–22), presented as part of Getty’s Pacific Standard Time initiative.

In 2025, she was appointed Chair of the San Diego Arts Commission, representing District 3.

This workshop is provided with the support of the Cultural Arts Department of the City of Carlsbad.

Campana Studios is a nonprofit, grassroots organization that creates platforms for visual artists to engage within our community.

Stay Informed! Join the interest list by sending a message to info@campanastudios.org with the subject line “Artist Economic Development Workshop”