Workshops
Expand your skills and knowledge with SEMAC’s workshop offerings designed for southeastern Minnesota’s creative community. Our Grants & Funding Workshops provide step-by-step guidance through SEMAC’s funding opportunities, while our Artist Business Skills Workshop Series—offered through our exciting new partnership with Springboard for the Arts—covers essential topics like career planning, time management, and portfolio development. Additionally, our Organization Skills Workshop Series offers capacity-building resources specifically designed for arts organizations and nonprofits.
Contact Sharon Mansur, Outreach & Accessibility Manager, at sharon@semac.org or 507.322.1088, 711 TTY with questions or accessibility requests.
Programming and Project Support for Organizations
This program awards $3,000 to $11,000 grants to nonprofit arts and non-arts organizations, schools, local government, and tribal entities to support creation, performance, publication, and exhibition of arts focusing on Arts Access, Arts Education, and Cultural Heritage. Budgets should prioritize artist fees and technical support to build southeastern Minnesota’s arts ecosystem. All projects must include an accessible public event, and collaborations between arts and non-arts organizations are encouraged.
Application Opens: March 1 Deadline: March 30
Free Step-by-Step Grant Writing Workshop for Organizations:
Join us on March 10, from 6 to 8 pm CT for a virtual workshop where we will go over the application process and requirements.
Artists & Culture Bearers Business Skills Workshop Series in Partnership with Springboard for the Arts
SEMAC is excited to partner with Springboard for the Arts to offer their Work of Art: Business Skills for Artists workshop series virtually for individual artists and culture bearers living in SEMAC’s region.
Springboard’s Work of Art: Business Skills for Artists is a professional development curriculum designed to teach business skills to artists and culture bearers in all disciplines – visual, performing and literary arts. It starts with career planning and moves through topics like pricing, marketing, funding, and business plans. Work of Art can be helpful if you are just starting your creative career, or if you need a refresher as you advance your work.
This workshop is FREE to attend. Please note that these sessions will not be recorded. Automated Zoom captions will be available.
Pricing
Wednesday, March 4, 2026 | 6-8:30p via Zoom
Learn about the factors of product production that apply to everything in the marketplace. Once you understand what each of the variables are you’ll be able to customize a pricing formula that fits your business model.
Springboard’s Work of Art: Business Skills for Artists curriculum is available as a free workbook and downloadable from the Springboard for the Arts website as a helpful reference during or after the workshops.
For more about Springboard’s Work of Art program: springboardforthearts.org/professional-growth/work-of-art-program/
Organization Skills Workshop Series
SEMAC is excited to partner with Propel Nonprofits and the Minnesota Alliance for Volunteer Advancement (MAVA) to offer a series of online workshops that will provide organizations with the help they need to succeed. The workshops are free and open to staff, board, and volunteers with arts organizations in SEMAC’s 11-county region.
Registration for each Propel workshop is limited to 45 participants. Organizations should identify one or two representatives who can attend and bring back information to share with their group. Please note: workshops will not be recorded.
Strategy, Planning, Outcomes: Bridging Your Strategy Work with Ground Level Impacts with Propel
Thursday, April 23, 2026 | 1-3p via Zoom
Are you looking to understand how strategy, planning, and outcomes show up in your work in the nonprofit sector? Join us to explore the connections between organizational strategy and service impacts. You will walk away from this training with an understanding of the nine gears of effective nonprofits, strategy planning frameworks, and the practical application of outcomes development.
Propel Nonprofits’ mission is to fuel the impact and effectiveness of nonprofits with guidance, expertise, and capital. This mission is in service to a vision of a diverse network of mission- driven nonprofits building a healthy, vibrant, and more just community. To learn more about Propel, visit Propel Nonprofits.
The Minnesota Alliance for Volunteer Advancement (MAVA) advances the power of volunteerism to deepen community impact through uplifting community voices, building connections, providing education, and promoting advocacy. MAVA’s vision is a world in which everyone has an equitable opportunity to positively impact their community through volunteerism. Learn more about MAVA here.