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Innovator Stories

Meet Blair Benjamin

If you’re an artist in the region, chances are you’ve been impacted by Blair Benjamin’s work.

When Benjamin founded MASS MoCA’s Assets for Artists program in 2007, it was hyper-local, offering funding and business assistance to nine Berkshire County artists. Since then, A4A has grown to serve more than 1,800 artists with professional development workshops, enrolled 500+ artists in capacity-building grant programs, and hosted more than 700 artists at The Studios at MASS MoCA. 

Innovator Stories

Meet Blair Benjamin

If you’re an artist in the region, chances are you’ve been impacted by Blair Benjamin’s work.

When Benjamin founded MASS MoCA’s Assets for Artists program in 2007, it was hyper-local, offering funding and business assistance to nine Berkshire County artists. Since then, A4A has grown to serve more than 1,800 artists with professional development workshops, enrolled 500+ artists in capacity-building grant programs, and hosted more than 700 artists at The Studios at MASS MoCA. 

Artists aren’t usually the first professionals we think of when it comes to economic development and entrepreneurship, but creative work is a powerful economic driver. In 2020, arts and culture workers in Massachusetts contributed 4 percent to the state’s GDP; data from the National Endowment for the Arts has shown that rural areas with arts organizations are more likely to also host businesses considered to be “substantive innovators.” 

The artists who have crossed paths with A4A have gone on to create more than $2 million in seed capital, building their creative careers and contributing to their regional economies. “We have a very specialized focus on individual artists and helping grow a more robust arts ecosystem,” said Benjamin. “We want to be providing business and finance training to artists who may not see themselves as served by traditional small business support offerings, or as a part of that world.” 

Benjamin is a former Peace Corps volunteer and did community development work after graduating from college, which introduced him to the tools and skill-building work designed to help people in systematically excluded communities as they start businesses, build wealth, and access new opportunities. 

“I have a tendency to go really deep into whatever niche thing might be interesting to me,” he said. “I got interested in the potential of some of those community development tools to be of service to artists, especially low-to-moderate-income people who don’t have the resources to go out and create everything they want when starting a business. Having the opportunity to make great art and grow a strong creative practice shouldn’t depend on having certain doors that are just open to you.”

As he worked in development at MASS MoCA, he took on local volunteer work specific to the artistic and economic development communities. It helped his vision for A4A take shape. “I wanted to see what was possible,” he said. “I saw there was a need for it. Then, the more I worked with artists, the more excited I was to develop something that was artist-led and artist-designed.” 

At first, A4A was hiring local business and financial professionals to offer workshops and trainings to artists, but quickly pivoted to hiring artists with expertise in these and other areas, another way to empower the creative community. A4A has now expanded to serve artists in Connecticut and Rhode Island, partnered with various community foundations to sponsor workshops, residency opportunities, and grant programs, and offer one-on-one consulting services to artists looking for advice on business plans, taxes, and marketing. Around 50 artists now serve as workshop trainers and program advisors, and A4A’s staff are all artists themselves (Benjamin is a creative writer whose work has appeared in many literary journals over the years). 

“In some ways, A4A started out as ‘Blair’s thing at MASS MoCA,’ but now we’ve got a fantastic team of folks who are bringing incredible talents to this work,” he said. “That’s probably the thing I’m most proud of—pulling together such a strong group of professionals who feel the passion and excitement to do this.”

Benjamin and Jeffrey Thomas, Lever’s executive director, are close colleagues who often talk through their respective work in economic development. “We share our experiences quite a bit—particularly as we’ve tried to lead and develop programs often aimed at increasing opportunities for BIPOC- and women-owned businesses, and learning how to do that well, working in partnership with BIPOC-led organizations,” he said. “There are some parallel tracks there. We both feel it’s so important for economic development work to build equity and be inclusive. I’ve also learned from how Lever has taken a model that has worked well here and found ways to replicate that in other parts of the state, and other markets.”

An example of A4A’s work with BIPOC-led organizations is its partnership with the CreateWell Fund, which developed a residency fellowship program and chose a cohort of Massachusetts-based artists of color to be in residence for a month at The Studios at MASS MoCA. “That’s been a fantastic partnership,” he said. “It has helped us bring artists of color all around the state into our programming.” 

Looking forward, Benjamin is leading efforts to form even deeper relationships with regional organizations to help them create collaborative grant programs, fellowships, and opportunities for creatives to grow professionally. A recent effort with the Greater Worcester Community Foundation created a grant program that just announced its flagship cohort. New programming is being developed in the Connecticut River valley, Fall River, Cape Cod, and Pittsfield.

“What folks will see from A4A over the next few years is a deeper commitment to a number of communities—and I’m excited to work with them and the artists in those communities to create their own versions of this work,” Benjamin said. “When it feels really successful, it’s always partnering with artists…not for artists.”

Artists aren’t usually the first professionals we think of when it comes to economic development and entrepreneurship, but creative work is a powerful economic driver. In 2020, arts and culture workers in Massachusetts contributed 4 percent to the state’s GDP; data from the National Endowment for the Arts has shown that rural areas with arts organizations are more likely to also host businesses considered to be “substantive innovators.” 

The artists who have crossed paths with A4A have gone on to create more than $2 million in seed capital, building their creative careers and contributing to their regional economies. “We have a very specialized focus on individual artists and helping grow a more robust arts ecosystem,” said Benjamin. “We want to be providing business and finance training to artists who may not see themselves as served by traditional small business support offerings, or as a part of that world.” 

Benjamin is a former Peace Corps volunteer and did community development work after graduating from college, which introduced him to the tools and skill-building work designed to help people in systematically excluded communities as they start businesses, build wealth, and access new opportunities. 

“I have a tendency to go really deep into whatever niche thing might be interesting to me,” he said. “I got interested in the potential of some of those community development tools to be of service to artists, especially low-to-moderate-income people who don’t have the resources to go out and create everything they want when starting a business. Having the opportunity to make great art and grow a strong creative practice shouldn’t depend on having certain doors that are just open to you.”

As he worked in development at MASS MoCA, he took on local volunteer work specific to the artistic and economic development communities. It helped his vision for A4A take shape. “I wanted to see what was possible,” he said. “I saw there was a need for it. Then, the more I worked with artists, the more excited I was to develop something that was artist-led and artist-designed.” 

At first, A4A was hiring local business and financial professionals to offer workshops and trainings to artists, but quickly pivoted to hiring artists with expertise in these and other areas, another way to empower the creative community. A4A has now expanded to serve artists in Connecticut and Rhode Island, partnered with various community foundations to sponsor workshops, residency opportunities, and grant programs, and offer one-on-one consulting services to artists looking for advice on business plans, taxes, and marketing. Around 50 artists now serve as workshop trainers and program advisors, and A4A’s staff are all artists themselves (Benjamin is a creative writer whose work has appeared in many literary journals over the years). 

“In some ways, A4A started out as ‘Blair’s thing at MASS MoCA,’ but now we’ve got a fantastic team of folks who are bringing incredible talents to this work,” he said. “That’s probably the thing I’m most proud of—pulling together such a strong group of professionals who feel the passion and excitement to do this.”

Benjamin and Jeffrey Thomas, Lever’s executive director, are close colleagues who often talk through their respective work in economic development. “We share our experiences quite a bit—particularly as we’ve tried to lead and develop programs often aimed at increasing opportunities for BIPOC- and women-owned businesses, and learning how to do that well, working in partnership with BIPOC-led organizations,” he said. “There are some parallel tracks there. We both feel it’s so important for economic development work to build equity and be inclusive. I’ve also learned from how Lever has taken a model that has worked well here and found ways to replicate that in other parts of the state, and other markets.”

An example of A4A’s work with BIPOC-led organizations is its partnership with the CreateWell Fund, which developed a residency fellowship program and chose a cohort of Massachusetts-based artists of color to be in residence for a month at The Studios at MASS MoCA. “That’s been a fantastic partnership,” he said. “It has helped us bring artists of color all around the state into our programming.” 

Looking forward, Benjamin is leading efforts to form even deeper relationships with regional organizations to help them create collaborative grant programs, fellowships, and opportunities for creatives to grow professionally. A recent effort with the Greater Worcester Community Foundation created a grant program that just announced its flagship cohort. New programming is being developed in the Connecticut River valley, Fall River, Cape Cod, and Pittsfield.

“What folks will see from A4A over the next few years is a deeper commitment to a number of communities—and I’m excited to work with them and the artists in those communities to create their own versions of this work,” Benjamin said. “When it feels really successful, it’s always partnering with artists…not for artists.”

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