Syllabus - Orthelious/60350_F20 GitHub Wiki
Syllabus
| Sections |
|---|
| Course Information |
| Schedule |
| Course Introduction and Learning Goals |
| Grading Policies |
| Class Policies |
Section One
Course Information
Carnegie Mellon Course Number: 60-350
Meeting Time: Thursday, 6:40pm » 9:30pm
Location: Class will meet remotely via Zoom. Please contact the instructor for a link.
Instructor
Tom Hughes | He/Him/His
Associate Director, Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry
Adjunct Professor of Arts Management, CMU School of Art
Email: [email protected]
Zoom Meeting ID: 685 925 7383
Office Hours: Fridays 9am-11am or by appointment
Office Location: College of Fine Arts, Room 111*
*Please note that due to COVID-19, I will be working remotely from my home. Please do not come to CFA 111 but use my zoom meeting ID instead: 685 925 7383
Course Website
github.com/Orthelious/60350_F20/wiki
Section Two
Schedule
| # | Date | Topics Covered | Workshops |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9/3/20 | Course introduction and syllabus review; Unit 1: Business Basics | - |
| 2 | 9/10/20 | Unit 2. Business Formation | What's in the cards? |
| 3 | 9/17/20 | Unit 3. Legal Agreements pt. 1 | Contract Review |
| 4 | 9/24/20 | Unit 3. Legal Agreements pt. 2 | Negotiate! |
| 5 | 10/1/20 | Unit 4. Representation and Labor pt. 1 | Help me! |
| 6 | 10/8/20 | Unit 4. Representation and Labor pt. 2 | Reverse Engineering |
| 7 | 10/15/20 | Unit 5. Intellectual Property pt. 1 | Playlist Challenge |
| 8 | 10/22/20 | Unit 5. Intellectual Property pt. 2 | 6 Degrees of Bringing Home the Bacon |
| 9 | 10/29/20 | Unit 6. Income Models pt. 1 | Grantwriting and Grantwronging |
| 10 | 11/5/20 | Unit 6. Income Models pt. 2 | Setting a Rate |
| 11 | 11/12/20 | Unit 7. Pitch to Payment | Take Your Best Shot |
| 12 | 11/19/20 | Unit 8. Managing Finances | At What Cost?! |
| 13 | 11/26/20 | NO CLASS - Thanksgiving Break | - |
| 14 | 12/3/20 | Unit 9. Sustaining a Business Practice | Mapping It Out |
| 15 | 12/10/20 | Guest Panel | Networking Workshop |
| 16 | TBD | Class FInal | Sharknado Tank |
Section Three
Course Introduction and Learning Goals
When I was in undergraduate art school, I was required to take a senior-level course in "professional practices." All my love to my professors, but much of this class was focused on getting our portfolios together and how to plan to apply for graduate school. There was very little—from what I recall—information on how to actually turn our practices into profitable careers. Throughout my professional experience, I heard from many other creative practitioners that their college experience was very much the same.
This class was created as a direct response to that experience. I've built this curriculum from the dialogues I've had with current and graduated CMU students, successful creative practitioners in the field, and integrating lessons from a wide breadth of industries and professions. While there is no way we will be able to compress an entire business education into one course, my intention is to empower you with a vocabulary, a set of expectations, and a starting point that will empower you to start your professional journey.
| Sections |
|---|
| Learning Goals |
| Prerequisite Knowledge |
| Course Website and Resources |
| Course Units |
Learning Goals
This course is intended to expose students studying in creative fields to the basic principles, skills, and functions of business processes used every day in creative practices and industries. Running a successful creative practice - whether an individual studio practice, a temporary collaboration or commission, an incorporated business, or an incorporated non-profit - all require a foundational knowledge of basic organizational, legal, and financial structures and practices.
Throughout this course, students can expect:
- ...to develop a starting knowledge of basic business concepts;
- ...to develop a starting knowledge of the opportunities and risks associated with professionalizing their practice;
- ...to build a foundation of basic business ethics and best practices;
- ...to develop problem-solving skill sets and methodologies for managing creative projects and programs;
- ...to practice applying these learnings to their own creative practices.
Prerequisite Knowledge
This course is designed for students with no prior knowledge in business, business coursework or administrative experience. Please bring your personal experiences to the table and know that there is no such thing as a stupid question in this course.
Course Website and Resources
-
The entirety of course content will appear on this site. It will continue to be accessible after the course has ended.
-
There is no required textbook for this course.
-
Any resources mentioned in class or cited in lecture pages will be accessible for free online or through a public library.
Why? In the corner of my house, there is a bookshelf holding all of my (expensive) graduate school textbooks... collecting dust. Most of the things I need to cross-reference I can find online or at a library.
Yes, we could have a required textbook for this class, but I want you to develop an active practice of finding the resources, tools, research, answers and new questions as you go.
Course Units
This course has eight units. Each unit is a basic primer on a set of business concepts that I consider essential to running a creative practice.
| # | Unit | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Business Basics | An introduction to the course, we'll cover some broad concepts to situate ourselves in the world of business, we'll go over our goals for professionalization, and discuss a few themes that will guide our approach. |
| 2 | Business Formation | What are you? This unit will be a primer on how to organize the scaffolding needed to take your business to the outside world. We'll cover basic business structures—from sole proprietorships to corporations—examining the benefits and drawbacks of each. |
| 3 | Legal Agreements | Get it in writing! This unit is an introduction to agreements; and how we make those agreements concrete and legally enforceable. We'll start with the standards of legal agreements and then delve into contracts, best practices, negotiation, enforcement, and litigation. |
| 4 | Representation and Labor | The main focus of the unit will be on professional relationships—how do we define what our relationships are with the people we work with? Who can represent us and what are the implications for that relationship? How do we hire someone? In this unit, we'll cover the concept of agency and how that builds out into the common practices of defining, hiring, and managing a labor force. |
| 5 | Intellectual Property | As creative practitioners, we all actively engage in the act of creating, sharing, borrowing, and—in some cases—stealing intellectual property. The goal of this unit is to help you understand the concept of intellectual property, how it differs from physical property, what basic legal protections are afforded to IP, and how to ethically use and share the work of others. |
| 6 | Income Models | The most common question I hear from students is "How do I make money?" This unit will cover the different ways you can bring revenue into your business. We will cover different income streams including financing, fundraising, investments, passive, and earned income. |
| 7 | Pitch to Payment | The most pragmatic of our units, we will cover the common business processes a creative practitioner should take from pitching an idea to a client through to the final payment. We will cover the basics of proposal development, contracting, invoicing, and methods of payment. |
| 8 | Managing Finances | Once funds have come into your business, you have to manage them to be effective and sustainable. In this unit, we will cover an introduction to accounting concepts, budgeting, taxes, and long-term planning. |
| 9 | Sustaining a Business Practice | The final unit of our class will focus on turning a kernel of a business into a sustainable and profitable practice, year over year. We will cover higher-level concepts around business models, business plans, and strategy development. |
Section Four
Grading Policies
| Sections |
|---|
| Grading Breakdown |
| Grading Scale for Course |
| Scoring Rubric for Workshops |
| Make-Up Policies |
Grading Breakdown
This course will have 14 workshops—one for each of our class sessions (minus the first day of class). Each assessment is worth 5 points for a total of 70 points. All assessments are graded as pass, incomplete, or fail.
Why? This course is focused on the practical application of business concepts to your own practices. It is not about selecting the right answer on a quiz or writing the perfect essay. We're going to practice what we preach.
I cannot emphasize enough that all workshops will be during class. There may be a required prep component as homework, but all graded activity happens during class.
70 points — Assessments
30 points - Default starting points for the course
-----------
100 Points
Grading Scale for Course Grade
(A) — 90 to 100 points
(B) — 80 to 89 points
(C) — 70 to 79 points
(D) — 60 to 69 points
(R) — 59 points and below
Scoring Rubric for Workshops
All workshops are pass/fail. Incomplete and/or late assessments will receive half-credit.
* (P) Pass — The graded activity was completed according to prompt.
Full credit — 5 points.
* (I) Incomplete/Late — The graded activity was either incomplete, the student did not follow prompt, and/or did not participate due to an unexcused absence.
Half credit — 2.5 points.
* (F) Fail — Student did not participate in the graded activity or schedule a make-up assignment.
No credit — 0 Points.
Make-Up Policies
- If you have an excused absence, you may schedule office hours to complete the workshop at a later date with no penalty (full 5 points). Please inform me about the reason for your absence—I am very flexible on what counts as an excusable absence, including religious observances, job interviews, university-sanctioned events, personal health, mental health days, etc.
- If you have an unexcused absence, you may schedule office hours to complete the workshop for half-credit (2.5 points).
- Instructor must be contacted about make-up work within 1 week of the original workshop date. If a make-up session is not requested in that time period, the student will receive a failing grade for that workshop.
Section Five
Class Policies
| Sections |
|---|
| Class Etiquette |
| Attendance Policy |
| Request for Accommodations |
| Recording Policy |
| Safer Spaces Policy |
| Health and Wellness |
Class Etiquette
There are three things that are non-negotiable in my classroom: Identity, Respect, and Privacy. You are encouraged to hold me accountable to these standards.
1. Identity
However someone chooses to be identified (identity expression or non-expression, social and/or economic status, professional goals, etc) is how they will be identified by their classmates and by their instructor. We do not debate identities in this course—we seek to empower them.
2. Respect
This class is not a passive lecture from an all-knowing voice, this class is meant to be an active conversation between professionals in different stages of their careers. Please feel free to interrupt me at any time, but allow your fellow students to finish their thought. No one gets to be rude or ramble. There will be no interrupting or speaking over, classmates. Threatening or aggressive language will not be tolerated. Students engaging in such behavior will be verbally warned, and if the behavior continues, asked to leave the classroom.
3. Privacy
These are strange times and many of us will be attending class from our personal spaces. While I expect participation in class, you have permission to turn off your video feed, mute yourself, or otherwise protect your privacy. If the tools available in zoom do not provide you the ability to participate in class while simultaneously providing you a level of privacy, please meet with me to discuss alternatives.
Attendance Policy
- If you are tardy (6:55pm or later) three times, you will be marked down for one absence.
- Three or more unexcused absences will result in the drop of one letter grade.
Please look at the semester schedule and see if you need to miss class for any excusable reason (religious observance, job interview, university-sanctioned event, etc.) and notify me as soon as possible.
We may be able to make alternative arrangements for completing workshops. If there are extenuating circumstances that require you to miss more than one class session, please come and discuss this issue with me in advance of your absence(s).
Requests for Accommodations
If you have a disability and have an accommodations letter from the Disability Resources office, I encourage you to discuss your accommodations and needs with me as early in the semester as possible.
I will work with you to ensure that accommodations are provided as appropriate. If you suspect that you may have a disability and would benefit from accommodations but are not yet registered with the Office of Disability Resources, I encourage you to contact them at [email protected].
Recording Policy
No student may record any classroom discussions or workshop activity without express written consent from me or a request via the Office of Disability Resources ([email protected]).
Safer Spaces Policy
As an educator, I am dedicated to providing a harassment-free environment in the classroom for everyone, regardless of race, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, age, religion, or marital status.
Harassment includes offensive comments related to any protected personal characteristic, deliberate intimidation, sustained disruption of speech, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention. Students asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately.
If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact me or Mark Cato in the School of Art.
Health and Wellness
Take care of yourself. Do your best to maintain a healthy lifestyle this semester by eating well, exercising, avoiding drugs and alcohol, getting enough sleep, and taking some time to relax. If you need to miss class in order to maintain your health, that is an excusable absence and you will not be docked points. Please alert me that the reason for your absence was for "personal health"—no other justification is required.
This will help you achieve your goals and cope with stress.
All of us benefit from support during times of struggle. There are many helpful resources available on campus and an important part of the college experience is learning how to ask for help. Asking for support sooner rather than later is almost always helpful.
If you or anyone you know experiences any academic stress, difficult life events, or feelings like anxiety or depression, we strongly encourage you to seek support. Counseling and Psychological Services (CaPS) is here to help: call 412-268-2922 and visit their website at http://www.cmu.edu/counseling/. Consider reaching out to a friend, faculty or family member you trust for help getting connected to the support that can help
If you or someone you know is feeling suicidal or in danger of self-harm, call someone immediately, day or night:
- ACaPS: 412-268-2922
- Re:solve Crisis Network: 888-796-8226
- If the situation is life-threatening, call the police: CMU Police: 412-268-2323 / Off-campus: 911