The Indiana Arts Commission (IAC) announced today that 14 creative small business owners completed Vision & Venture. Vision & Venture is a new, six-week virtual workshop series focused on business processes and essential start-up tasks for creatives with less than one year of business experience.
Vision & Venture is the third program in the IAC’s Business Development suite of offerings. The program joins the On-Ramp Creative Entrepreneur Accelerator, which started in 2018, and The Creative Leap Workshop Series, which launched earlier in 2025. Vision & Venture is designed to be the entry program for artists starting a creative small business. The On-Ramp program is designed for emerging creative entrepreneurs looking to pursue a portfolio career, and The Creative Leap is the culminating program, designed for artists who have been in business for a minimum of five to seven years and looking to inject strategic energy into their existing practices.
The creative small business owners that completed the six-week virtual workshop series are:
- Alecia Esarey, Grant County
- Alisa Moore, Vigo County
- Amanda Hengeveld, Greene County
- Beks Freeman, Tippecanoe County
- Claire Pendleton, Marion County
- Emily Mellentine, Marion County
- Karley Duncan, Hamilton County
- Laura Yahya, Marion County
- Makenzie Lukas, Marion County
- Mary Marquart, Howard County
- Richelle Brown, Marion County
- Rochelle Berry, Howard County
- ShaRon Wilson, Hendricks County
- Terry Moore, Morgan County
As a part of the workshop series, participants defined the vision for their business, registered their entity, established tracking mechanisms to gauge performance and growth, and gained insight into processes that will allow their business to grow from a solid foundation.
"Indiana's artists and creative entrepreneurs are innovators who are supporting their local economies, growing their businesses, and employing Hoosiers,” said Jordan Adams, IAC Artist Services Program Manager. “The Arts Commission is proud to support creatives in the early stage of their business development through Vision & Venture.”