SAVED

STARVING ARTISTS VOCATIONAL EDUCATION & DEVELOPMENT, INC. 

SAVED is an official IRS recognized 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit organization operating in New York City and surrounding areas.
SAVED's mission is to mentor, develop, educate, and train deserving artists in order to help them reach their full potential in life and career. SAVED seeks to assist and enable artists in areas often neglected or overlooked, therefore significantly increasing their chance to achieve success.

WHO IS SAVED DESIGNED TO HELP???

While all artists are welcome to enroll, SAVED is primarily designed to help aspiring, emerging, and/or starving artists who are either within the first ten years of their professional career or who have not yet achieved a state of financial independence (i.e., $30,000 in annual income or above) solely from wages earned from their artistic endeavors.  In addition, SAVED seeks to expand opportunities for women, minorities, disabled, or LGBTQ artists who traditionally have faced discrimination and/or similar challenges or barriers to success that are difficult to overcome.

WHAT PROBLEM(s) IS SAVED ATTEMPTING TO ADDRESS???

Despite seemingly infinite talent and determination, the average emerging artist faces many challenges during the initial phase of their professional career (typically a ten-year development period before being “discovered” or finally “making it” by reaching real financial independence).  

Such roadblocks include overwhelming student loan debt and financial hardship, frequently unscrupulous business partners, discouraging rejection and criticism, limited networks or meaningful relationships, fierce competition, poor living conditions, frequent prejudice and discrimination, and other unconscionable personal obstacles and attacks (e.g., the Harvey Weinstein’s or NXIVM’s of the world) – not to mention the physical and mental demands required to achieve artistic excellence.

HOW DOES SAVED PLAN TO ACCOMPLISH ITS MISSION???

The key ways in which SAVED operates to achieve its mission include, but are not limited to:

  1. Identifying areas of critical need for education and training that are often neglected or deficient within artists, while reinforcing desired behaviors to bring about lasting change;
  2. Dedicating what scarce resources and limited benefits are available to helping only DESERVING artists – who demonstrate personal traits and behaviors to be admired and encouraged in others (i.e., positive role models), irrespective of talent or technical skills;
  3. Assisting with “sponsored” artists’ life/career needs during the critical < 10 year professional development period, therefore enabling them to focus exclusively on reaching their potential;
  4. Affording such artists an enhanced opportunity for public exposure and critical recognition through publication, production, media/marketing, promotion, & social networking;
  5. Instilling diversity in roles traditionally limited for women, minorities, disabled, or LGBTQ artists without discrimination, while expanding the universe and availability of such roles;
  6. Dedicating and focusing the bulk of external resources where they are needed most (i.e. on the artists!), while ensuring both efficient and effective operations and service delivery;
  7. Enabling and empowering artists to bring about positive change in their own lives as well as among their peers;
  8. Transforming the Arts (via the artists) from the ground up over time;
  9. Maximizing the use of the four “C”s (Communication, Cooperation, Coordination, and/or Consolidation) with other arts focused non-profit organizations; and
  10. Providing a means for an alternative, viable, long-term career path for artists (an if/then scenario) who are unable to achieve financial independence from the arts – i.e., “Plan B”.

HOW DOES SAVED ACTUALLY WORK???

SAVED works in two separate and distinct ways:

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS

Artists of all kinds, as well as those serving in other industry-related functions, can attend any or all of SAVED’s free educational seminars or workshops at any time.

TANGIBLE BENEFITS

Artists who successfully complete SAVED’s full multi-part educational series, assuming all other essential qualifying conditions are met, are automatically eligible to receive tangible benefits from SAVED.  Alternatively, isolated and individualized benefits can be earned through artists’ personal efforts assisting SAVED as an organization (e.g., donating their time, sharing Facebook posts, completing surveys, writing donor “thank you” letters, etc.).