Students
Art is my Occupation: Kickstart your Art!
BEAM partners with many organizations on campus to connect students to different experiences that may help them along their career path. Art is My Occupation (AIMO) is a committee of eight different organizations around campus, including BEAM, that empowers students to explore their personal and artistic identity, connects them to professional creatives, and provides career guidance and resources. For “Kickstart Your Art!” students learned how to promote their work, develop their creative brand, and raise money through online platforms. Breakout sessions were led by Kickstarter, Patreon, Music Platforms and Online Portfolios.
The Student
“I’ve always wanted to be a comic writer, but [oftentimes] here on campus you have to focus on your major and put that…other goal on the backburner. [So] I think it’s cool when Stanford[BEAM] is able to host stuff like this—when [you’re]able to bring two worlds together. Not only can you do your homework and pursue [your major] but you can also learn about this other world of awesome things that you want to do. It’s really cool—getting to see more of the world that I normally only get to hear about over the Internet.”
— KRISTEL BUGAYONG, ‘18 (feedback on the Patreon breakout session at AiMO, after connecting with Shane Zackery about potentially launching her own Patreon page)
The Company
“I just think the best thing in the world is to present creative people with all of their options and let them choose the one that’s best for them…I’m never going to fight with someone about one source of funding being better than some other, [because] I just want [these creative] people to be super successful. So the fact that you can [come] into [this] room—and your school has set up all these people…[to be] here for you[artists] to be successful—just mad props to BEAM! Mad props to you all...Never stop doing that!”
—SHANE ZACKERY, Representative from Patreon, a crowdfunding platform catered towards artists (on the value of AiMO in exposing artists to resources and funding opportunities)
