Since the inception of the CSS Workforce Development Program in 2024, it has become clear that not everyone is interested in, or able to, work in a traditional workplace. It can be quite the challenge to locate jobs that are part-time, supportive, and accessible to folks with disabilities or criminal history, to name just a few of the barriers to employment faced by the unhoused.

To help meet the need for a more flexible employment pathway, CSS launched an Arts Entrepreneurship Workforce Development program in partnership with MECCA and Radiant Community Arts, funded by a generous grant from Lane Community Health Council. Thanks to the combined efforts, we were able to offer a group of eight clients training and support in making an income through the arts.

This support included: studio time and free art supplies at Radiant; class instruction, MECCA Bucks, and additional studio time at MECCA; and bus passes, cell phones, reading glasses, notebooks, pens, calendars, meals, and ongoing employment support from CSS.

CSS has many natural entrepreneurs in our client population. The participants selected for this pilot program collectively hold decades of experience in making a living through entrepreneurial efforts, whether busking, selling jewelry and craft items as market vendors, performing yard work, or earning income through “canning,” the process of reclaiming recyclable materials from the waste stream.

CSS also boasts a talented community of artists with years of experience in creating art, including individuals who have studied formally at the university level and hold Bachelor’s and/or Master’s degrees in fine art.

Nate is one of our recent graduates of the Arts Entrepreneurship program and also a recent graduate of the City of Eugene Community Court program, which is hosted at our Roosevelt community. Despite producing wonderful artwork at a prolific rate, Nate has lost the entirety of his body of work due to many factors, including police “sweeps,” theft, and damage from exposure to the elements during his time on the streets.

Now sheltered by CSS, Nate’s career as an artist, which began back in his undergraduate years, can resume. For almost two years now, CSS shelter and aftercare participants have had the opportunity to take part in our award-winning program with Radiant Community Arts. This art program for the unhoused offers two hours of open studio time each Friday in a bright and well-stocked room filled with art supplies, along with supportive arts assistance for those who need it.

However, taking the next step, from creating art to sustaining a modest income stream, has proven elusive. This is an experience not uncommon among artists, whatever their housing status.

Enter Mitra Gruwell, Community Engagement Coordinator with MECCA. Mitra brings a unique combination of experience: she is a successful working artist and an instructor who has taught a workforce development program for the unhoused through her Viking Textile industrial sewing program. Mitra created an eight-class series in marketing and selling art.

The Arts Entrepreneurship workforce development program launched in the first week of July. The eight weeks of classes covered topics ranging from “Ways you can make money from art,” “Sourcing materials for your art and creating a functional workspace,” “Marketing yourself as an art brand,” and “Pricing your art and craft items,” to “Productizing your art to sell and how to display your work,” and “Money stuff: consignment and gallery percentages, contract work, tracking expenses and income, profit and loss.”

Nate commented that Mitra’s class was the most useful one he had encountered in his art career. When asked for further feedback, Nate praised the “great, practical, hands-on teachings” of the course, and said he enjoyed the “free discussion amongst the group” most of all. “It felt like we [were] a fraternity of artists working toward a common goal of marketability and sustaining ourselves with our efforts.”

The course concluded with a culminating sales event held at the Hybrid Gallery during the Last Friday art walk evening market in the Whiteaker neighborhood this past September. Six of the original eight participants sold artwork at the event. Nate sold $70 worth of artwork that night and feels inspired to continue sharing his art with the world.

CSS, MECCA, and Radiant plan to offer this innovative Arts Entrepreneurship Workforce Development program again, likely in Spring 2026.