Karen Atkinson GYST: Getting Your Sh*t Together

ABOUT GYST-Ink

GYST-Ink is a full-service, artist-run company committed to empowering and educating artists so they can develop successful and sustainable careers.

GYST SOFTWARE: GYST 3.0 is the most comprehensive and affordable business solution available to artists today. The software guides you through the business of being an artist, providing all the organizational tools, tested advice, and vital resources necessary to build and maintain a thriving art practice. Available for Mac (including Intel & Leopard) and PC (works on Vista), GYST is only $149. If you are an affiliate member (see below) it’s only $129. GYST also offers significant discounts for bulk purchases. For more information email info@gyst-ink.com.

FREE DEMO DOWNLOAD: Try GYST 3.0 for free for 30 days by visit our website and downloading the fully functional demo. www.gyst-ink.com.

SOFTWARE INCLUDES:

Artwork Inventory System

Image, Audio, & Video Archive

Grant Writing Tutorials

Long & Short-Term Planning Tools

Exhibition Checklists & Guides

Presentation & Exhibition Tools

Condition Reports

Legal Advice & Contracts

Artist’s Statement & Resume Tutorials

Mailing List with E-mail capabilities

Research Archive with hundreds of web links

And TONS of info about:

Aging, Billing & Collection, Business Licenses, Charitable Contributions, Commissions, Community Service, Curating, Disabilities, Ethics, Experimental Materials, Fame, Finances, Finding a Job, Fiscal Sponsorship, Galleries & Selling, Health & Safety Issues, Housing, Insurance, Inventory, Keeping Records, Loans, Networking, Nonprofits, Presenting Yourself, Pricing Your Work, Printing, Renting & Leasing a Studio, Self-Employment, Studio Visits & Open Studios, Taxes, Teaching, Unemployment, Websites, Works for Hire, Writing, Estate Planning, Teaching, and Shipping & Crating.

ARTIST’S MANUAL: The GYST Artist Manual is a handbook for an artist’s entire career. It’s packed with over 400 pages of indispensible information every artist needs to know, like: inventories, contracts, grants, galleries, alternative venues, art school, the web, PR, resumes, artist’s statements, and much much more. At only $29, it’s an affordable and very useful tool every artist can use, no matter where they are in their career.

TEACHER’S MANUAL: GYST’s Teacher’s Manual details everything you need to teach a professional practices class in your school or non-profit. It’s filled with a comprehensive and customizable 13-week syllabus, lesson plans, hand-outs, resources, and lectures. Now you can teach Getting Your Sh*t Together in your community and help other artists develop professional practices.

ARTISTs* AT WORK: www.gyst-ink.com/blog GYST publishes a dynamic blog dedicated to providing readers with up-to-date information on issues important to working artists today.

CUSTOM DATABASES: GYST works with artists and galleries to create custom databases to suit their needs.  A few notable clients include John Baldessari, Mike Kelly, and Cheech Marin and LM Projects.

WORKSHOPS: GYST teaches custom designed workshops on all aspects of developing a successful art career for artists and nonprofit organizations all over the country.  Workshops range from two hours, one day or up to 10 weeks.  GYST will customize workshops for your city or organization. 10-week workshops are held in Los Angeles each Fall and Spring. Scholarships and partial scholarships are available. To schedule a workshop email info@gyst-ink.com

ARTIST STATEMENT & RESUME REVIEWS: You can now have your artist statement and resume reviewed by a GYST professional who will suggest improvements and work with you throughout the process.  This is a great resource if you are applying to graduate school or writing a grant. For more information email info@gyst-ink.com.

SCANNING & ARCHIVING SERVICES: In today’s art world a digital archive is a must. Our professional staff will help you scan slides, digitize video, and enter all your info into our unbeatable GYST software. Scanning starts at just $2 per slide. This is an excellent resource for individual artists looking to preserve their slide archive, collectors who want to streamline their tracking system, or non-profits applying for grants.

DIGITAL VIDEO & PHOTO DOCUMENTING SERVICES: Our team of professional photographers and videographers based in Southern California will document your work with top-of-the-line equipment, ensuring excellent reproductions. Our rates are very competitive and affordable as we have the needs of artists in mind.

SKILLS BANK: For just $25 a year you can sign up with our skills bank, post your job skills and have other artists and employers hire you. Browsing and responding to listings is free. Sign up now at http://gyst-ink.com/gyst/skills-bank-list.

ONLINE RESOURCES: We maintain one of the best online databases of resources available to artists today. Visit http://gyst-ink.com/resources/businessofart.php for an extensive list of information every artist needs to know, along with some of the information we provide in the GYST 3.0 software.

AFFILIATE PROGRAM: Members of affiliate organizations receive discounts on GYST services and software.

Affiliates include: Cal Arts, Art Institute of Chicago Alumni, Otis College of Art & Design, Side Street Projects, The Women’s Caucus for Art, The Alliance of Artist Communities, and more.

THE GYST STORY

GYST-Ink is an artist-run company providing information, technology and solutions created by artists for artists. Our mission is to support artists and arts organizations with an integrated mix of software, services and information in order to keep artists working. GYST–Ink is dedicated to empowering and educating artists so that they can develop sustainable and successful careers on their own terms.

Spearheaded by Karen Atkinson, GYST-Ink has been the leading resource for professional practice, art advice and art business services in Southern California for over ten years, helping thousands of artists from all over America get on the road to career success. Founded in 2000 by Karen Atkinson as a software company, GYST's products and services now include professional practices software, a blog, a newsletter, career development workshops, artist resume and statement reviewing, document and artwork documentation and archiving, a Skills Bank, web development, and consulting services.

GYST got its start in the late 1990's. Karen Atkinson used her knowledge as a media, installation, public artist, independent curator, CalArts professor, grant writer and collaborator to create one of the first professional practices courses for artists in the country called Getting Your Sh*t Together. Artists came from as far away as San Diego to attend the ten-week workshop taught at both CalArts (Valencia, CA) and Side Street Projects (Pasadena, CA). At this time each student received an eight hundred-page binder containing resources about the business of being an artist Karen had collected over twenty years. In response to the success of the course, GYST was founded. Karen soon created GYST v1.0, for MAC & PC, which included over five hundred pages of professional practices resources culled from over twenty years of lectures and teaching experience.

Since 2006, GYST has rapidly expanded. We have brought on new team members, updated our computer software to v.2.8 for MAC & PC. We have redesigned our website, and we now offer a selection of new products and services that are a direct response to the needs of the artist community at large. GYST Ink also publishes the ARTISTs* AT WORK blog (gyst-ink.com/blog), providing readers with valuable, up-to-date information about the business of being a professional artist.

Our team now consists of Karen Atkinson, President/Founder, Tucker Neel, Vice President, Chris Bassett, Internet Technology Manager, Monica Hicks, Operations Manager, Ari Kletzky, Business Advisor, Freddy Bustillos, Programmer, Calvin Lee, Archive Technician, Elleni Sclavenitis, Video Editor, April Totten, Video Editor, Michael Grodsky, Financial and Health Insurance Specialist, Bernard Brunon, writer. There is also a range of other arts professionals, from grant writing and gallery management experts, to lawyers that are part of the GYST extended network. This dynamic team of professional artists enables GYST to expand our national mission to provide tangible professional practices information and resources to contemporary artists through various support services in order to keep artists working.

All kinds of artists, including students and art school graduates, self-taught artists, young and older artists, emerging and established artists, benefit creatively, personally and monetarily from having an organized and directed professional life. We are here to help artists of all kinds on the road to personal and professional success.