Learn How to Make a Living in the Arts at Ryerson University

Gain essential business skills needed throughout the creative chain.

Ryerson University’s Chang School of Continuing Education offers arts and entertainment administration courses to help you enhance your marketing, management, audience engagement, sponsorship, and social media promotion to support your creative work.

MAKING A LIVING IN THE ARTS COURSE: STARTS SEPTEMBER 9

This September, we are offering Making a Living in the Arts(course enrolment page: CDAM 100), a foundational course designed for arts managers, potential managers, and individual artists who want to learn the business skills required throughout the creative chain – creation, production, marketing and promotion, pricing and selling, distribution, and managing finance. Students will build a case study based or a real or imagined project of their own.

Your Instructor: Sandy Crawley

Learn directly from Sandy Crawley, who has worked in the arts for over 40 years (as performer, musician, musical director, instructor, and volunteer board member) and has provided management services to a number of nonprofit arts organizations for the last 15 years. He has played a leadership role in several organizations across the cultural sector, sharing knowledge and experience that informs his teaching.

Learn Costume Painting and Dyeing Skills this Spring at Ryerson University

Develop a fundamental understanding of fabric dyeing and painting.

Ryerson University’s Chang School of Continuing Education offers hands-on courses in Costume Specialties that give creative artists from any field – including theatre, fashion, textile, and visual arts – an opportunity to explore and develop creative practice in a studio setting.

COSTUME PAINTING AND DYEING COURSE: STARTS APRIL 29

This spring, we are offering Costume Painting and Dyeing (course enrolment page: CDTH 460). In this introductory dyeing and fabric painting course, students will experiment with a multitude of techniques and explore historical and theatrical applications. Topics may include resist dyeing techniques, silk screening, stamping, stenciling, silk painting, marbling, and costume breakdown. Classes begin with a short lecture and demonstration followed by hands-on exercises.

Your Instructor: Alex Gilbert

Learn directly from Alex Gilbert, who has worked at Ryerson University as the Head of Wardrobe since 2003. In addition to working at Ryerson School of Performance, she has worked in various capacities within wardrobe departments across Ontario and the city of Toronto, including Tarragon Theatre, The Company Theatre, Factory Theatre, Soulpepper Theatre Company, and the Blyth Festival. Alongside her supervisory work at Ryerson, Alex also teaches and advises the students in the Theatre and Fashion programs. She has a Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies from York University. Her thesis, To Dye For: From Seed to Storage, researched the transition from natural to synthetic dyes in late nineteenth- century Ontario. Alex is also the winner of the 2004 Pauline McGibbon Award for Production Craftsperson.

Scheduling: Mondays and Wednesdays, 6:30 p.m.–9:30 p.m., April 29–May 22, 2019

Duration: 19.5 hours

This course can be taken as a standalone course or as part of The Chang School’s Course Series in Costume Specialties. There are no prerequisites and courses can be taken in any order. No previous experience is required for any of the courses. These courses are suitable for people interested in pursuing theatrical training part-time, costume and cosplay artists wishing to expand their skill set, and artisans wishing to gain alternative techniques and knowledge to incorporate into their own practice.

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