(New Philadelphia, Ohio) – For its second year, Tuscarawas Arts Partnership (TAP) is pleased to announce the ArtsThrive Program has returned with a focus on taxes and finances for the arts in the midst of a pandemic.

The ArtsThrive Program is a series of professional and business development workshops tailored to the creative individual and business needs of Tuscarawas County artists. The goal of the program is to provide resources and tools for the artist’s tool belt to help their art career or business advance further in Tuscarawas County and beyond.

The topics will be facilitated by guest speaker Elaine Grogan Luttrull and the workshops will be held virtually. Elaine Grogan Luttrull, CPA-PFS, AFC® is the founder of Minerva Financial Arts, a company devoted to building financial literacy and empowerment in creative individuals and organizations. The following topics will be covered in the workshops:

Saturday, March 6, 2021 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM |Taxes in the Age of COVID – Taxes are always complicated for individuals in the arts, and this year, they will be especially so as individuals navigate unemployment and emergency relief in addition to creative earnings. We’ll review federal and state income tax basics for creative individuals, and discuss common deductions claimed by creative entrepreneurs, plus what is different for 2020.

As part of this workshop, we’ll:

• Identify ordinary and necessary deductions common to creative businesses.
• Review the overall income tax landscape for federal and state filings.
• Review the unemployment and emergency relief tax implications from  2020.
• Identify records to retain for tax purposes and effective systems for tracking expenses and income.

Saturday, May 1, 2021, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM | Arts Funding and the COVID-19 Pandemic – Pop Quiz: Who funds the arts in the United States? If you said a complex web of federal, state, and local resources, supplemented by individual contributions and purchases, you’d be exactly right. And if you quickly realized all of those sources are under financial stress right now, you’d be even more correct.

As the economy and the arts industry grapple with major financial challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is worth understanding the funding landscape in detail. As part of this workshop, we’ll:

• Review the typical funding structure of an organization in the United  States and the COVID-19 impact on those structures.
• Review the financial impact faced by artists as a result of the COVID-19  pandemic.
• Strategize actionable solutions to very big financial problems.

To register for the free workshops and learn more about the program, visit Tuscarawas Arts Partnership’s website: https://www.tuscarawasartspartnership.org/artsthrive . Participants must register in order to receive the Zoom link and presentation materials for the workshops.

TAP’s mission is to create and support environments that awaken, empower, and inspire. TAP’s vision is to promote a visible, sustainable, local arts culture through advocacy, education, and funding. This can be accomplished by encouraging the arts to thrive across Tuscarawas County and encouraging partnerships between the arts with other art, business, and community agencies to create positive impact and benefits throughout the county.

TAP can be reached at tuscarawasartspartnership@gmail.com