You’ve been asking for this.
Over the years, CDCP has received many questions from artists, curators, and cultural entrepreneurs about how to start a project, grow their art careers, or set up an exhibition. We know from firsthand experience how tricky it can be to navigate everything—especially with all the nepotism and gatekeeping going on. Artists and creatives have a lot to manage and often there’s no well-worn path to follow.
We’re here to help! CDCP’s Executive Director Casey Droege, Managing Director Hannah Turpin, and Finance Director Candace Opper are opening their agendas to meet with artists and creative entrepreneurs individually to talk through their burning questions.
Potential topics to address:
Revamping your artist statement & website
Working with a curator
Vision boarding and spreadsheet organization
Treating your art like a business
Budgeting (annual and project-based)
Costing your artwork
Accounting for your time & overhead costs
Invoicing for your work
Paying quarterly taxes
Accessing free/low-cost financial resources
Creating business plans
Building artist one-sheets and marketing docs
Financing projects
Building revenue streams
Costing and selling artwork
Planning an exhibit
Best practices for collaborative ventures
Building project budgets
Floorplans & displays
Artwork checklists & labeling
Exhibition planning & proposals (solo & group shows)
Institutional & curatorial relationship building
Rates for Private Mentorship
If you’re wondering if this is a good fit for you, reach out with a quick email to info@caseydroege.com and we’ll talk it out. If you feel ready to jump in, you’re welcome to purchase an hour of mentorship with one or all three of us. You’ll hear back from us within 3-5 days to start scheduling your session(s).
About Your Mentors
Casey Droege
Executive Director / Owner
Droege (She / They) is an artist and cultural producer with a practice that’s hard to pin down. It floats between organizing and object making, while incorporating entrepreneurialism (because it’s useless if you can’t eat). Her work has been written about in the New York Times, ARTnews, Temporary Art Review, ARTSY, and most Pittsburgh publications.
Hannah Turpin
Managing Director
Hannah Turpin (She / They) is a curator who knows Good Art. As the Managing Director of Casey Droege Cultural Productions, they co-pilot the ship with Droege, lead program planning for Pedantic Arts Residency, and manage CDCP’s crew. Prior to joining the team in 2021, Turpin earned their MA in Art History from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts and worked at museums like Leslie Lohman Museum and Carnegie Museum of Art. Turpin has curated such shows as Heavenly Realms: works by Eriko Hattori (SPRING/BREAK Art Show, Los Angeles, 2023), Elle Pérez (Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, 2021), Counterpressures (Carnegie Museum of Art, 2020), and The Self Realized: queering the art of self-portraiture (Brew House Association, 2019). Turpin is originally from Minnesota and is a big fan of its state fair, which is the second-largest in the country.
Candace Jane Opper
Finance + Operations Director
Opper (She / Her) is a writer, an artist, and a numbers person. Her first book, Certain and Impossible Events, was selected by Cheryl Strayed for the Kore Press Memoir Award and featured in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love. She has worked with a variety of organizations that strive to promote arts and culture as a means of connecting people across communities. In addition to her work with CDCP, she runs Fringe Benefits Bookkeeping, a small firm providing bookkeeping and organizational services to small businesses and nonprofits in the Pittsburgh region. In her free time, she enjoys embarking on tedious craft projects and making zines with her seven-year-old kiddo.