Scope of Work (S.O.W.) is a talent development agency for underrepresented young people attempting to establish equity and reflective representation in the creative industry. S.O.W. is founded by three people of color career artists and educators with over a decade working in the arts education sector. After a year of building a strategic plan and incubating several program tracks at NEW INC, the New Museum incubator program, S.O.W. is seeking to secure funding to pilot and test a full year of programming.
S.O.W.’s vision is to build a more inclusive creative ecosystem. This is critical because the sustainability of the creative and artistic community is squarely centered on the investment in young artists and creatives from diverse background and experiences. The S.O.W. model is constructed to power intentional pathways to the resources, mentorship, and opportunities that are critical for underrepresented young people to thrive. These pathways attempt to defy and disrupt systematic barriers like traditional higher arts education, antiquated unpaid internship programs and biased hiring practices in the creative sector. S.O.W’s solution is an ecosystem is designed around three central program tracks: talent development, talent pipeline, and talent agency.
S.O.W.’s Talent Development track is focused on creative skill building with the aim to cultivate a new pool of qualified youth talent (content creators: photographers, filmmakers, writers, designers, visual artists etc) and foster support networks to sustain diverse youth talent. This is accomplished through a number of strategies that we will drive in 2018-2019. S.O.W. builds a bridge between underrepresented young people and the creative and arts industry by partnering with professionals to facilitate Master Classes skill-building workshops, and S.O.W Lab Artist Panels. S.O.W. advances young people’s understanding of creative industry practices and skill sets through curriculum-based programming, curated studio experiences with established artists and creative professionals, as well as Site Visits and Shadow Days with partner companies. S.O.W. also deepens the dialogue between our youth creative network and the creative arts community through hosting purposeful community programming, networking events, and discussion series. This is powered by S.O.W.’s co-founders serving as thought leaders in the creative industry, education and youth development spaces, and arts and cultural institutions. Lastly, S.O.W. champions POC youth talent to power our mission by highlighting their work through showcases, exhibits, and conferences.
S.O.W.’s Talent Pipeline track is the S.O.W. Fellowship program which connects young people with real-world pre-professional experiences. In the summer of 2017, S.O.W. partnered with Hive Research Lab, NYU and Indiana University to pilot and research a paid fellowship program with five young creatives of color at five creative companies in NYC. The research was conducted over six weeks to measure and determine the circumstances necessary for a young creative of color to have a positive first workplace experience. S.O.W. is producing a comprehensive report that includes qualitative and quantitative primary data from the fellowship in addition to larger scale industry data and research about the invisibility of people of color and women working in the creative sector across industries, regions and job types. In the 2018-2019 program year, S.O.W. intends to iterate on its annual S.O.W. Fellowship program with a larger cohort (5-10 fellows and 5-10 creative companies) for six months as opposed to six weeks. S.O.W. plans to continue to interrogate the antiquated internship practices that exist in the creative and arts sectors through research and development of this new and more equitable fellowship model.
S.O.W’s Talent Agency track connects youth with meaningful professional opportunities. S.O.W’s Talent Agency is essential to closing the opportunity gap for young POC artists as they begin to pursue their creative careers and freelance work. The primary strategy is to connect companies with youth talent by creating an infrastructure for companies to discover and hire young creatives. S.O.W. recruits youth talent for companies, brands, studios, and institutions for freelance, project-based, part-time, and full-time. This is achieved by attracting and retaining youth talent to power the S.O.W.’s talent roster by establishing a strong brand presence in youth spaces, building a strong digital presence, strengthening cultural clout and relevancy in the creative and arts community, and assembling an S.O.W. Youth Advisory Board. S.O.W. is powering existing and potential partnerships with creative companies, brands, studios, institutions through hosting cultivation events, engaging in public speaking, thought leadership, activating the S.O.W. network, and assembling an advisory board of creative industry leaders. S.O.W. is also building a partnership with Young Creative Agency (Y.C.A), a design studio based in LA, to advance our mission in other markets.
S.O.W.’s ecosystem model is designed to realize equity and reflective representation of those who hold the keys to the future of one of America’s fastest-growing sectors: young creatives of color. Our strategies provide broader value to organizations committed to making meaningful investments in the next generation of talent and approaches to future-proof the creative community. S.O.W. is primed to build on its achievement from this past year. Since January 2018, S.O.W. has recruited 85 new members to join their network of over 300 young people in NYC and launched a full semester of talent development programming (with an average of 90% attendance rate). This summer (2018), S.O.W. will be releasing its Fellowship research report including key findings and best practices for supporting young people of color in the creative sector. The S.O.W. Talent Agency has successfully recruited and placed six young people at creative companies, conducted youth insight sessions, and secured client work with major brands, such as Puma. It’s time for equality, innovation, and we hope to work with Fractured Atlas’ fiscal sponsorship to manifest our vision.
