Artists, budding entrepreneurs gain a guide at new ErieMade Business Academy at ECAT building

Since its inception in 2019, the Erie Center for Arts and Technology has offered after-school arts programs and job training and aimed to be a hub for community services.

ECAT has expanded its portfolio.

It has launched a program to help artists and other creators learn business fundamentals so they can start their own businesses or undertake other entrepreneurial ventures.

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The free six-month program, called the ErieMade Business Academy, will enroll 21 applicants and be based at the ECAT building, the former Wayne School at 650 East Ave., just south of East Sixth Street.

The application process opened on Jan. 6, with participants set to be selected in early February.

Participants will meet individually, in person and virtually, with the project consultant, Kristen Santiago, an Erie artist who runs two small businesses: Gone Local Erie, which specializes in Erie-themed gift boxes, and Ivy + Atlas, a consulting firm for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

Santiago, 28, said she began learning about small businesses from her husband, David Santiago, who founded a knife-making business in 2012 and runs it out of their garage.

"Every business is different. Every situation is different," Kristen Santiago said. "There is no one way to start a business. But there are the best practices that can be taught and applied."

She said she hopes to guide budding entrepreneurs on how to get started and what to expect in terms of practical issues, such as growth, accountability and legal issues.

"I want to help them avoid challenges that come with guessing what to do next," Santiago said.

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Santiago said a wide variety of people had applied for what ended up being the 21 spots in the ErieMade Business Academy. The academy had set the number at 20 but added one more because of the strength of the applicants, Santiago said

She said the applicants included ceramic artists, a painter, graphic designer, a candle maker, a comedian, a coffee roaster and a person who makes felt pennants.

"They are all over the board," Santiago said.

The creation of the ErieMade Business Academy coincides with an emphasis, nationwide and locally, on artisanal and locally-owned products and entrepreneurship.

The city of Erie has expanded its grant programs for start-ups and other nascent businesses, and the Erie County Public Library's Idea Lab, based at the Blasco Library on the bayfront, is designed to be a resource for creators, or makers, to build their skills. The Erie School District, with a grant from the United Way of Erie County, started an entrepreneurship program for middle school students in 2017.

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Erie also has a number of longstanding programs to assist small businesses and entrepreneurs. Among them is the Gannon University Small Business Development Center.

The ErieMade Business Academy doesn't "want to replicate anything" said Daria Devlin, executive director of ECAT. She said the academy is designed to provide the basics so that entrepreneurs can move on to the next stage of development or professional assistance.

"We want to give them the knowledge base," Devlin said. She said the program is meant to give artists and others an opportunity to see if they want to take their business idea "to the next level, to see if it is a way to make a living."

"We are building an ecosystem for creatives," Devlin said.

'Napkin-ready' ideas

Financial support for the program is coming from the Pittsburgh-based nonprofit Bridgeway Capital. It opened an Erie office in 2012 and since then has loaned $26 million for small-business ventures in Erie County and northwestern Pennsylvania that cannot access mainstream sources of finance.

Bridgeway operates its Creative Business Accelerator to help artists, entrepreneurs and other creators to grow their businesses. The accelerator is providing program support to the ErieMade Business Academy.

The Appalachian Regional Commission, an economic development agency of the federal government, is making the funding possible for the ErieMade Business Academy, according to Bridgeway Capital.

As kind of a parallel program, Erie Arts & Culture has started a new project, the Creative Entrepreneur Accelerator Program, that provides grants from $500 to $2,000 to individuals to grow businesses. The ErieMade Business Academy will help position its participants to apply for those state-funded grants, Devlin said.

Many of the participants in the Erie Made Business Academy likely have ideas that are in the "napkin-ready" stage, referring to plans jotted down in a flood of inspiration, said Jude Shingle, ECAT's arts program director. At the ErieMade Business Academy, the students can learn how to put those ideas into action and better their lives and the community.

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"We hope to reach populations that typically wouldn't use the word 'entrepreneur' to describe themselves but who have ideas for businesses that would improve both their lives and the lives of others," Shingle said.

He said the program "is tailored to creatives and there are new grant opportunities for creatives who want to start businesses." The ErieMade Business Academy wants "to make sure creatives in Erie are ready" for the grant opportunities, Shingle said.

"Long-term, we want to support entrepreneurship in creative fields," Shingle said. "Part of our organizational vision is that creativity fuels enterprise."

Shingle said the ErieMade Business Academy has funding for six months, and that ECAT will look into operating a similar program after the six months based on funding and a review of how the ErieMade Business Academy worked.

ECAT's progress

ECAT's mission is to empower students and adults and act as a center for services in what is an economically struggling neighborhood along East Avenue. ECAT opened the remodeled former Wayne School in late summer 2021.

ECAT runs two programs out of the four-story, 80,180-square-foot building: after-school classes for middle school and high school students in the arts, including painting, drawing and ceramics; and certified adult-job training classes, starting with training for medical assistants. Those programs are free.

ECAT on Feb. 16 received approval from the Pennsylvania Board of Education to operate certified training programs, including for medical assistants, Devlin said. She said enrollment is open for the program to train medical assistants, with classes to start Feb. 28.

Other groups in the building include the United Way of Erie County; the UPMC Jameson School of Nursing at UPMC Hamot; a pharmacy; a sports program, including activities in the school's gym; and Wayne Primary Healthcare, a clinic operated by Primary Health Network. The United Way of Erie County purchased its space in a condominium deal. The other occupants have leases with ECAT.

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The $12 million renovation of the 108-year-old Wayne building, which ECAT purchased from the school district for $250,000 in 2019, started in August 2020 and took about a year to complete.

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ECAT financed the overhaul of the building with grants, bank loans, loans from other organizations, the sale of condominium space to the United Way and the use of the federal New Markets Tax Credit program, created in 2000 to provide incentives for investment in low-income areas. The New Markets program had never been tried before in the Erie area.

An 'entrepreneurship philosophy'

ECAT is modeled after Manchester Bidwell Corp., an arts and career-training initiative founded in Pittsburgh in the late 1960s. It is named after the Manchester neighborhood in Pittsburgh and a nearby trade school, now the Bidwell Training Center.

ECAT is an affiliate of the National Center for Arts and Technology, which Manchester Bidwell created to replicate its model. The NCAT has affiliates throughout the United States. Students from low-income households attend many of the programs that grew out of the Manchester Bidwell model.

The model, according to Manchester Bidwell, uses adult career training, youth arts education and social enterprise to foster its goal of helping people in underserved areas end the cycle of poverty.

The ErieMade Business Academy furthers that goal, Devlin said.

"The whole entrepreneurship philosophy is embedded in the Manchester Bidwell model, she said.

Kristen Santiago, the project consultant, said she looks forward to assisting the creators and would-be entrepreneurs individually, but she said she also hopes her work benefits the community at large.

"Small businesses are what make a community rich, unique," she said. "That is what helps keep people and attracts people to the city. If our small businesses succeed, then the city succeeds."

Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNpalattella.

Participants in first class selected

The ErieMade Business Academy ended up accepting 21 applicants for its first class, said Kristen Santiago, the project consultant. They are:

• Curtis Waidley — Natural States Collective, fine art prints related to the national parks

• Megan Merz —Megan Merz Art, fine arts

• Andrew Church — Bison Hill Stonecrafts, items made out of reclaimed marble, slate and other stone

• Susan M. Prichard — Graphitti Creations, engraving, trophies and custom awards and and graphic design

• Natalie Richmond — Rich Ascend Media, web design, app development and music production

• Hannah Moran — North Coast Pennants

• Jessie Simmons — Jessie Simmons Ceramics

• Emily Gaudioso — Broken EGG Clay, ceramics and pottery

• Anush Dulgaryan Bruno — Sealed By Nature LLC, handmade soaps, lotions and balms

• Tomasine Toski — Wicks & Wax Studio, candles

• Ansumana Komba Gbembo — Ansumana Komba Gbembo Tailoring, Designing and Training

• Patrick Connaroe — Paddy’s Workshop, woodworking, such as cutting board

• Mustafa Albalkhi — Mustafa Albalkhi, Oud Player; an oud is a pear-shaped stringed instrument, similar to a lute, used in medieval and modern Islamic music

• Esther Ortiz — Esther’s Piñata Shop

• Travis Stewart — TS Embroidery

• Gyan Ghising — Gyan Ghising, Entertainer; he is a folk artist who specializes in the traditional dance and music of his native Nepali-Bhutanese and Tamang culture

• Terri Owens — POPPIN Petals and BEAM Outings, handmade product and outdoor and indoor pop-up picnics

• Todd Essman — Essman Woodworking and Design

• Sarah Moody and Rick Bowser —1020 Collective, an art and events space

• Dan Bickel — Hopleaf Tea Co.

• Doug Baker — North Edge Craft Coffee

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: New ErieMade Business Academy guides artists, budding entrepreneurs