Pentacle Launches NextSteps

What artist doesn't wish to be able to call on experts and advisors for help navigating the administrative and business aspects of the arts industry? Now Pentacle, an organization with 44 years of experience serving artists, is answering the call with its new offering, nextSteps. Launching on January 25, nextSteps is an online portal that provides a one-stop shop for arts administration services -- including accounting and bookkeeping best practices -- to fundraising strategies, marketing help and more. Meant to be a roadmap and resource to help artists thrive, the new website will be adapted on an ongoing basis to meet the ever-changing needs of the artistic community. The site also aggregates and shares regularly updated information about residencies, grants, and more from other nonprofits and arts organizations to make it easy for artists to find these opportunities.

"We know from our research that artists thrive when given administrative support," says Clarissa Soto Josephs, Associate Director, Pentacle. "With nextSteps, creators with varying artistic interests, locations, and points of development are just a few keystrokes away from accessing the tools and information they need to build their business or simply focus on their art. For example, that means an artist in a rural community in the Midwest can have access to touring advice from our Booking department or an emerging artist can have an expert help them get started on Quickbooks. This new platform will also allow us to connect with artists in new ways and help us all adapt to the new reality of the arts field during COVID and beyond."

nextSteps is a free platform for artists that includes:

• RESEARCH: Where it all began. Built on the premise--and confirmed by research-that when artists have support with administrative tasks and details, they can thrive in their creative pursuits
• RESOURCES: A growing encyclopedia of the most requested arts and nonprofit administration, organized by entity type and specific needs
• READY-TO-GO TEMPLATES: Turn-key forms and files in easy-to-use, downloadable formats
• REAL TIME ACCESS: A way to chat with experts in finance, accounting and administration.administrative
• READING MATERIAL: Additional expertise from Pentacle staff and guest writers, plus specific how+toss on everything from administration to fundraising.

To learn more about nextSteps and to sign up to access all of its resources, please go to https://pentacle-nextsteps.org/.

ABOUT NEXTSTEPS

The vision for nextSteps is to provide one place where artists and administrators can go for reliable business resources. With over 44 years of experience, Pentacle is a trusted partner in the community, but now we want to give artists everywhere, of all economic means, and artistic points of development, access to our knowledge and resources. Pentacle is continually developing new innovative components of nextSteps like Live Chat, the new donor/ticket processing software, and a Community Forum, that don't currently exist in the field. Through Live Chat, artists can get their urgent questions answered in real time without having to schedule an appointment weeks in advance. And the resources will grow as more content is added, driven by user input and feedback. nextSteps will allow Pentacle to continue to evolve and innovate our administrative services, connect with artists in new ways, and empower artists to use these digital resources that have become necessary since COVID.