Looking Back, Looking Forward

A year of growth

With the first few days of 2014 already in the past, we’re looking back on a pivotal year. Our mission for 2013 was to expand our offerings both in the studio and online, and we’ve accomplished both. Uptake on our Weekday Atelier program –introduced last January – has exceeded our expectations, increasing overall enrollment and providing students with an opportunity to focus on sustained work over longer studio sessions on an ongoing basis. The program not only keeps the studio full during the week, but has brought a new population of students who we’re thrilled to have part of our community – they’re good students who are rapidly becoming good friends, too.

We also introduced two new product categories in 2013: video downloads and online courses. To date, we’ve launched two $10 demo videos with instructional commentary, and one online course focusing on drawing the portrait. Both these offerings were a heavy lift for us, requiring us to develop new skills, acquire new equipment, and invest countless hours of often tedious work. But we’re proud to say that these products have been exceptionally well-received by a new global community and have provided a welcome boost in revenue.

It’s also clear to us that the really steep climb is behind us. What we’ve learned from putting together these first three online products will carry forward to producing more in 2014. In fact, we’ll be shooting for our next video download this month, with a release date set for February.

So it’s been a good year. The studio has matured as a business, and with a growing online presence has become a much more dynamic and forward-looking enterprise. We’ve got some big hurdles yet to clear, but we also have momentum from last year’s successes to carry us forward. We look forward to sharing more with our community soon.