8:00 AM - 8:55 AM | Breakfast

Join us for continental breakfast as we start Day #2 of the conference. Registration continues from 8:00am - 10:00am.

9:00 AM - 9:55 AM | Keynote: The Future is for Those Who Create It

Tori Soudan, Footwear Designer & Entrepreneur

More details coming soon.

10:00 AM - 11:50 AM | The Art of Ownership: Protecting, Negotiating, and Monetizing Your Work

Krystle I. Myers, Esq.

In the creative economy, creating the work is only the beginning; understanding how to protect, negotiate, and monetize it is essential to building a sustainable creative career. This interactive workshop equips artists and creative entrepreneurs with practical legal knowledge to navigate intellectual property, contracts, and commercial opportunities with confidence. Participants will explore the differences between copyright and trademark protection, the importance of registration, and strategies for safeguarding their creative assets. We'll examine common contract provisions, negotiation strategies, and red flags that artists should recognize before entering into commissions, collaborations, and licensing agreements. Attendees will also discover how licensing can generate revenue while preserving ownership and creative control. Through real-world scenarios, we'll discuss practical approaches to enforcing it. This workshop will be offered at 10:00am-10:50am and 11:00am-11:50am.

10:00 AM - 11:50 AM | The Mind Behind the Vision: Mental Wellness in the Creative Economy

Ebony Vaughan, LCSW-C, CCTP

“The vision can only be as sustainable as the person carrying it.” Creativity and entrepreneurship can be exciting and rewarding, but the pressure to produce, perform, compete, and succeed can take a toll on mental and emotional well-being. This interactive workshop explores the connection between mental wellness and building a sustainable creative career. Participants will examine the impact of stress, perfectionism, comparison, rejection, burnout, and the tendency to connect personal worth to creative success. Through practical strategies and self-reflection, participants will learn how to recognize signs of emotional overload, establish healthy boundaries, manage stress, and develop practices that support both their well-being and their vision. The workshop emphasizes that creating meaningful impact begins with caring for the person behind the vision. This workshop will be offered 10:00am-10:50am and 11:00am-11:50am.

10:00 AM - 11:50 AM | Real Talk on Building a Sustainable Creative Business

Karen Sippel, Managing Director, MD Women’s Business Ctr, Bryce Besaw, District Director, U.S.. SBA,, Lady Brion, Executive Director, Black Arts District,, Nick Rudolph, Baltimore Reg. Director, MD Capital Ent.

You love the work. But loving the work isn't the same as running a business — and too many talented creatives get stuck there, treating a real opportunity like a hobby that never quite takes off. In this session, three regional experts — from the SBA, Maryland Capital Enterprises, and the Black Arts District — get real about what it actually takes to build a creative business that lasts, not just one that survives on passion. We'll cover the fundamentals every business needs, what's genuinely different (and surprisingly familiar) about the creative economy, and how the skills you already have as an artist can become real business assets. Funding will come up, but this isn't a grant workshop — it is a candid conversation about the mindset shift from making things to building something sustainable. Come with your questions; you'll leave with a clearer sense of what to do next. This workshop will be offered 10:00am-10:50am and 11:00am-11:50am.

10:00 AM - 10:50 AM | Superpower Speed Dating: Identify Your Strengths. Find Your People

Maria Finkelmeier, performer and Associate Professor

This playful, interactive workshop turns the ideas of Superpowers Aligned into action. Participants identify their own creative and entrepreneurial superpowers, recognize what they’re missing, and connect with others whose strengths might be exactly what they need.

11:00 AM - 11:50 AM | Continuing the Conversation

Tori Soudan, Footwear Designer and Entrepreneur

12:00 PM - 1:20 PM | Luminary Awards Luncheon

RCCE

The RCCE will honor three members of the creative community with the inaugural Lumière Awards. The three categories are: Lumière Educational Award - Recognizes an outstanding educator, teaching artist, or academic program leader who demonstrates exceptional innovation, impact and leadership as they prepare students for the creative ecosystem; Lumière Community Art Award - Recognizes a collaborative project, organization, or public installation that successfully unites, enriches, or addresses a critical need within the community and Lumière Individual Artist Award - Recognizes a solo creator or creative entrepreneur's artistic merit and contributions to the creative economy.

1:30 PM - 2:20 PM | Social Innovation Plenary Session

More details coming soon!

2:30 PM - 3:20 PM | Coffee with the Council (MSAC)

Chad Buterbaugh, Deputy Director, Emily Sollenberger, Program Director, Arts Services

Join the Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC), the state’s largest arts funding organization, for Coffee with the Council, an informal group conversation bringing the state’s arts community together to connect and share. This conversation will be facilitated by the MSAC team and driven by participant inquiry, so attendees are encouraged to bring their questions, ideas and examples of inspiring work.

2:30 PM - 4:20 PM | Increasing Safety for All Road Users Along Falls Road: A Human-Centered Design

Steffanie Espat, Social Designer & Graphic Designer

Come learn about the basics of human-centered design (HCD), a research and design methodology that views people's experience as expertise and puts those at the heart of a problem at the core of future solutions. During the workshop, Steffanie will introduce HCD through a case study of the Falls Road Safety Project, a collaborative effort between MICA's Center for Creative Impact, the Maryland Department of Transportation's Highway Safety Office, and other local partners to improve traffic safety for all road users along Falls Road. This workshop will be offered 2:30pm-3:20pm and 3:30pm-4:20pm.

2:30 PM - 4:20 PM | Reap What You Sow: Cultivation, Community and the Ecology of Developing

Patricia (Trish) Ofari, Executive Director

This workshop explores the philosophy of sowing seeds as a framework for community development: What do we plant? Where do we plant it? What do we tend, and what do we allow to grow on its own? Drawing from the principles of organic farming, we will examine the difference between cultivating native and non-native plants as a metaphor for deciding what belongs in—and what can meaningfully take root within—a neighborhood. We will consider how low-intervention farming practices might challenge conventional approaches to real estate development, shifting the focus from designing communities to cultivating the conditions in which they can flourish. Together, we will explore a practice of community development that blends art, history, and pragmatism—one rooted less in imposing a vision and more in tending what is already there, removing barriers, and making space for neighborhoods to become what they were always capable of becoming.

3:00 PM - 7:00 PM | CESI Art Market

RCCE

Come, see and purchase some of the amazing work by area and regional artist at the CESI Art Market. OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

3:30 PM -4:20 PM | Grant Help (MSAC)

Chad Buterbaugh, Deputy Director, Emily Sollenberger, Program Director, Arts Services

This event is your chance to take a deep dive into MSAC’s grant programs. Connect with staff for a 15-minute, one-on-one meeting on how to read grant guidelines, how to submit an application, how to use a scoring rubric to make your application as competitive as possible, or any other question about MSAC. Grantseekers of all levels of experience are encouraged to attend.

4:30 PM - 4:40 PM | Conference Wrap-Up

RCCE

As you continue to network or shop, join us in the Brown Center Atrium as we formally close the 2026 CESI Conference. Food Trucks will also be available until 7pm.

4:45 PM - 5:45 PM | Mini-Tour @ MICA

Lee Davis, Co-Executive Director (CCI), CCI Fellows

Join the Center for Creative Impact (CCI) on a visit to the Lazarus Building and new Gallery Alley to see the work of MICA's amazing artists. With a new collection launching in October, this is a great way to wrap up a full day of workshops. Two 30-minute tours are available. Sign-Up during the Luminary Awards luncheon to secure your spot.