Susan Koblin Schear, President of ArtIsIn, founded the company in 1995 to offer comprehensive business development and management services to visual and performing artists, arts organizations and arts related businesses that have not recognized or have not yet chosen to apply business skills to their work. She brings more than fifteen years of management expertise to this venture.
Ms. Schear facilitates arts entrepreneurship by providing business guidance, strategic business planning and marketing to her clients. This facilitation provides the necessary tools and resources enabling her clients to focus and be more confident in their business and more successful in their marketing.
Prior to starting ArtIsIn, Ms. Schear enjoyed a successful corporate career, including management positions with Waterford Crystal. She earned the Salesperson of the Year award and established herself as a respected expert and leader in the tabletop industry.
A graduate of Rutgers University, Ms. Schear continues to further her education in art and business at New York University and The New School for Social Research. She is an active member of several arts and business-networking organizations including American Women's Economic Development (AWED), Creative Women New York, ArtPride New Jersey, The Empire Business Development Group, and the New Jersey Association of Women Business Owners (NJAWBO) of which she is a past board member of the Bergen County Chapter. She is also a member of the New York Chapter of NAWBO.
As an active Board Member, Ms. Schear serves on the Board of the Oradell Arts & Business Coalition, Inc. and the Water Works Conservancy, local organizations supporting arts education in that community as well as preservation and enhancement of the cultural and historical life of the town through local and county programs. Ms. Schear serves on the Board of Directors of Urban Glass, Brooklyn, NY, where she also is on the Advisory Board of the Urban Glass Bead Project. She is a Community Advisor to Glassroots, a newly developed program teaching at-risk youth of Newark, NJ, glassblowing and entrepreneurship. She is a steering committee member of the Arts & Business Council's National Arts Marketing Project.Ms. Schear is an established speaker on many subjects related to artists, arts organizations and entrepreneurs, including marketing, selling, and networking. She regularly teaches classes on these subjects at New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies, Marketing and Management Institute, AWED, Support Center for Nonprofit Management, Arts and Business Council of New York, New Jersey Small Business Development Centers, Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce (Nonprofit Center), and at various industry specialty groups, galleries, associations and schools. She is also on the faculty of the Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), and has published articles she has written on these same topics.
American Woman's Economic Development Corporation has most recently recognized Ms. Schear as an AWED Achiever 2000. She is a 1998 recipient of the Teal Heart Award by the Bergen Chapter of NJAWBO recognizing her exemplary volunteering toward the organization and has been awarded the "1997 Woman of the Future" Galaxy Award by the New York Women's Agenda.
Ms. Schear has appeared on a Public Access Television Program, "Living Your Dream," produced by Robin Burke. She has also appeared on a CNBC program on Women In Business, as well as on the National Public Radio series "Enterprising Women."
