Tucker Neel

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GYST: Getting Your Sh*t Together is an artist run company that applies the creativity of an artist's mind to the complex and daunting world of professional practices in contemporary art. Our mission is to support artists and arts organizations with an integrated mix of software, services and information in order to keep artists working. Founded in 2000 by Karen Atkinson as a software company, GYST's products and services now include professional practices software, a newsletter, workshops, artist resume and statement review, archiving, and consulting services.

GYST got its start in the late 1990's, Karen Atkinson used her knowledge as a media, installation, public artist, independent curator, CalArts professor, grant writer and collaborator to create one of the first professional practices course for artists in the country called Getting Your Sh*t Together. Taught at both CalArts (Valencia, CA) and Side Street Projects (Pasadena, CA), artists came from as far away as San Diego to attend a ten-week workshop. Originally, an eight hundred-page binder containing twenty years of collected resources was given to each attending student. In response to the success of the course, GYST was founded and created GYST v1.0, for MAC & PC, which included over five hundred pages of professional practices resources culled from over twenty years of lectures, resources, and teaching experience.

Since 2006, GYST has been rapidly expanding by bringing on four new team members, updating our computer software to v.2.8 for MAC & PC, new website, offering new products and services that are a direct response to the artist community at large. GYST Ink publishes a free, bi-monthly themed newsletter ARTISTs* AT WORK. The first issue (August 2007) is about studio visits, which includes articles, information, checklists, and a column about artists who run their own businesses. Our team now consists of the President/Founder (Karen Atkinson), Marketing Manager (Tucker Neel), Office Manager (Ashley-Martin Dunn), Internet Technology Manager (Chris Bassett), Business Advisor (Ari Kletzky). There is also a range of other arts professionals from grant writing and gallery management experts to lawyers that are part of the GYST extended network. This dynamic team of professional artists enables GYST to expand our national mission to provide tangible professional practices information and resources to contemporary artists through various support services in order to keep artists working.

All kinds of artists, including students and art school graduates, self-taught artists, young and older artists, emerging and established artists benefit creatively, personally and professionally from having an organized and directed professional life. We believe that creating artwork and having business skills go hand-in-hand in order to avoid pitfalls, heartbreak and botched opportunities and are committed to supporting artists and arts organizations