What We Do.
GYST-Ink is an artist-run company/art project by Karen Atkinson, providing resources, technology and solutions created by artists for artists. Our mission is to support arts professionals, educational institutions, and arts organizations with an integrated program of software, services and information in order to keep artists working. GYST–Ink is dedicated to empowering and educating artists so that they can develop sustainable and successful careers on their own terms.
Our Story
GYST-Ink is an artist-run company providing information, technology and solutions created by artists for artists. Our mission is to support artists and arts organizations with an integrated mix of software, services and information in order to keep artists working. GYST–Ink is dedicated to empowering and educating artists so that they can develop sustainable and successful careers on their own terms.
Spearheaded by Karen Atkinson, GYST-Ink has been the leading resource for professional practice, art advice and art business services in Southern California for over ten years, helping thousands of artists from all over America get on the road to career success. Founded in 2000 by Karen Atkinson as a software company, GYST's products and services now include professional practices software, a blog, a newsletter, career development workshops, artist resume and statement reviewing, document and artwork documentation and archiving, a Skills Bank, web development, 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 courses for artists in the country called Getting Your Sh*t Together. Artists came from as far away as San Diego to attend the ten-week workshop taught at both CalArts (Valencia, CA) and Side Street Projects (Pasadena, CA). At this time each student received an eight hundred-page binder containing resources about the business of being an artist Karen had collected over twenty years. In response to the success of the course, GYST was founded. Karen soon created GYST v1.0, for MAC & PC, which included over five hundred pages of professional practices resources culled from over twenty years of lectures and teaching experience.
Since 2006, GYST has rapidly expanded. We have brought on new team members, updated our computer software to v.3.5.5 for MAC & PC. We have redesigned our website, and we now offer a selection of new products and services that are a direct response to the needs of the artist community at large.
See the "Our Team" section for who's on the GYST Team! 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 monetarily from having an organized and directed professional life. We are here to help artists of all kinds on the road to personal and professional success.