Exploring Life & Business with Linda Weise of Opus Creative Industries

Today we’d like to introduce you to Linda Weise.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
After spending decades working with young people in the arts, I realized we needed additional opportunities in the creative sector. I recognized the need for intentionality with access and education to creative industries, primarily those who work behind the scenes — chefs, theater technology, and early childhood education.

Along the way, part of the vision of the Colorado Springs Community Cultural Collective was to create infrastructure and access — and we found a partner with the Pikes Peak Workforce Center for a significant innovation grant to support the work. Since January 2023, we have effectively launched four workforce programs in the creative sector. We have reached over 500 participants. Our culinary program has an 89 percent placement and retention rate.

The programs: Culinary/Hospitality Capstone, to help those interested in becoming chefs or owning a restaurant; the early childhood enrichment program for teachers; Simple Gift for early childhood education; and the creative technologies that include media arts and theater technology production. Our goal is to earn-as-you-learn education to remove access barriers so people can achieve prosperity through uncovering their passions.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It’s been a really well-intended journey. And the challenges came from the fact that we were “innovating” the programs, some of which were the first of their kind in our state. We had to move quickly to show people that we knew this could be successful. But those challenges became opportunities when we had to stand things up as quickly as possible to demonstrate proof of concept, need, and economic impact.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We are a nonprofit that is working hard to demonstrate proof of concept alongside the federal government in the creative sector. And in fact, I would say that those worlds don’t usually jive. Were it not for the ingenuity and creative thought through our Pikes Peak Workforce Center partnership – none of this would happen.

Ultimately, what I’d like to be is an earn-and-learn program that in real life, real time, becomes a nonprofit that is built on 70-80 percent of its income from earned revenue, and 20-30 percent from donated revenue. That goal changes the conversation around what the culture of nonprofit creative works looks like. We are not the starving artist group with our hands out, we are the artist group generating revenue through our work. And that’s so empowering for creatives.

I am most proud of my team, and that includes our vendors who have believed so wholeheartedly in this vision and possibility. I’m so proud of the achievements of our students. Our capstone culinary students are at 89 percent placement and retention — I’m told that’s unbelievable in a workforce program.

Readers should know that we are an open book. We are learning and finding our way. We are so happy to find new partners and new ways to provide access to the creative sector for as many folks as are seeking it. This project is being supported, in whole or in part, by federal award number SLFRF0126 awarded to the State of Colorado by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
What matters most to me is that we are letting people know what we are doing through clean, clear communication and transparency. I’m learning when you create something that didn’t exist, you can’t assume people understand it immediately.

It’s important to show what we are doing, to prove the concept that it works. I’m so passionate about this project and these students — it’s vital that people understand we are creating jobs in sectors that need workers.

Contact Info:

• Website: communityculturalcollective.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ccc_opus/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CommunityCulturalCollective/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindalweise/