Join RiverLink and Brenda Mills to find out how as an artist you can become a contractor for the city. We are pleased to offer these special two hour interactive FREE information sessions at RiverLink’s Warehouse Studios, 170 Lyman Street from 10 to 12. The next program will be held on August 26, with subsequent dates September 25, and October 29.
Brenda Mills is an Economic Development Specialist with the Office of Economic Development for the City of Asheville. Brenda has been in Western North Carolina (WNC) since 1992 working in the public sector for over 23 years with an emphasis on entrepreneurship supporting both Buncombe County and the City of Asheville’s initiative on minority business & community outreach. She served eight (8) years on the Asheville Regional Housing Consortium as the city’s representative and recently joined the Land of Sky Regional Council’s board as minority representative for Buncombe County.
She currently works on economic initiatives to include minority business outreach for all city contracting, public art acquisition which includes staff liaison to the Public Art & Cultural Commission and works with the city’s current and future incentives supporting job growth and increasing tax base for the City. Brenda has worked extensively in WNC with other business assistance agencies, colleges, universities and non-profits to support a vibrant region with such efforts as Minority Enterprise Development Week, the City’s Reverse Vendor Fair, community visioning in the French Broad and East End neighborhoods and recommendation and implementation of the city’s living wage policy.
This next phase of training artists on how to be public artists is to increase and encourage a greater response to the city’s future calls for artists on future public projects. This free training will highlight an actual call for artist process, general overview of public contracting basics, resources and how to connect.
RiverLink’s popular Wilma Dykeman RiverWay plans call for economic development that focus on the core strengths
in our watershed – recreation in all its forms from manufacturing to retail, health & wellness and arts and crafts. This is part of series of business topics RiverLink is proud to host which include a partnership with SBTDC and the AB Tech small business council, among others.