FIND YOUR CREATIVE COMMUNITY
The School of Making Thinking's monthly donor membership program, The Feedback Loop, inspires and supports makers and thinkers with thought exchange, playful experimentation, and relief from the grind.
Photos by IMMERSION residents
Feedback is the common denominator of all transformation.
In the realm of creative work, passion often meets isolation. For creators, staying inspired without consistent community or support can be a lonely climb.
The Feedback Loop is a community ecosystem where your ideas and inspiration find fertile ground, your craft is refined, and your mind flourishes, free from productivity pressures.
The Feedback Loop is a community ecosystem where your ideas and inspiration find fertile ground, your craft is refined, and your mind flourishes, free from productivity pressures.
Your Exclusive Feedback Loop Benefits
TIER 1 ($5/month): Juicy Feedback Newsletter
Four times a year, receive creative prompts, interviews with past teachers, curated gig opportunities, and thought-provoking content.
TIER 2 ($10/month): Juicy Feedback Newsletter + Bi-Weekly Accountability Meet Up
Every other Monday, join a 1-hour online meetup with other practitioners centered on taking ownership over your creative practice and inspiring your week ahead.
TIER 3 ($25/month): All previous benefits + 2 x Per Year Free Professional Development Workshops
Access concrete, creative career skill-building and insider tips from one creative professional to another in our exclusive workshops.
TIER 4 ($50/month): All previous benefits + Annual 1-on-1 Creative Consult with an SMT Alumni
There is no better way to get creatively inspired than to talk with another artist about what’s on your heart.
TIER 5 ($100/month): All previous benefits + Honorable Mention on our Website + A Social Media Feature
Your name featured on our website, presented with the utmost pride and gratitude! We will also do a featured post on our social media platforms, uplifting your practice and highlighting you as a creative.
TIER 6 ($250/month): All previous benefits + Access to our Full Roster of Online Classes Annually
This is an all access pass! You can take any of our online classes during the year. Check out our archive of classes to get a taste!
The longer you donate, the more robust the rewards... We're rolling out additional exclusive offerings annually, from early access tickets to free workshops and exclusive media content!
Four times a year, receive creative prompts, interviews with past teachers, curated gig opportunities, and thought-provoking content.
TIER 2 ($10/month): Juicy Feedback Newsletter + Bi-Weekly Accountability Meet Up
Every other Monday, join a 1-hour online meetup with other practitioners centered on taking ownership over your creative practice and inspiring your week ahead.
TIER 3 ($25/month): All previous benefits + 2 x Per Year Free Professional Development Workshops
Access concrete, creative career skill-building and insider tips from one creative professional to another in our exclusive workshops.
TIER 4 ($50/month): All previous benefits + Annual 1-on-1 Creative Consult with an SMT Alumni
There is no better way to get creatively inspired than to talk with another artist about what’s on your heart.
TIER 5 ($100/month): All previous benefits + Honorable Mention on our Website + A Social Media Feature
Your name featured on our website, presented with the utmost pride and gratitude! We will also do a featured post on our social media platforms, uplifting your practice and highlighting you as a creative.
TIER 6 ($250/month): All previous benefits + Access to our Full Roster of Online Classes Annually
This is an all access pass! You can take any of our online classes during the year. Check out our archive of classes to get a taste!
The longer you donate, the more robust the rewards... We're rolling out additional exclusive offerings annually, from early access tickets to free workshops and exclusive media content!
In addition to the personal benefits of joining the Feedback Loop, you're gaining the satisfaction of supporting a visionary arts organization, championing artists to steward a better world through practice. By giving monthly to SMT, you're investing in the heart of social change work rooted in the creative sector. You're helping artists connect to their vision, power, leadership, and agency, ensuring they feel supported and resourced to make the impact they seek in their creative practice.
Photo by Daqi Fang
STORY
immersive art + experimental pedagogy = community of practice
Where SMT began
SMT was founded to explore the questions: What is the thinking practice behind your making practice? And how is your thinking practice made manifest? In 2011, these questions motivated a grassroots group of artists interested in working outside of traditional art and academic institutions to innovate immersive artist residency experiences that centered experimentation and exploration. The result was a snowball effect; those who entered SMT spaces were intoxicated with the kind of connection and innovation possible in these immersive group settings.
What SMT has accomplished
These founding questions still guide our work today. Our programs merge thought-fields and artistic practice, with an orientation to transformation, experimentation, equity, and justice. SMT uses a peer-to-peer model which convenes artists in mutual inquiry, because we want to lift up the wisdom and innovation that lives within and among us. We have four pillars of programming: immersive residencies, artist-led classes, leadership training, and one-off events and festivals. To date we have run 25 artist residencies, over 100 classes in person and online, annual political education workshops since 2023, and 10 major convenings/festivals/conferences. Our alumni network is over 2000 people strong, across the United States and globally.
Where SMT is going
As SMT grows, we are committed to our grassroots and the artists we serve. We continue to rely on our peer-to-peer model, because it is adaptive, responsive, generative and bold. SMT’s 3-year strategic vision is to diversify program offerings and partnerships to reach a broader range of audiences and grow our impact, enacted through artist-led classes and residencies, leadership training, expert-led strategy and analysis workshops, and convening events that support rich cultural dialogue and community conversation.
Feedback is central to how we envision ethical growth that continues to serve our community. Feedback is how we hold power accountable. Feedback is how we do our best work. Feedback is how we know we are connected. We see a bright future where creatives are supported to fulfill their best work and uplifted within a tight-knit web of collectively sustained and enlivening creative practice.
SMT was founded to explore the questions: What is the thinking practice behind your making practice? And how is your thinking practice made manifest? In 2011, these questions motivated a grassroots group of artists interested in working outside of traditional art and academic institutions to innovate immersive artist residency experiences that centered experimentation and exploration. The result was a snowball effect; those who entered SMT spaces were intoxicated with the kind of connection and innovation possible in these immersive group settings.
What SMT has accomplished
These founding questions still guide our work today. Our programs merge thought-fields and artistic practice, with an orientation to transformation, experimentation, equity, and justice. SMT uses a peer-to-peer model which convenes artists in mutual inquiry, because we want to lift up the wisdom and innovation that lives within and among us. We have four pillars of programming: immersive residencies, artist-led classes, leadership training, and one-off events and festivals. To date we have run 25 artist residencies, over 100 classes in person and online, annual political education workshops since 2023, and 10 major convenings/festivals/conferences. Our alumni network is over 2000 people strong, across the United States and globally.
Where SMT is going
As SMT grows, we are committed to our grassroots and the artists we serve. We continue to rely on our peer-to-peer model, because it is adaptive, responsive, generative and bold. SMT’s 3-year strategic vision is to diversify program offerings and partnerships to reach a broader range of audiences and grow our impact, enacted through artist-led classes and residencies, leadership training, expert-led strategy and analysis workshops, and convening events that support rich cultural dialogue and community conversation.
Feedback is central to how we envision ethical growth that continues to serve our community. Feedback is how we hold power accountable. Feedback is how we do our best work. Feedback is how we know we are connected. We see a bright future where creatives are supported to fulfill their best work and uplifted within a tight-knit web of collectively sustained and enlivening creative practice.
What Our Community Says
“SMT birthed my current arts practice and with it came a confidence about my place as an artist.”
Tchaiko Omawale, Filmmaker and Director, Residency Alumni
“[T]he time I spent here has been deeply transformational...I feel empowered to commit to the departures necessary for the expansion of my professional horizons and most heartfelt dreams.” KESSWA, Residency Alumni
“The work I did [at SMT] helped me access a deeper level of authenticity and has influenced subsequent filmmaking endeavors.” Andrew Lush, Residency Alumni
“[One of my favorite parts about taking this workshop was] just being surrounded by such an amazing diversity of people…I loved the warmth and gentleness, the whole tone of the workshop was so welcoming, embracing - such bliss!”
Liz Jaggo, Winter School class participant
“As a worker in public spaces I am negotiating care and consent all the time. This felt like a creative, otherworldly space to play with emotional and relational risk. I am taking back a lot of lessons and thoughtfulness into my life.”
Anonymous Artist to Artist class participant
Tchaiko Omawale, Filmmaker and Director, Residency Alumni
“[T]he time I spent here has been deeply transformational...I feel empowered to commit to the departures necessary for the expansion of my professional horizons and most heartfelt dreams.” KESSWA, Residency Alumni
“The work I did [at SMT] helped me access a deeper level of authenticity and has influenced subsequent filmmaking endeavors.” Andrew Lush, Residency Alumni
“[One of my favorite parts about taking this workshop was] just being surrounded by such an amazing diversity of people…I loved the warmth and gentleness, the whole tone of the workshop was so welcoming, embracing - such bliss!”
Liz Jaggo, Winter School class participant
“As a worker in public spaces I am negotiating care and consent all the time. This felt like a creative, otherworldly space to play with emotional and relational risk. I am taking back a lot of lessons and thoughtfulness into my life.”
Anonymous Artist to Artist class participant
Join Our Creative Community Today
By becoming a monthly donor to The School of Making Thinking, you're directly investing in a brighter, more connected, and creatively independent future for cultural and gig workers.
Our community is growing! Our goal is to have 100 monthly donors by the end of 2025. Join the movement and make a lasting change today.
Our community is growing! Our goal is to have 100 monthly donors by the end of 2025. Join the movement and make a lasting change today.
CLICK BELOW TO SIGN UP!
FAQs
“What do I actually get as a monthly supporter, and is it unique?”
The rewards for our Feedback Loop monthly donors are concrete and designed to help you level up your creative practice through peer-support, professional development, accountability, and networking. These are resources ONLY available to our Feedback Loop members.
These resources are unique: they are notably inexpensive for the value you get, aimed at artists from across diverse media, and are available to YOU today, not by application or selection.
“How is SMT using my support? Are there updates or transparency?”
SMT will be using Feedback Loop funds to directly support our amazing, transformative programs. Specifically, the Feedback Loop funds scholarships, travel stipends, subsidized tuition, teacher pay, and new program development. Also, these funds help us keep the lights on.
We will share transparently about how these funds are used as they grow.
“Will rewards (meet-ups, trainings) actually happen or be valuable long-term?”
Yes! Our bi-weekly meet ups are already on the calendar. We have a format for these meet ups designed to support you to identify your needs and goals and work towards them, though we also plan to integrate your FEEDBACK as we go. You get to help shape this space by taking part.
We have a rich roster of professional development trainings already waiting in the wings exclusively for our Feedback Loop contributors. The first one will be announced soon!
“Is this a one-way relationship, or is there a community?”
Working and developing practice alongside one another is the best way we know how to build community. The Feedback Loop is just that. It is a way for you to express your support, and for us to support you. It is our way of building a two-way relationship with our monthly donors. This is meant to be a door into our organization, a VIP pass, an insider's look.
"Can I write off my donation in my taxes?
In some cases, yes! You can write off the amount you donate minus the good-faith estimated value of the rewards you receive. SMT can provide this good faith estimate. Unfortunately, in Tiers 1 -3, the bang for your buck is so great that there is not enough to write off after you deduct the value of the goods. Higher tiers can definitely write off a portion of their contributions.
You are welcome to make a fully tax deductible donation via our website here, including becoming a monthly donor without the rewards. We appreciate your support!
“How do I pause/cancel or change my pledge if I’m not satisfied?”
You can pause or cancel anytime by clicking the "manage your recurring donation" link in your donation receipt email from Givebutter, or by signing into your Givebutter account and navigating to "Recurring Gifts" > "Manage" > "Edit Plan"> "Pause or Cancel."
The rewards for our Feedback Loop monthly donors are concrete and designed to help you level up your creative practice through peer-support, professional development, accountability, and networking. These are resources ONLY available to our Feedback Loop members.
These resources are unique: they are notably inexpensive for the value you get, aimed at artists from across diverse media, and are available to YOU today, not by application or selection.
“How is SMT using my support? Are there updates or transparency?”
SMT will be using Feedback Loop funds to directly support our amazing, transformative programs. Specifically, the Feedback Loop funds scholarships, travel stipends, subsidized tuition, teacher pay, and new program development. Also, these funds help us keep the lights on.
We will share transparently about how these funds are used as they grow.
“Will rewards (meet-ups, trainings) actually happen or be valuable long-term?”
Yes! Our bi-weekly meet ups are already on the calendar. We have a format for these meet ups designed to support you to identify your needs and goals and work towards them, though we also plan to integrate your FEEDBACK as we go. You get to help shape this space by taking part.
We have a rich roster of professional development trainings already waiting in the wings exclusively for our Feedback Loop contributors. The first one will be announced soon!
“Is this a one-way relationship, or is there a community?”
Working and developing practice alongside one another is the best way we know how to build community. The Feedback Loop is just that. It is a way for you to express your support, and for us to support you. It is our way of building a two-way relationship with our monthly donors. This is meant to be a door into our organization, a VIP pass, an insider's look.
"Can I write off my donation in my taxes?
In some cases, yes! You can write off the amount you donate minus the good-faith estimated value of the rewards you receive. SMT can provide this good faith estimate. Unfortunately, in Tiers 1 -3, the bang for your buck is so great that there is not enough to write off after you deduct the value of the goods. Higher tiers can definitely write off a portion of their contributions.
You are welcome to make a fully tax deductible donation via our website here, including becoming a monthly donor without the rewards. We appreciate your support!
“How do I pause/cancel or change my pledge if I’m not satisfied?”
You can pause or cancel anytime by clicking the "manage your recurring donation" link in your donation receipt email from Givebutter, or by signing into your Givebutter account and navigating to "Recurring Gifts" > "Manage" > "Edit Plan"> "Pause or Cancel."
Photo by Eli Schmidt
Image in header screenshot from 360 film titled "If _ Were Mountains" by Jaimes Mayhew