Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jim Dessicino . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jim, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

I did not take the COVID vaccination. At the time that was controversial, now it seems providential. I made the choice that aligned with my health and morality and was punished for it. I lost my teaching position at Stockton University and almost lost my ability to travel. I run a residency program in Italy called Rome Art Residencies. The travel restrictions brought about by bad governmental policies nearly cost me my livelihood. In 2021, I had just gotten married and had my first child on the way. I needed to make money and no one would hire me without the shot, so I had to take the risk and open a business myself.

We had our wedding reception at Tony’s Baltimore Grill in Atlantic City. We became pretty close with the owners afterwards. I explained my situation to them and was offered space in a vacant part of the building that had previously house the Glaziers Union Hall.

I partnered with the rebel of the Atlantic City arts scene, Zach Katzen who had long had a vision for making a space for artists to gather in the city. We came up with the business plan and built the space out in under three months. Union Hall Arts opened just over a year ago. We are now the hub for the arts in Atlantic City. Our most recent group exhibition attracted over 300 visitors to the opening reception in two hours. We’re only a 600 sq. ft space!
We’ve hosted a myriad of workshops with prominent artists from as far away as the UK and Italy. We’ve had artists from all over the United States take workshops. I host a twice weekly life drawing group. We’re incredibly busy, especially considering that we’re a city of under 40,000 people.

With Rome Art Residencies, I outlasted the mandates and helped restructure our business, so we could outlast another lockdown. I am happy to report that we are able to offer two funded artist residencies, multiple scholarships for artists taking workshops, and one artist fellowship. We are running six workshops this May, with incredibly talented artists including David Kassan and Shana Levenson, Brian Booth Craig, Thomas Schaller, Agnes Grochulska, Daniel Sprick and CRAWW.

I wouldn’t go back to adjuncting if they begged me.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I run two creative arts businesses. One based in Rome, the other in Atlantic City.

Rome Art Residencies is an Artist Workshop and Residency Program. We offer world class instruction in the Historic Center of Rome. Our program focuses on the representational arts. I am the Program Director for this business, which was founded by the sculptor Brian Booth Craig. We are in our fifth year of operation, surviving the pandemic and now expanding our programming. We now offer two resident artist positions, a fellowship, and merit-based scholarships.

In Atlantic City, I co-founded Union Hall Arts with Zach Katzen. We are the creative hub for the arts in AC. We offer twice weekly life-drawing sessions, painting and sculpture classes, workshops with internationally renowned artists, host quarterly exhibitions and operate a boutique screen printing shop. We are also heavily involved with community focused programming, offering monthly free workshops benefiting those in need.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Like many artists, I worked as an adjunct professor. It was a dead end, low paying job. Fortunately, I had just started a business with the sculptor Brian Booth Craig called Rome Art Residencies. We host workshops in the Historic Center of Rome for artists. We had sold out all 34 spots for the workshops on the strength of our program and artists. We were planning an expansion for 2020; five workshops as opposed to two, more artists, twice the length, etc. We were on track to do three times the business we had in the prior year. Then, 2020 happened. We all know about the pandemic and the lockdowns now, so I’ll spare you all that. It seemed at the time that the pandemic woes were hitting me specifically first.

In January 2020, my father became terminally ill. I travelled to Florida to spend the last three weeks of his life with him. In an incredibly tragic twist of fate, my father and my best friend both died on the same day. To put it in perspective for the reader, it was the same day Kobe Bryant and those travelling with him were killed in the helicopter crash. Italy was experiencing Covid first after China, and I could begin to see that our banner year was about to come crashing down. We had to cancel our 2020 programming. Our host institution stole our deposit. It looked bleak. The travel restrictions brought about by bad governmental policies nearly cost me my livelihood.

I did not take the COVID vaccination. At the time that was controversial, now it seems providential. I made the choice that aligned with my health and morality and was punished for it. I lost my teaching position at Stockton University and almost lost my ability to travel. In 2021, I had just gotten married and had my first child on the way. I needed to make money, but no one would hire me without the shot, so I had to take the risk and open a business myself.

My wife and I had our wedding reception at Tony’s Baltimore Grill in Atlantic City. We became pretty close with the owners afterwards. I explained my situation to them and was offered space in a vacant part of the building that had previously house the Glaziers Union Hall.

I partnered with the rebel of the Atlantic City arts scene, Zach Katzen who had long had a vision for making a space for artists to gather in the city. We came up with the business plan and built the space out in under three months. Union Hall Arts opened just over a year ago. We are now the hub for the arts in Atlantic City. Our most recent group exhibition attracted over 300 visitors to the opening reception in two hours. We’re only a 600 sq. ft space!
We’ve hosted a myriad of workshops with prominent artists from as far away as the UK and Italy. We’ve had artists from all over the United States take workshops. I host a twice weekly life drawing group. We’re incredibly busy, especially considering that we’re a city of under 40,000 people.

With Rome Art Residencies, I outlasted the mandates and helped restructure our business, so we could outlast another lockdown. I am happy to report that we are able to offer two funded artist residencies, multiple scholarships for artists taking workshops, and one artist fellowship. We are running six workshops this May, with incredibly talented artists including David Kassan and Shana Levenson, Brian Booth Craig, Thomas Schaller, Agnes Grochulska, Daniel Sprick and CRAWW.

I wouldn’t go back to adjuncting if they begged me.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

For both of my businesses, being artist-centric is the reason why we are successful. So many arts organizations are top-down organizations, filled with administrators who are not artists. Because I have been an artist for twenty years, I have built relationships with many artists, gallerists, curators, etc. Everything in this business is built on trusting relationships. I am true to my word, and I am fair and transparent with the artists I work with. We pay artists using a profit-sharing model. If the artist is working hard to promote a workshop, and we see it filling up, they are compensated for the success of the workshop.

So many arts programs pay artists in exposure. What good is exposure? You can’t eat from exposure, but you can die from exposure. Most importantly, I think it is because we are for profit companies. I am not chasing grant money or running programming that won’t sell just to meet the requirements of Arts Non-Profits. Being an artist myself, I feel that I have a good understanding of which artists people want to emulate and learn from. We offer courses that you don’t see in the modern universities. We offer in-depth instruction in a compressed time period. We don’t drag things out.

In Atlantic City specifically, we were a cultural desert. Just by opening a space where artists could gather together. we built trust. Every week, I ask the artists what they are excited about, what they want to see, who they would like to have come to town and then I can make it happen. We open our exhibitions to anyone who wants to show. We don’t charge a fee to exhibit.
It’s pretty simple; don’t bleed the artists dry, make real opportunities that benefit them first and then by proxy your organization.

In Rome, we build relationships by offering a unique and quality service. People love that we have a deep knowledge of the city, from art and architecture to restaurants and galleries. The artists who work with us come back year after year because we make the Rome come alive. Working in the studio with the top contemporary representational artists, you feel a kinship with the workshops of the Renaissance and Baroque artists who made the city.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.romeartresidencies.com, www.unionhallarts.com
• Instagram: @romeartresidencies, @unionhallarts
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RomeArtResidencies
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@romeartresidencies9991
• Other: www.jimdessicino.com

Image Credits
Brian Booth Craig, Jim Dessicino, German Acosta