Elizabeth Dorbad has assisted in the development of visual artist archives and artist residencies, and consulted on a variety of projects for sculptors, architects and designers. In 2019, she began Elizabeth Dorbad Consulting and has worked with visual artists, museum builders, curators, musicians, sound artists, writers, philosophers, educators, graduate students, therapists, business owners and tech industry designers as a Creative Advocate, Career Strategist, Coach, Mentor and Business Consultant. Through weekly meetings and deep listening, this work creates individually tailored strategies to enhance the creative process, productivity and audience, and create career infrastructures, inroads and livelihoods. Collaboratively the client and the consultant construct maps of needs, dreams and desires and then follow the maps. In the 7 years of working with clients it has been wildly successful. The clients produce work that goes beyond what they previously thought possible. They increase confidence and ease, and receive the opportunities, positions and grants that allow them to move forward. The work generates and advances careers, transforms lives and is incredibly gratifying. It is nothing short of amazing.
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Please send a CONTACT message for more information on consulting work and a complimentary intro session.
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“Immediately, with help from Elizabeth, I found myself writing more and with more focus. What has been most valuable in Elizabeth’s work with me is her enthusiastic attention to the process. She has taught me much not only about writing but about the creative endeavor itself.” D.B., Savannah, Georgia. Writer/Philosopher – Client 2019-2022
“It’s astonishing how much my career has grown since the year I worked with Elizabeth. In the course of working together, I articulated goals and aspirations for my art practice and found that over time, those goals were being met one after another. Her kind and empathetic approach made me feel supported when confronting challenges, and her practical and professional know-how helped me navigate the new parts of the art world I was entering. I’m incredibly grateful for her belief in me and my work, and for the track I’m on now.” Jon Verney, North Adams, Massachusetts/NY/Certaldo, Italy. Visual Artist -Client 2023-2024
“Elizabeth is a keen listener. She wants to find your most pressing situations and guide you quickly to a focus point. She is a multi-studied and talented artist in constant personal and professional investigations that keep her suggestions fresh, relevant, with a hint of instinct. She has been able to bring out my own knowledge and contact ideas that had been dormant, yet useful to marketing. As a longtime photography artist, I found her approach enriching because she wants you to succeed.” Linda Troeller, NY. Master Artist Photographer, Professor- Client since 2022
“I truly enjoyed working with Elizabeth. We worked together for three months and I found the time to be extremely productive. I wanted to focus on some important issues, including making better use of my studio time and finding new places to exhibit my work. I chose Elizabeth because I have two close artist friends who worked with, and highly recommended her, and I watched them achieve many goals.” S.D., Asheville, North Carolina. Visual Artist- Client 2022-2023
“Elizabeth’s coaching skills combine an in-depth understanding of artistic individuals and their creative processes. She listens. But, most of all, she believes in her client’s ability to achieve their goals. I gained strategies to clarify my working process and take my artistic process to the next level. I highly recommend Elizabeth to you as an art and creativity coach.” A.B., Little Switzerland, North Carolina. Visual Artist/Professor-Client 2019-2023
“Elizabeth is an articulate and eloquent writer and deep, well-read thinker…” M.T., Los Angeles, California. Author, Professor- Client 2022
”Everything we’ve tried has kind of worked hasn’t it?!” V.V., Houston, Texas. Visual Artist, Storyteller-Client 2022-2025
“I didn’t really know what I was signing up for or wanted when I started working with Elizabeth, but my results were really good. In the very first week I worked with her I got an assignment from Playboy. Then over the next few months, I added about 20 percent more paying subscribers to my Substack newsletter, published an article in N+1, something I had always wanted to do but didn’t really think was possible, and I also published an article in the New Yorker. I had published there before, but not for a few years. The best thing she probably did for me was getting me to take myself more seriously. Elizabeth allows you to see your strengths, she helps you to believe that things are possible. She’s optimistic but not delusional. She also helped me to be more forgiving with myself about how it is that I am able to write, and she was a good reader too. She has good taste, and laughed at my jokes, which helped me persuade editors to keep them, because they love to cut jokes, it’s their favorite pastime. I was also having a tough time personally when we started working together, and increasing the focus of my writing instead of just getting depressed and feeling sorry for myself helped me to move forward, not only with the work itself, but with life.” Sarah Peters Miller, Nevada City, California – Client since 2023
“When I decided to start working with Elizabeth Dorbad, I had been making art for years and also taught in an art college, but I felt deeply stuck and low. I didn’t know how to expand my visibility. I was also searching for a new way to respond to the time we live in, wondering about the relevance of art in dark times generally, and feeling alone in the search.
Elizabeth listens deeply and loves and values the work of art making. She knows a great deal about the art world, and can talk about wide ranging ways to share one’s work, from best practices in meeting gallerists and curators, finding and interacting with collectors, forging connections that will lead to broader exhibition opportunities, finding residencies and other forms of community, writing statements, developing generative rhythms in one’s practices, researching and obtaining funding and more. I ultimately ended up focusing on just a few of these fronts, but I feel certain that I could have worked with Elizabeth on any one of them.
One of many valuable elements in my Magnificent Container was Elizabeth’s visit to my studio. It was wonderful to show her work that had been lying in my flat files for years, mostly unexhibited. During that nourishing process, she homed in on a painting that I had made almost two years earlier and sidelined in my mind as a “practice” painting; and helped me see that it was a central piece in what since that visit has blossomed into an ongoing series of works exploring the human figure in gestures and gatherings of protest.
Before meeting Elizabeth, I had tried workshops with consultants, who provided guidelines for broadening one’s career. The information was valuable, but these tutorials were impersonal and standardized. What makes Elizabeth different as a consultant is her capacity to listen, to meet artists as whole people, and understand that our trajectories are unique and deeply personal. Elizabeth meets people with the conviction that what we do matters, that art making is not a luxury, but, in her words, a deep act of generosity. That last notion is one of my favorite takeaways from our conversations.
Four weeks into our work together, I decided to finally start building my own studio in our home. This was a profound step. Until then I had worked in makeshift spaces that came with restraints on the kinds of materials I could use, and the scales I could attempt. We moved into our current home with the understanding that the shell space above our garage would be my designated studio, but I now understand that we delayed moving forward toward this goal because I lacked the confidence that my work warranted such an investment. I am now within weeks of moving into the new space, and it’s hard to describe how affirming and exciting this feels.
My work with Elizabeth has helped me find myself anew, more deeply as an artist. I have now given myself permission to set aside undisturbed time each day for my practice. And to expand my understanding of what “productive studio time” means. It has reignited my drive to keep track of contemporary artists, to carve out time to explore galleries, museums and other venues local, national, and international, and most radically, to imagine that my work has a place in those venues. It has helped me hold myself as an artist in the world.
These changes in my outlook happened over the course of a 3-month long Magnificent Container. I am taking a break now to assimilate what I’ve learned (and settle into my new studio!) but expect to continue working with Elizabeth in some form moving forward. If as a creative person, you have a problem to think through – technical, pragmatic, conceptual, philosophical – or if you simply need an attentive eye on your work, I can’t recommend working with Elizabeth Dorbad strongly enough.”
Noga Wizansky, Nevada City, California. Visual Artist -Client 2025