Level Up!
Business Cohort for Creative Entrepreneurs
Level Up! is a new program designed to strengthen the professional and business skills of artists in Southern Arizona.
Led by Tucson Poet Laureate Logan Phillips in collaboration with the Tucson Small Business Center and Groundswell Capital, the project will provide peer-to-peer workshops and mentorship to help artists develop sustainable creative careers while navigating the administrative and financial aspects of artistic practice.
The intended impact is to equip artists of any experience level with practical tools such as starting a business, budgeting, invoicing, event production, and funding strategies so they can build foundational skills while continuing to center their own values and creative practices.
Made possible in part by a grant from the Arts Foundation For Tucson and Southern Arizona.
Open to Southern Arizona-based artists of any discipline who can commit to attending each of the four workshops in the series either virtually or in-person (limited enrollment) at the Tucson Small Business Center.
Meeting Schedule:
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October 24th, 2026
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December 5th, 2026
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February 27th, 2027
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March 27th, 2027
Please fill out this interest form to learn more about the program and enrollment
What You'll Learn
Business Planning
Financial Management
Event Production
Funding Strategy
About Logan Phillips
Logan Phillips is a poet and cultural worker based in Tucson, Arizona. He was recently appointed Tucson Poet Laureate and the recipient of a 2026 Poet Laureate Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets.
Author of the books RECKON (University of Arizona Press, 2026), Sonoran Strange (West End Press, 2015), as well as the ongoing NoVoGRAFíAS series, Phillips works to create new opportunities for the intersection of poetry and wider society.
As a bilingual poet, performer, educator and DJ he tours his art throughout the US, Latin America, Europe and beyond. Phillips holds collaboration as a core creative practice and contributes to a wide range of performance, music, education, land-based and community-centered projects.
Born to a family of Irish-Slavic descent and raised in the Arizona / Sonora borderlands, Phillips lived in and around Mexico City 2006-2011, where he contributed to organizing and hosting the country’s first regular poetry slam series.
Also in 2007 Logan began playing house parties and mezcalería-speakeasies in Cuernavaca as DJ Dirtyverbs, specializing in cumbia and world music.
Teaching and facilitating has been an important part of Phillips’ artistic practice since 2005. He has worked as a classroom teacher at the elementary, high school and university levels.
Phillips served as Cofounder & Codirector of Spoken Futures, Inc. whose programs included the Tucson Youth Poetry Slam, 2010-2019, and currently works as a teaching artist with The University of Arizona Poetry Center and with schools across the United States.
A Partnership Of
Creative entrepreneurs are a critical part of Tucson's culture and economy. The City of Tucson supports the growth and vitality of the creative entrepreneur ecosystem - such as the Level Up! program as part of its collaborative SOMOS UNO initiative.
Learn more about the A Cultural Heritage Strategy and its impact on our community on their website.
