We are Straw Factory

Straw Factory is the business incubator of the Long Beach City College Jewelry Entrepreneurship Program. Currently comprised of post-baccalaureate and encore career students, we pool resources and support each other’s professional goals. Individually, we express our personal design and aesthetics, learning not only the practice of art making, but also the profession of being an artist. Collectively, we are a self-propelling cohort managing collaborations and together learning the mechanics of business. Straw Factory lengthens the runway as we strengthen our craft, find our voices and our wings.

The Strength of Community has always been essential to our program. Working together as a team our students enrich their artistic and problem solving potential, starting with basic materials and creating objects that are useful, meaningful, and beautiful. Through the Jewelry Entrepreneurship Program we nurture our students to a full arts education through the development of professionalism, dedication to craft and community building.

SPEAKING OF COMMUNITY: This site would not exist without our Technical Director, John Hissong, the support of our local jewelry community, LA Regional Small Business Development Center, the generous benefactors of the Jewelry Entrepreneurship and Applied Design Programs as well as the Visual and Media Arts Department at Long Beach City College.

SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR ADVISORY COMMITTEE:

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