Congratulations! You’ve found your niche and you want to start putting your talent into practice.
While simply being good at something is often free, honing that talent can get expensive – in terms of both money and time. Many of us will not get the chance (or have the time and money to spend) to earn a degree in our talents, but this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be able to develop those talents. In fact, it is often necessary; like we heard from Heather earlier in this series, many corporate employees in New York City live a double life to maintain their mental health and work-life balance through a creative outlet – accounting by day and painting by night, for example. Others depend on the income from two jobs, the way a Broadway actor might wait tables between shows. While you’re studying finance in preparation for your mind-numbingly boring career in banking compliance, there are plenty of ways to fill your free time productively and creatively. Here are some accessible and affordable ways to hone your talent in the city:
Free Classes and Workshops
- The New York Public Library system is great not only in the amount of free events and workshops it offers, but also in the spread of library branches across the boroughs. They have a helpful filtering system to choose between the 93,000 programs they offer every year, such as date, location, topic, and audience types and age groups. Supplies are provided for the most part, making the vast majority of these classes completely free. Some examples include tango and flamenco dance lessons, creative writing workshops, and classes to help you create your first business.
- Club Free Time is a great resource for finding other free events in the city, including workshops in a wide range of talents like portrait photography, juggling, and singing in a choir. Club Free Time also lists free concerts, lectures and presentations, galleries, tours, and more. If you’re interested in theatre, becoming a member at CFT can also get you 2 to 5 free tickets to small and innovative (but pricey) shows!
- Shape Up NYC is a free group fitness program with events in parks all over the city. If you’re a talented fitness teacher, you can volunteer to lead these classes and give back to your community. Or, if you’re just breaking into your future in fitness, you can join classes like Caribbean dance, intenSati (kickboxing meets yoga), and dynamic stretching.
Affordable Classes and Workshops
- One of the most expensive talents to pursue is a musical instrument, but it is also one of the most rewarding and beneficial to your brain health. The Brooklyn Conservatory of Music offers hour-long group lessons or ensemble sessions in 16-week semesters for $40-50 per lesson. It’s a great way to continue practicing your instrument or to start a new instrument as a beginner. They also offer financial aid, as well as free and cheap one-off events to help you pursue your talent as affordably as possible.
- The Brooklyn Brainery is a helpful resource for affordable classes that may be more targeted toward your niche than many free options. For example, there are classes on cyanotype, Shibori, and decoupage if you want to dive into a skill that most people have never heard of – and are unable to pronounce. Their teachers also offer walking tours, unique book launches, and online classes that all land in a range of $20-100.
- CourseHorse is a similar resource with a much broader range of classes and activities – and thus, a broader price range. For example, they list a drink and draw event for $15, but also a hybrid, 658-hour software engineering certificate program for $10,995 (which, at $17 per hour, is still quite affordable). They offer everything from dance classes to tours to mig welding workshops – a great one-stop shop for any and all talents.
Networking Events
- For those with less hands-on or purely artistic talents, networking is a great way to build skills like public speaking, strategic communication, and – of course – networking while building your community and learning more about your niche and others’. Eventbrite has a great list of free and low-cost networking events in the city with a wide variety of subjects, such as influencers, AI startups, and the entertainment industry.
- Similarly, Luma lists some of the biggest events in the city, with waitlists hundreds of people long. While these can get expensive and might require registration months in advance, some of the cheaper options include Climate Changemakers Manhattan’s free community picnic and a mid-summer momentum panel and mixer for interns in New York City.
The great thing about living in NYC is that whatever you’re into, someone else is into it too – and they’re willing to teach you (and if not, there’s plenty of people out there who can teach you how to turn your hyper-specific talent into a business of your own). Take some time this summer to follow your passion and hone your talent!
Get a $16.95 lunch at Spicy Moon this summer when you show this coupon at checkout!
By Lauren Male
Lauren is a senior at Pace University majoring in English and Communications, with a minor in Journalism. She is pursuing Pace’s M.S. Publishing program. When she’s not reading, Lauren can be found trying new coffee shops, thrift shopping, and spending all of her money on concert tickets.
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