10 creator communities to help connect with fellow artists, makers & creatives

Many creators, artists, and makers, whether working full-time or part-time, reach a point in their lives where they feel lonely. 

Sometimes they need another person to talk to, someone who wears similar shoes to theirs and is familiar with the solitude of art that can creep up on them. Other times, they would love to ask someone practical business questions, like how can you make money on Instagram or how can you send more traffic to your website.

Some would be comfortable with just finding one or two people to have random conversations with, others yearn to belong to an established community of like-minded people. 

Wherever you send in this question, we’re here to help you with a list of options for creator communities you can join and find fellow artists and makers in a format that fits you the best.

1. Creator Therapy from The Creators’ Diary

The Creator Therapy is our newest initiative aimed at building friendly and supportive connections for the creator community. 

We’ll meet every two weeks for a Zoom/Google Meet call that you can join with or without your camera turned on, speaking up or only listening to others while we, the founders of The Creators’ Diary chat through your most burning questions that you might have nobody to ask. 

You can truly ask anything related to your craft or you can join to simply find ears that will listen to you rambling about the hardships of creating. Yes, that’s a totally normal feeling and yes, it’s totally fine to share it, too.

Learn more about Creator Therapy here, this completely free and completely positive-minded project where we’ll make virtual bonds in the creator community.

2. Communities and clubs led by other creators 

We’re not the first ones at The Creators’ Diary to think of helping creators and you’re not the first artist, maker, or creator, whatever title you’re fond of, to think that it would be nice to be a member of a community.

When you join a community that is led by another creator, you’re very likely to find at least that one person to be the one who has already walked a mile in your shoes. They know what they’re talking about, whether that’s craft secrets or business ideas.

• The Jenna Rainey Art Community: Jenna is a self-taught artist and educator who now has a 7-figure creative business, thousands of students she taught worldwide, and she’s also the author of best-selling books on art and creativity. Joining her Patreon-based community will give you access to live art classes and critiques, a library of tutorials, and a monthly art challenge, too.

• Art Makers Club by Lisa Bardot: This community is run by Lisa Bardot who is an illustration artist and teacher and offers live feedback and drawing sessions, exclusive club-only tutorials, premium courses, members-only access to brush sets, and a community space to connect with like-minded art makers. You can choose from a monthly or annual subscription.

Google around a little bit to find more similar creator communities. Chances are some of the fellow artists you follow on social media might have their own clubs waiting for you, too.

3. Discord communities

The platform that used to be a communication channel mostly for gamers, today is the home of many communities across industries. You’ll find both professional networks and passionate hobby seekers here, and so many features to utilize from video chats to screen sharing.

• ArtCord: This is an art community that holds many events online, including Friday Game Nights and they also allow members to sell their art, too. A good choice of community if you want to showcase your art, possibly make some money, and expand your social circles—at the time of writing this article, ArtCord has 2300+ members.

• What’s the stitch?: This Discord community is the right spot for those who are dedicated to all things crochet. It advertises itself as a space where you can ask your craft-related questions, and get advice and motivation for your next projects. They also organize community events regularly for their 3100+ members.

4. Slack communities 

Slack was originally designed for internal office communications but quickly expanded to more and now it’s used by teams around the world and from different teams. One of those is, you guessed it right, creators, artists, and crafters of all kinds.

Slack is a great platform to discuss day-to-day happenings as well as any random ideas, motivational thoughts, or just funny snippets from the vast online sea. Some communities or so-called Slack channels are public, others are invite-only and or even private. But with a little search or maybe asking around, you’ll surely find one or more to try and see if they fit.

• Minted Artist Community: This is the Slack channel of the artist forum Minted, which is a marketplace for discovering, advocating, and buying exceptional artwork. First, you have to register as a Minted Artist, and answer a couple of basic questions about what you do and why you want to join their community, then off you go, to their Slack channel (after creating a Slack account).
• Orlando Designers: This Slack channel was created to foster the design community specifically in Orlando, Florida in the US. Knowledge sharing, forming relationships, and having fun are all part of the deal here, in this public community. Orlando Designers is a good example of a local, virtual group that creatives can join. Google or ask around and see if there is something like this in the area where you live, in case you might want to run into your peers offline, too.

5. Mighty Networks communities

Mighty Network is a place of online courses, challenges, paid memberships and events, and any other formats that a community may use to welcome new members and grow its size. The platform is all about helping creators build their own communities but if you wish to join those established by others, there’s nothing standing in your way.

• Salty Art Club: This community is a “safe and inspiring space to rediscover the pure joy of painting”, hosted by Vinita, an educator and creativity coach with over 20 years of experience behind her back. This club is membership-based and allows you to deep-dive into workshops, Q&As, and painting co-working sessions, besides meeting fellow artists. 

• Art Journey: This network promises you three things that you can do as a member: get personalized feedback to improve your art, meet a supportive network of artists, and grow your artistic skills in the form of live demos and in-depth workshops.

“My skill level in painting has noticeably increased with Art Journey. The weekly paint-alongs, lessons and feedback have accelerated my confidence and learning.”

Karen G., Art Journey member

6. Patreon communities

In creative circles, we don’t really have to introduce Patreon but just in case you’re hearing and reading about it for the first time, Patreon is a place to build a community, share exclusive work, and support your own creative business leaning on the members of your community.

Artists of all kinds utilize this platform to share what they create, to monetize their passion and skills, or to educate others in their field, looking for tips and advice. As a creator, a Patreon gives you direct access to the people who like your work and they have the opportunity to support you financially, too. The platform has a tier-based membership and pricing structure which allows fans to choose the level of support they want to provide for the creator.

If you want to start a Patreon, you can do it for free but for the purpose of this article, let’s keep in mind that you can join many Patreon communities where you can bond with other creators and artists who share your interests.

• Cristina Gómez 🌙 adesignerlife: Cristina who is a wonderful illustrator (read our interview with Cristina here), has been a long-time Patreon user and now offers a two-tier membership for anyone interested, whether you want exclusive access to her newest illustrations or to past content, including tutorials, workshops, and brush packs.

• Kara Leigh Ford Ceramics: Kara creates pottery and shares tutorials on her Patreon, gives first access to all pottery sales, personal advice, discount on lessons, and if you support her via the highest tier of membership, you’ll even receive a piece of pottery every three months. That’s a very nice marketing move right there—maybe one of the first Patreon tricks you learned from her?

7. Reddit communities

The good old Reddit never gets old. Now, the success and liveliness of a Reddit community lies on the people who run it and some get bored or uninterested quickly, or the amount of moderation they may have to handle becomes overwhelming so it might be harder to find a good creative community here but it’s not impossible.

• r/crafts: This Reddit channel is quite active, filled with painters, potters, glass artists, textile tufters, and jewelry designers—and that information is based on the last 24 hours of posts at the time of this writing. The point is, that this is a versatile group, giving you the chance to connect with others in your creative field and of course to share your own work, too.

• r/ArtistLounge: Compared to the r/crafts channel, here you’ll find more posts talking about the practical side of creative life asking questions like “Careers to do while keeping art as a side thing?”, “Those who have art degrees; what do you do?”, or “What do you do when the burnout settles in?”. You’re likely to get to know like-minded people here and be a part of meaningful conversations whether that’s about the business or the more human side of leading a creative life.

8. Meetup communities (offline)

Meetup is one of the most well-known and mostly offline versions of community building, a platform where people who share interests can join in-person events. It’s great for networking in a professional sense or to directly find new friends from creative circles. 

Meetup is now more than 20+ years old, a trusted place to meet up with people that you can also message online besides meeting in the real world. You can organize your own meetups or join those of others, and it gives you a good opportunity to connect with locals.

• Greenpoint Figure Drawing – Weekly Drink and Draw: In this community, artists gather to draw a live model, and each session is moderated in an art studio in Brooklyn, New York. You’re requested to bring your painting materials but the learning opportunity and finding a community is a given.

• Crafts and Coffee at Moshava Coffee: This community offers a platform to share your enthusiasm for your craft and the chance to drink fine coffee. Members knit, crochet, watercolor and make jewelry, and everyone is open to both teaching and learning. This group also hosts its events in New York.

9. Associations, forums, guilds

You also have the opportunity to join official organizations that aim to provide support for creative and art businesses. These often operate on a paid membership-basis but can also give you the kind of professional industry help, discounts, and access to special services (e.g. legal) that you may not find in other communities with a more grassroots approach.

• Graphic Artists Guild: The members of this organization are graphic and interactive designers, illustrators and animators, web programmers, and developers. They offer advocacy for rights and working conditions, virtual and in-person social and education events, and access to knowledge materials such as handbooks, webinars, and other business resources.

• Association of Illustrators: This UK-based association has been supporting artists since its foundation in 1973. They offer career support and a growing community you can be a part of. They also promote their members, provide exclusive discounts with their partner organizations, and have countless resources on subjects like pricing, licensing, copyright, and finance.  

10. Creative Mornings

This is more of a +1 idea on this list of communities you can join as a creator because, at the events of this group, you may not only meet fellow artists, crafters, or others from your specific field—and that’s the beauty of it, providing that companionship, inspiration, and creativity can come from so many sources. 

Creative Mornings is advertised as a “breakfast lectures series for the creative community”, and “the world’s largest face-to-face creative community”. They hold virtual events too and their in-person gatherings are currently organized in 245 cities from Budapest to Guatemala City.

Look around their website and search for events you can attend in your city.

Join a creator community

Hopefully, you found a creator community on this list that appears nice enough to try. I’d advise you to ask around and learn if your creative friends are already part of a community, too, and as always, a Google search or social media check never hurts.

In any case, I hope you decide to join our Creator Therapy and participate in building an inclusive, friendly, kind, and supportive creator community with us.

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