By Anabella Bergero, Prof. Entrepreneurship and Launch Lab
As the semester comes to a close, my first year as Visiting Faculty at Ringling College of Art and Design marks an important milestone.
I arrived in Sarasota with a background in creative entrepreneurship across fashion, art, and technology. Moving here to teach at Ringling College of Art and Design was a leap of faith, one that quickly revealed a community defined by openness, creativity, and a shared drive to build. Much like my origins in Argentina and the entrepreneurial culture of the United States, this environment reflects a belief in shaping what does not yet exist. At its core, entrepreneurship is a creative act, requiring the courage to bring something new into the world.
At Ringling, this spirit is alive across disciplines. From game art and illustration to computer animation and graphic design, and to fine arts, the community reflects a wide spectrum of creative expression. Beyond campus, Sarasota reveals a parallel energy. Entrepreneurs, founders, technologists, artists, and makers are all around, building, creating, and shaping the rhythm of the city.
It is from this intersection that Creatives Minding Their Business takes shape, bringing people together around creativity, entrepreneurship, and storytelling. The series offers a space where founders, cultural leaders, and creators share their journeys, giving students a real view into what it means to build a creative life today.
In Fall 2025, it welcomed its first guest speaker from Miami, Valerie Lopez. A photographer-turned-tech entrepreneur, she is the founder of Angle Platform, a global marketplace operating in 106 countries. What began as a travel blog, rooted in her photographic skills and eye for opportunity, evolved into a platform that connects creative talent worldwide, illustrating how creative work can grow into a scalable business.
Spring 2026 expanded this conversation through a dynamic lineup of speakers.
Matthew Growney opened the semester with insights drawn from his work across design, fashion, and luxury markets. As an investor, creative director, and brand advisor, he shared a perspective on how ideas evolve into businesses. He spoke about creative IP, the power of storytelling, and the role of culture in shaping meaningful work, while emphasizing the importance of collaboration and long-term thinking in building brands with cultural relevance.
Travis Priest, a Sarasota native and CEO of Suncoast Venture Studios, brought a perspective shaped by his experience from NASA to venture building. Through a live exercise in the classroom, he demonstrated how artificial intelligence is accelerating idea development and reshaping how startups are built within local ecosystems.
As artificial intelligence continues to transform industries, Kelsey Knight, Chief Commercial Officer at Slumberkins, shared a case study on how creative intellectual property can evolve into a scalable enterprise. Her talk explored ethical uses of AI in product development and the expansion of a multimedia ecosystem centered on emotional learning for children.
Jenn Nguyen, founder of Jenn Studio and Lookbook AI, offered a powerful perspective on the intersection of design, data, and strategy. With over a decade of experience in luxury fashion e-commerce and more than $60 million in revenue impact, she introduced students to the idea of translating brand feeling into measurable insights, bridging creativity with performance.
Legal and financial foundations were addressed by Elizabeth Stamoulis of Williams Parker, who guided students through entity formation and intellectual property, including emerging challenges around AI-generated work. Victor G. Santiago followed with a session on tax essentials, grounding creative ambition in financial literacy.
A defining moment of the series came with Yohannan Terrell, founder of the Columbus Fashion Alliance. His work reframes creativity as infrastructure. Through what he calls Culturally Rooted Development, he presented a model for building creative districts that center culture while establishing long-term economic stability for artists and entrepreneurs. His perspective invited students and community leaders alike to rethink the role of creativity in shaping cities.
Joining the conversation, Brian Hersh from the Arts and Cultural Alliance Sarasota offered insight into the local cultural landscape, opening a dialogue on what becomes possible when arts, culture, and economic development align.
The series culminated in a visit to the Martin Trust Center for Entrepreneurship at MIT, a cradle of entrepreneurship, where I met my collaborator of the past eight months, Jenny Larios Berlin, and engaged with MIT’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and Arts Incubator. Tending bridges is, after all, what building entrepreneurial ecosystems is all about.
This year has been a reminder that creativity does not exist in isolation. It thrives in ecosystems and grows through connection. When paired with entrepreneurial thinking, it has the power not only to express, but to build and transform.
As my first year at Ringling comes to a close, I feel grateful to be part of a community actively shaping this future. There is a real opportunity, across students, faculty, and the broader Sarasota ecosystem, to continue building a space where creatives are inspired to create with an entrepreneurial mindset.
Looking ahead, I’m excited for Creatives Minding Their Business to continue next year with a new lineup of guests, expanding both the conversation and the community
Anabella Bergero is a creative working across fashion, art, and entrepreneurship, with collaborations including Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, Walmart, Faena, and Mastercard, and recognition from L’Officiel, Harper’s Bazaar Argentina, and the CFDA Future Graduates Show.
She is the founder of the fashion brand Maison Nomade, led the Miami expansion of the art-tech startup MUSA Exhibitions, consulted for the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce, and has created installations internationally; she holds an MFA from the Fashion Institute of Technology and joined Ringling College in 2025 to teach Creative Entrepreneurship.
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