What Can An Artist Do to Protect Their Career?

What Can An Artist Do to Protect Their Career?
That seems to be the question on many artist's minds.

Last week I was asked by a newspaper editor for a publication in Scottsdale, Arizona (where many art galleries have gone out of business recently) to comment on four questions for an article she was doing on "the effects of the economy on artists and the art industry". She only wanted two sentence answers to each of the questions. Of course, there was no way that I could answer her questions in a few short sentences. So I simply answered the questions with my full and complete thoughts, and suggested that she pull what she wanted out of my comments, because it's a topic that I'm obviously so passionate about - not to mention knee deep in the muck.

So here are the questions she sent me. (How would you answer them?)

1. As an artist, how has the state of the economy over the past 18 months affected you?

2. As you prepared the Artisan Festivals, you were in contact with artists in all different mediums. What were they telling you?

3. In your opinion, what can artists do at this time to protect their careers?

4. What opportunities do you see for artists and arts organizations at this point?


Here is how I answered her questions:

1. As an artist, how has the state of the economy over the past 18 months affected you?

With so many galleries going out of business it's been hard to find steady brick and mortar representation. And with low attendance at art festivals sales are way down. There were days when I felt distraught and heartbroken over the real possibility of losing my art business.

So I started talking with a lot of other artists to see what they were doing to keep their business alive. What I came across did not offer me much hope -- in general the majority of artists were at a loss for any NEW and innovative ideas. Teaching art classes was a common idea. "So does that mean there is going to be a swarm of artists teaching art classes now?" I thought to myself.

Fortunately I noticed that there were still some artists out there doing better than just holding on by a thread, so I decided to find out what "those" artists were doing, and what I learned inspired me to re-write my business model. In the meantime I'm hustling like most to do whatever necessary to keep paying the bills.

2. As you prepared the Artisan Festivals, you were in contact with artists in all different mediums. What were they telling you?

What I've heard from most of the artists is that jewelry and 3D art, (primarily sculpture, art funiture, or functional art) is selling better than 2D art. Therefore a lot of 2D artists are producing smaller, more affordable pieces to fit within collector's budgets. Reports from artists have been that sales are down about 40% (or more). Attendance is low at art festivals, and many artists had to cut back on how many festivals they participate in throughout the year. Some artists I know have gone the opposite direction and doubled up on how many shows they do in attempt to maintain what their income was. It's all haywire and trickling down.

3. In your opinion, what can artists do at this time to protect their careers?

As an artists who is associated with many other artists I can attest that the majority of artists do not know how to market themselves well. They would rather be in their art studio producing their art, and leave the marketing up to someone else - I know, because that is exactly where I would rather be. However, if artists want to protect their art career in this economy they need to be spending at lest 50% of their time marketing their work and learning the latest marketing strategies. And these days the best place to do that (with the added benefit of very low cost) is on the Internet. Traditional marketing methods are simply not as viable as they once were.

Unfortunately, too many artists really do not understand how to use the Internet as a marketing tool. Many think they are using the Internet to market their work because they have a website, and/or they have posted their art on some Fine Art Marketplace website. Sadly though, most of these websites are set up only as online portfolios, and most of the visitors to those sites are other artists -- very few sales are made that way. Artists need to learn how to get lots and lots of traffic (visitors) to their websites & blogs, and there are some great techniques and tools to do just that.

Fact is, more and more people are spending their time online getting their news, entertainment, and staying connected with other people via email and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. With the development of Web 2.0 technology over the past two years a lot of new marketing tools and strategies have made it possible for business people (like artists) to market themselves effectively and actually sell their products online -- including fine art!


4. What opportunities do you see for artists and arts organizations at this point?

I feel that the art industry has the opportunity to get downright creative, we are knee deep in uncharted territory, but we get to be a big part of breaking ground in this new frontier. I think we are going to see more artists "Getting Real", and developing their "Personal Brands". It's no longer about just making cool art, unique art, or pretty art and then putting it up on display someplace; it's about getting to know the artist behind the art. We have to become more transparent; we have to allow people to really get to know us - the real us. Not the "Us" that hides behind a bunch of clever marketing gimmicks, taglines or fancy designed websites. It means stepping outside of our comfort zones and doing the things that we are unfamiliar with -- things that scare us, like network marketing on the Internet. LOL!

The Internet has opened the door for a new breed of art collectors. Many people feel intimidated by the traditional art gallery environment. Whereas online they don't have the added pressure of someone trying to "qualify them" determining if this person is worth their time and effort. The Internet is a friendlier, non-judgmental arena.

Let's face it, artists and art galleries have been spoiled by the false economy for the past two decades while people were busy living beyond their means, and galleries and art festivals were pushing prices up and up taking advantage of the consumer's luxurious spending habits. We have an opportunity to start fresh, and do things very differently now. Better and smarter.

People still want art in their lives -- they always will.


Let me know your thoughts on the topic.

What Can An Artist Do to Protect Their Career?