Art Marketing and Career Advice
Excerpts from How to Survive & Prosper as an Artist
Studio Visits
"Believe it or not, dealers dread studio visits as much as artists dread having them visit. Both parties are nervous and uncomfortable. Dealers are uneasy because they do not like to be put on the spot on an artist's turf. They feel more comfortable rejecting an artist or being vague in their own territory. Dealers also feel anxious about the reception they will receive. They fear that an artist will use the studio visit to give the dealer a taste of the same medicine the artist received in the gallery... As soon as the studio visit begins, take control by defusing tension. Tell the dealer that you understand this is only a preliminary visit and you do not expect a commitment."
Artist/Dealer Relations
"Artists who want to gain broad exposure and/or derive a healthy part-time or full-time income from gallery exhibitions and sales must be represented by many dealers. Relying on one dealer for your livelihood is not practical for many reasons. For example, your dealer might die, go into bankruptcy, or go out of business for other reasons. And unless a dealer understands the importance of expanding his or her client base, and most importantly, is willing to engage in an expansion, the gallery's narrowly focused market will soon become saturated, and sales activity will come to a screeching halt."
Grants
"Artists who are apprehensive and skeptical about applying for grants have many misconceptions about who receives them. Skeptical artists deem themselves ineligible for various reasons, such as being too old or young, lacking sufficient or impressive exhibition or performance credits, or lacking the right academic background. They believe that the kind of work they are doing isn't considered "in" or that they lack the right connections, which implies that juries are rigged!.. However, on the basis of my own experiences as a grant recipient and juror, as well as the experiences of my clients (the majority of whom would not measure up to the tough stereotype that many artists have of 'the perfect grant-winning specimen'), I am convinced that, for the most part, grant selection is a democratic process - meaning that everyone has a real chance."
Rationalization
"If you want to avoid fulfilling your potential as an artist, it is easy to find an excuse. When excuses linger unresolved too long they become rationalizations...The most common kinds of rationalizations practiced by artists are rationalizations to avoid the work process and rationalizations to avoid getting work out of the studio and into the public domain, the marketplace."
Contracts
"Beware of dealers who won't use contracts. Requesting someone to enter into a formal agreement does not imply that you are distrustful. It merely attests to the face that being human lends itself to being misunderstood and misinterpreted. Contracts can help compensate for human frailties. Another important reason for using contracts is that it will save you a lot of time and energy in having to reinvent the wheel each time a situation arises that needs some sort of clarification."
Copyright 2001 by Caroll Michels. All rights reserved.
