Recently I was invited to speak at a local junior high school Career Day, with a group of students interested in becoming artists.  For a couple weeks I pondered what to say to these young people.  I wanted to avoid the pitfall of our culture’s myth about artists.

The myth is essentially that artists float in a creative bubble, buffered from the harshness and realities of the world, in some way immune to the same demands and obligations that other non-creative professions are subject to. As well, artists are believed to have a special connection to some zone of inspiration where ideas and creativity just flow to us without any work.

None of this is true! I wanted to burst a bit of this myth in my talk with the students. I felt it was my responsibility to leave them with something that could actually help and not merely entertain them.

To that end, I focused my talk on the knowledge and skills I feel are necessary to succeed in a career as an artist, and I particularly stressed the need for knowledge outside the realm of art. According to every artist I have ever met, creating art is the fun part of being an artist, however it amounts to only a portion of what artists actually do to build their careers.

Here is what I gave the students outlining the knowledge and skills I think are needed to be an artist:

Business and Economics: accounting, income statements, balance sheets, cash flow, budgeting, The Indifference Principle, marginal utilities and marginal values, time management, project planning and management, strategic planning, marketing, quality, customer satisfaction, sales, management, critical paths, time value of money, business planning, etc.

Writing: Grammar, communications, expository writing, resumé writing, artistic statements, journal writing, etc., artists MUST be able to write eloquently about their art or no one will take them seriously.

Communications and Eloquent Speaking: public speaking, customer relationships, none of this: “Well, I was like, you know, like, working on this like painting and like I totally love it!”  Artists MUST be able to speak eloquently about their art or no one will take them seriously.

Ethics: good work habits, do what you say you’re going to do, keep your commitments, be on time, have your materials and work in good order, dress well, speak well, appreciate others, value and don’t forget people who help you, help others coming up behind you.

Leadership

Earning and Saving Money: Start now! Save a portion of all the money you earn. There are no retirement savings plans for artistsl It is up to each of us to save for our futures, and nobody talks about this in art school.

Learning, Curiosity: Develop a love of learning, develop curiosity, pursue ideas and questions, read, travel, experience life.

Develop other interests besides Art! This is crucial. Artists MUST have interests outside art itself that can feed their art. It can be anything, anything that interests you and that keeps you curious and learning.

Resourcefulness: find materials and tools wherever you can (I am a big fan of dumpster diving in industrial areas), problem solving, getting help from all sorts of people.

Develop Humility and Confidence: learn from it (find out why you were rejected if you can, as that’s sometimes a great way to progress), NO arrogance, yet have confidence in you and your work and your goals.

Join Art Organizations: meet other artists, gallery owners, museum people, collectors, whoever you can talk and learn with.

Grant and Proposal Writing

Internet skills: blogging, research skills, website building, You Tube and other video media, marketing via internet, social sites, etc.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 at 4:48 pm and is filed under News, Philosophy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.