Art Tip Tuesday: Building Your Art Career Pt. 1

Build a supportive network

It’s been three months since I started educating myself on the art world. The one thing that I’ve noticed is that some multicultural artists are still struggling to get their art work through the doors of art galleries. To tackle the issue at hand, I’ve interviewed artists, attended art shows, panel discussions, and I spend my free time researching, which goes a long way. 

During my research I came across a wealth of information from artist and gallerist Rhonda Schaller, who is also an assistant director of Career Development at New York’s School of Visual Arts. 

Schaller offers in-depth steps of how to sell your work through galleries to tips of handling yourself as a self-produced artist. I also went though her guest blogs and found advice on how to get your art career off and running. Some of her topics were spot on from what I’ve been hearing from other artists I’ve spoken to.

Given that her entry is quite lengthy, I’ve broken up her advice into several parts, which I’ll share with you on Tuesdays. First up…It’s all creating a supportive network.

As told by Rhonda Schaller: 

Build a supportive network

First off, you can’t do this alone. Working in your studio is a lonely business most times. You need a community. You need to surround yourself with passionate people, other artists, visual, writers, poets, performance artists. Anyone who inspires you, understands what you’re going through, and will share opportunities that they hear about with you should be a part of your personal network.

You need a community of other artists in your life. You need a network. Because making art is such an isolating business, you have to make sure you are not all alone in it. We need inspiration from others. We need to see what is going on in our field, and build relationships. The world works this way. All business works this way. Artists need to learn to work this way too. Networking and researching should be what guides your career from the business side. You job is to build a bridge between your creative mind and your business mind. (To get the full rundown on Schaller's insight to launching your art career visit the blog archives)

So, who is in your supportive network? Who do you turn to to bounce ideas around and brainstorm? Who is your inspiration? Are you networking? How are you building the bridge? 

Feel free to leave your comment below, or e-mail your comments to astutestores@gmail.com.