Dysfunctional v. Healthy Artist Organizations
I’ve been encouraging artists to join artist organizations for my entire career, but the truth is that not all organizations are created equal.
And before you go thinking that you should start your own, let me say this: the world does not need more artist organizations. The world needs better artist organizations – organizations with powerful visions and commitment to serving their artists.
To be clear, I’m not talking about organizations for hobbyists. Those serve a separate and noble purpose, which is fodder for another article.
When you are trying to earn money from your art … when you aim for professional status … you need a higher level of support.
I think this is why Art Biz Coach has been so successful – because we fill a void. We support artists in classes like Magnetic You (starting soon!) and the Art Biz Inner Circle.
Healthy organizations aren’t my competition. We’re all here to elevate the status of artists while helping you lead healthy, productive lives. We’re stronger together.
With that said, here are some thoughts that might help you decide whether or not an organization is right for you.
Profile of a Healthy Artist Organization
Structure & Leadership
The organization has written guidelines, policies, and procedures – and follows them. You know know what is expected of you and what you can expect from the organization.
The organization plays a valuable role within the larger art community. In other words, it’s not an island operating by itself.
Meetings
Meetings are
Who’s Who in the Art Museum
If it’s on your bucket list to schedule a museum exhibition, volunteer or work at a museum, or see your art in a museum collection, you will benefit if you understand how a museum administration is structured.
While I haven’t been part of the museum world since 2001, I am confident that what I share below can still be helpful to you. Keep in mind, however, that not all museums operate the same way, and there is a vast difference between how small and large museum personnel divide their responsibilities.
Let’s start with an overview of the basic museum hierarchy.
Museum Hierarchy
Board of Directors
Or University Dean, Provost or President. This official body is ultimately responsible for the overall well-being of the institution.
↓
Director of Museum
↓
Museum Staff
↓
Volunteers
Now we can look at the individual roles of the staff members.
Directors
Museum directors are responsible for overseeing all operations. They keep the board of directors informed through regular meetings and as-necessary contact. They serve at the pleasure of the board.
Directors often have art backgrounds, but more and more of them have business experience and political (fundraising) acumen.
The director juggles trying to please the staff, the board, the university (if on a campus), the public, and volunteers.
How an Artist Might Work with a Museum Director
In museums with a curatorial staff, you probably wouldn’t have much contact with a director. However, it might be necessary for a director to assume some of the roles below if there are only a few on staff at the museum.
Curators
Curators, who answer to the director, are the objects (art) experts on a museum staff and often hold doctorates in art history. Being the objects experts, curators shape the content of museum collections and exhibitions, and write and speak extensively about the art.
Some museums
Taking Perfectly Imperfect Action
You know that I’m all about action.
My book, I’d Rather Be in the Studio, is broken up into actions rather than chapters.
While I’m a champion of moving forward, I also slow down to read, research, and learn, which is crucial because my superpower is teaching.
While I could easily bliss out on months of research, the fact is, at some point (not too late in the process), the learning phase must make room for the action phase. No matter how much you research, it doesn’t do you any good until you put that knowledge to work.
I think we stay in information-gathering mode rather than taking action for one of two reasons:
1. We’re afraid to make a mistake (failing), or …
2. We don’t have enough fire in the belly to get moving. We aren’t hungry enough.
Let’s look at these separately and try to move past them.
Embrace Mistakes
You can’t learn simply by reading books and taking classes. The ultimate test of your knowledge comes when you implement.
The only way to grow is to take what you’ve read/heard/seen and put it into action. When you do this, you find out how it applies to your specific situation.
Yes, you’re going to make mistakes. A lot of them. Mistake-making is part of the process.
But you won’t fail. You’ll only fail if
The Art Biz ep. 14: Quantifying Quality in Art: Elaine Kehew
Everyone says that there’s no such thing as a negative review. That any media attention is good media attention.
That’s easy to say until someone slams your work.
In this episode of the Art Biz Podcast, I’m at the big table with Elaine Kehew, who shares the story of a negative review she received last year and the resulting journey to improve the quality of her art.
The critic who rankled her was someone she knew and trusted, so she took his comments to heart. And they hurt.
This isn’t a story about perfectionism. Perfectionism is crippling, Elaine says. It’s not about aesthetics or beauty. It’s about Elaine’s quest to quantify the quality of her work – to ensure that it is getting better.
Elaine is a repeat student of the Art Biz Accelerator, a class in which my students set goals. When I read that Elaine’s #1 goal for the year is to improve the quality of her painting, I asked her how she would measure that. After all, goals are supposed to be measurable so you know when you achieve them.
This led Elaine to explore quality – particularly the research being done around quality management in the 1990s and early 2000s. (In her previous life, Elaine was a researcher for a law firm.)
Listen as Elaine opens up about what happened after her negative review and shares 8 targets she has identified to improve the quality of her paintings.
Why Nobody Came to Your Show
It doesn’t take a genius to understand why nobody came to your art show.
Let’s set aside the bad weather, natural disaster, flu epidemic, or major tragedy in the community. And not count people who are out of town or live too far away, or those who have tickets to the theater or are nursing a sick child.
We’re going to focus on the able people on your mailing list who would be most inclined to come out and support you. Except they didn’t.
The reason they didn’t come is because you assumed too much.
Let’s look at 4 ways this might have played out.
1. You didn’t tell them about it.
You assumed the venue would get the word out.
Oops! You’ll never do that again. Venues, regardless of the type of venue, have an entire program of artists and exhibitions lined up. Sorry to break this to you: you are but a small fish in their big pond.
What’s important to you isn’t always critical to them.
You can’t rely on the venue to get people to your exhibition.
2. You relied on a social media post.
You assumed people would see your invitation on Facebook.
You can’t post an invitation once or twice to social media and expect results (especially these days). I don’t know about you, but
A Framework for Accepting Art Commissions
Whether you accept commissions for portraits (houses, people, pets), funerary urns, custom jewelry, or garden sculpture, you encounter situations that other artists don’t.
Commissioned artists must meet with patrons, communicate throughout the process, figure out payment schedules, and create documents that outline terms to the clients. All of this on top of making the client happy.
Commissions aren’t for everyone, which means there is plenty of room for artists who enjoy and are good at them. If you are one of those artists, follow these 8 steps to land more of them.
8 Steps for Landing Art Commissions
1. Add a prominent link for commissions on your website.
Include steps for commissioning a piece and testimonials from happy patrons alongside images of the finished work.
2. Provide at least two ways to contact you.
See that your marketing materials, including your website, have both an email address and a phone number. According to Matt Oechsli, the affluent prefer phone to email.
At least one artist has lost an opportunity for a mural commission because she didn’t have a phone number on her site and her email was down. How do I know? Because I was the person looking for an artist to help a neighbor with her project.
3. Understand your pricing structure.
Commissioned artwork should be priced higher than your other work because you are trying to meet someone else’s expectations.
Some artists charge as much as
