Art Industry / Career research
Art Investment article. Organising the Visiting Artist Talks has been an insightful experience
Really interesting article about social media artists and parasocial relationships from Artnet news. I've had several conversations with artists on different levels of the Fine Art, self taught artists, and general social media users around how I should be using social media more - to either gain followers, sponsorship or recognition in the art world. This article illustrates how the most influential artist on tiktok is not actually on the art world radar (and the reasons why)
I will keep a social media presence - its recommended in several books and articles as an expected way to keep your website current - by linking the two - but I am absolutely resolute that I didn't undertake art studies to become either viral or an influencer and will not commit the time that is required to 'beat the algorithm"
Wednesday 18.10.23 Licensing session with VAA
Took a look at FabFunky - Fine Artist website of VAA speaker.
Took a look at Grantify
Friday 20.10.23
Had a day of serious consideration about the industry I'm heading into.. RCA literally have an insta page for working class people to share their stories about their study experiences, working part time jobs and missing trips, alongside wealthy 'funded by the parents' students...On Wednesday, Kite Poppy and I took an online session from VAA about licensing - it was interesting but the biggest gain was the conversation around selling out (taking decisions to put your art out to the masses via capitalist routes ) or being skint; funding doesn't seem to be available at study stage, my part time role isn't consistently dependable as an income source alongside SFE funding. We've all resolved to bully (gently but seriously encourage) each other into setting up income streams now. We're meeting between teaching to do this next week.
I could just grab an evening or weekend job but this is a nightmare to fit around personal/care commitments and although I totally get why a steady income doing something unrelated is viable for so many people - at this stage of my studies and as a mature student with established transferrable skills, I'm wondering why I'm finding it so hard to tap into "something" in the industry.
..and then I go back to - why haven't I set up a business yet. This has literally been on my radar forever - and I think its actually the only choice I have -outside of open calls- which clearly I will engage with but funding is at the front of all my thoughts at the moment and looking through them around graduation time just illustrated how instantaneous the art industry feels- All adverts shout about short term deadlines -with no guaranteed anything at the end.
What am I doing? Setting up a business and getting a coach! My mentor meeting is next week..maybe that will build on this.
And then there's this... a strangely reassuring but sad article that challenges how we perceive art, money and the industry
Tuesday 23rd October
Had an interview with the Range; for 16-22 hours to fit around uni- Missed a group meeting about how we can use unicube but caught up in the studios after.
Some hesitation from full time students to get involved in the unicube activities due to commitments and deadlines - but spoke to a couple of people who said that they would submit work to be included in exhibitions. Started a plan on the studio wall of what the PT fine artists would like to see happen in the space. Iya joined the conversation and made some suggestions around getting scientists involved - will communicate ideas to the rest of the group to keep them in the loop.
Met with my mentor Katey Goodwin. Discussed what my career development areas were and Katey's professional and university background- She's used her archeological dig experience, project management, curatorial and museum history to establish herself in the role that she's in now. This did make me consider that I should be at least looking for roles that fit with my skills and not just falling back onto the range - but overall its difficult to stay what my end goal is. I thought I'd be selling, exhibiting and securing funding, maybe running spaces, sharing studios and /or teaching, but it's such a wide scope and the unpredictability of it is overwhelming.
We set up some objectives around networking in the artist industry. Katey mentioned a few art businesses that are on my radar but a lot of opportunties are voluntary. ..theme.. Talked about the unicube space and Katey said that she'd be interested in having some input and sharing events with her contacts. She also suggested that we should make the events manageable and run them over timeframes that work for us. Have some information on how to add Kite to ArtUK and Katey explained who creative& were.- I've not heard of them before and can't find any info so will ask about these again next time I see her on 31 October
Spoke to Alistair Woods about his experience of being a professional artist. He co runs a studio space and exhibits predominantly in the Manchester area. Teaches some university hours and works in an art shop. Recommended that we speak to Katey about the funding side.
28.10.23
Went to the opening night of Vault of the revolting - an exhibition at Acava studios by Dan Jervis, who'd asked me to exhibit 'Careful who you pretend to be" A totally different kind of exhibition for me - saw a couple of familiar faces and met the person curating the Out Loud exhibition. Daniel Rhead-Brown.
2nd Session with Katey 31 October -
Set some goals re setting up a shop on my website, ensuring comms are shared re uniqube. I'm looking for more income alongside my masters so am still establishing availability for any volunteering experience. Considering a different pathway on completion of my masters - looking at Art Therapy as a more structured career. weirdly, this gives me a lot of freedom in my practice and takes some of the weight of expectation away. I feel I have more agency to just make without thinking I'm working towards a rigid contemporary artist outcome - whatever that may be (travelling / bids/ exhibitions )
I almost gives me licence to create and sell art without feeling I need to do it under a different name in case it fights with this other idea of what my contemporary artist identity is.
Discussed what I'd need to do over the next couple of years to secure a place on the course I'm looking at and happy that I could practice alongside this.
Still interested in university teaching and PHD as another possible outcome but really digging into what the industry is like /can offer.
1.11.23
Arts Council England - Kicking in the back door Article re working class artists. Organisations are set up in relation to sustainable opportunities for working class artists- see article by COMMON founder David Loumgair
See also elephant article
3.11.23
Interviewed for a Community Engagement Assistant and set up a shop and pay pal on zyro
A lot of this information has led to and is continued through croK. but I'm digging into it because I need to understand what I have around me. For example, I didn't acknowledge how big Acava was and that its not an arts group like how I see what we're looking to build
January 2024 - My coach Katey shared some useful information about artists calculating rates of pay
artist union - I'm a member with these; they do great public liability insurance and legal advice.
GEM - rates for freelancers
4.02.24
Looking at the initials after Jennifer Anyan's name - and came across this
8.02.24
Looking at Made in Stoke, a way of connecting people from Stoke back to organisations that they can support. Updated the CroK. plan.
Comments
Post a Comment