how do artists learn the entrepreneurial skills

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As one-person businesses, how do artists best learn the entrepreneurial skills needed to succeed? The New Haven-based Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation is working with arts groups to figure out the answer. Their program, Market Empowerment for Artists, focuses on “Arming visual artists with strategic visioning and planning skills that generates a sense of self-reliance as well as contributes to their success in the market place.” Funding several programs, they also funded a survey titled “How It’s Being Done: Arts Business Training in the U.S.,” that discovered 80 organizations offering 162 programs around the country.

David Green
David Green

The Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County is one of those organizations. Funded by Tremaine, and working with our partners, the Arts Council of Greater New Haven and the Greater Hartford Arts Council, we created “Make. Art. Work,” a series of six, three-hour seminars for visual artists, held sequentially in Fairfield, New Haven and Hartford, featuring guest experts speaking on topics like time management, marketing and selling work, budgeting and more — all coordinated by a specially hired facilitator.

After two years of running the program, in which artists could come and go, the three partners revamped the course in a number of ways: We made it competitive (artists had to apply with a resume, an artist’s statement and a selection of work); we made it compulsory (artists had to sign up for all six seminars); we made it more interactive: still using textbooks, we replaced the regular guest expert with a coach, encouraging more interactive learning among the artists; and we added a practicum: students had to collaboratively curate, organize and produce an exhibition.

The result was a rather spectacular success. The series was fully subscribed with 15 artists at each site. Artists made major discoveries about themselves and their approach to business, learning significant skills and recognizing that they work more productively as part of a community than in isolation. As we await word about funding for the further implementation of “Make.Art.Work,” we invite you to see our Fairfield artists’ exhibition at Art/Place, the gallery at the Fairfield Theatre Company: July 15-18 (reception Saturday, July 18, 2-5 p.m.).

David Green is director programs and membership for the Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County.