Today, there are many podcasts, conferences, online articles, books, and other resources that can help creatives learn business basics.Īrtists don’t need to go at it alone, though. “This cross-filtering of audiences and blending of those audiences is valuable to me, and I think valuable to the audiences.” “The choice to do that was a nuanced one that had to do with the ability they had to reach a different audience than my work might in a museum or gallery,” he says. For instance, he has designed sneakers as part of a collaboration with Adidas. “These things are all things I’ve created, and I need to own that,” he says.īut Arsham, who focuses on art, architecture, and performance, does have an eye on growing his work’s reach. Today, he can touch every piece and is aware of what’s happening between the walls-engagement that is important to him for the sake of quality and integrity with the work. “The studio could continue to grow and grow, and at a certain point, I feel it would get away from me,” he says, noting he intentionally did not expand beyond what he felt was manageable. One business challenge that New York-based contemporary artist Daniel Arsham has faced is determining the appropriate scale of the studio he opened in 2004. Growth is generally a good thing for businesses, but there are different forms of expansion. Understand the diverse considerations of growth “They would do it because they think they’re getting exposure and that it looks good on the list of places they’ve exhibited, and maybe it does, but in the long run, it’s not sustainable to make decisions that make you lose money over and over again.” “Some artists would spend a ton of money making the art, shipping it, making very little, and then they would lose money,” says Brophy, who also wrote the 2018 book Art, Money & Success. Also, the gallery would only pay him 25 percent of sales. But the artist would have been responsible for paying the expensive costs of shipping the pieces from Florida, as well as shipping back any work that didn’t sell. For instance, one of Brophy’s clients was recently asked to display eight pieces in a prestigious Hawaiian gallery. “Artists will get started on a project without their client investing in it, and need to invest in it,” says Brophy.īrophy says that artists who want to run a viable business need to evaluate opportunities for the potential to earn money, not just exposure. “Cash flow can kill a small business, and waiting to get paid-especially if you have to pay your employees, freelancers, utilities, before you receive anything-can be really difficult,” he says.Īsking clients to pay an upfront deposit on commissioned work is one way creatives can improve their cash flow, says Maria Brophy, an art business consultant who also manages the business operations of the studio of her husband, surf artist Drew Brophy.
“It is easier to take risks, create new work, or take on projects that might not pay as well, but allow more creative freedom,” he says.Ĭampbell is now also able to withstand slow-paying clients, an achievement in itself. Today, Teri Studios doesn’t have debt, which helps Campbell grow his business. Subsequently, getting credit from suppliers and banks became easier. Over time, Campbell got his books in good shape and won enough jobs to keep the money coming in. When Teri Campbell, who specializes in commercial photography and film production, opened his Cincinnati studio in 1988, he mismanaged his finances to the point that his main film supplier made him pay cash on delivery instead of giving him credit. Such recordkeeping doesn’t have to be hard, but it can come with a learning curve. That tracking needs to include everything being spent on behalf of the business, even the smallest expenses. “They think, ‘Oh, I would rather just create my art.’” But Hart offers artists a relatable perspective: Building a business can be a different form of creativity, a kind of “living canvas” that is constantly evolving and requires multiple creative choices every day.Īt the most basic level, artists need to have a sense of what they’re spending and what they’re making, says Eli Altman, author of Run Studio Run (2018) and the creative director of A Hundred Monkeys, a naming and branding agency.
“Many artists fear the business component,” says James Hart, director of arts entrepreneurship at Southern Methodist University. In fact, running a studio like a small business can go a long way to ensuring that creatives can use their art to support themselves and those they employ. Can an artist also be a good businessperson? Of course.
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