Artist Survival Skills
Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men of talent. - Calvin Coolidge
Well one career of experience plus eighteen months and the keyboard, and voilá, Artist Survival Skills: How to Make a Living as a Canadian Visual Artist, my book, is available at Opus. It covers all the major issues of self-employment as a creative artist. I am proud of compiling this resource — especially for young and emerging artists and because its contents will be augmented and updated on the website www.artistsurvivalskills.com.
Having written this column for twenty-two years, I have been asked a lot of questions by artists and told a lot of stories. As well, I have run an art gallery, produced innumerable exhibitions and worked in marketing for many years – all my life's learning is now published in one resource that can serve to assist artists in the establishment of their creative practice. And I know what I don't know. Artist and accountant, Bob McMurray, has written the chapter on taxation and the chapter on copyrights has been undertaken in partnership with Canadian Artists Representation/Front des artists Canadiennes (CARFAC).
Artist Survival Skills makes it clear that it takes a lot of work to develop an artistic career. Starting a small business (and this is what we do when we set out to be self-employed artists who sell our work) is a serious challenge regardless of the nature of the business. Whereas there are many worthwhile books for Canadian entrepreneurs on starting and growing a small business, my book looks at key components of small business theory and discusses them in the context of a creative skills-based small business — the self-employed Canadian visual artist.
Professional trade associations support all professional artists in Canada, but visual artists do not have sufficient professional guidance and support. The writers have the Writers Union of Canada, actors, stage managers and dancers have Canadian Actors Equity Association and ACRTA; musicians have the Musicians Union. Directors, choreographers, and composers’Äîall artistic professions belong to a trade association or union. These professional associations provide support to their members in areas such as health, taxation, copyrights, etc., and they negotiate collective agreements with employer associations that cover salaries and benefits.
Canadian visual artists have CARFAC to support them, but only a small percentage of Canadian visual artists are members, so the strength and relevance of the organization is limited. CARFAC and its Copyright Collective, however, are an important resource for Canadian visual artists. And although Canadian artists are also supported through the resources of other organizations such as local arts councils, peer associations, non-profit cooperatives, artist collectives and publications, Artist Survival Skills seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of professional development issues for the committed Canadian visual artist.
The development of Artist Survival Skills involved feedback from several artist/readers whose success in the visual arts I respected. These readers were charged with content editing’Äîthat is, as artists, how did the information flow, was it complete, etcetera.
Their responses were a valuable part of the evolution of the book; in particular, their message that the examples of artists and their experiences provided in the text stood out.
These real life experiences of artists provide graphic relief to the book for the reader as well as helping the reader understand business principles through the provision of concrete examples. The emphasis on the value of examples has also provided direction for the Artist Survival Skills website. Now that the book is published, and as I continue to interview artists and visual art gatekeepers, I will continue to support the book and its readers by posting further examples of the successful business practices of artists on the website.
Artist Survival Skills is 220 pages of information. The longest chapters are on pricing, sales & marketing and promotion; other chapters cover a wide variety of topics such as language & writing, taxation, copyright, health & safety, estate planning, donating to charity auctions, securing representation and submitting to curators and juries. Sample text from each chapter is provided on the Artist Survival Skills website at www.artistsurvivalskills.com
Artist Survival Skills is also a testament to the forum that this newsletter has provided for Canadian visual artists and me over the past twenty-two years. Without Opus and this medium, my book would never have been written. It is the accumulation of our collective experience. I sincerely hope it becomes a valued resource for the people I love most in the world — visual artists.
Artist Survival Skills is primarily for artists who want to earn income from their creative practice. It is a "how to" manual that has a lot of information for all artists — beginners or experienced practitioners. It's greatest strength is the website that will allow me to keep its readers current on the practices and policies with which it is concerned.
And finally, it is written to help support CARFAC, an organization I admire and without which, Canadian artists would have very little respect. One dollar from the sale of every Artist Survival Skills book will go to the support of CARFAC.
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