The Fine Artist's Career Guide, 2nd Edition: Making Money in the Arts and Beyond (Business and Legal Forms)

321 Pages·2004·1.8 MB·English

by  Daniel Grant

Fine Artist's Title Page 2/26/04 10:00 AM Page i
The Fine Artist’s
Career Guide
Making
Money
in
the
Arts
and
Beyond
SECOND
EDITION
D A N I E L
G R A N T
ALLWORTH
PRESS
NEW YORK
Prelims 1/1/04 4:38 PM Page ii
©1998,2004 Daniel Grant
All rights reserved. Copyright under Berne Copyright Convention,
Universal Copyright Convention,and Pan-American Copyright
Convention. No part of this book may be reproduced,stored in a retrieval
system,or transmitted in any form,or by any means,electronic,
mechanical,photocopying,recording,or otherwise,without prior
permission of the publisher.
08 07 06 05 04 5 4 3 2 1
Published by Allworth Press
An imprint of Allworth Communications
10 East 23rd Street,New York,NY 10010
Cover design by Derek Bacchus
Interior by Charlie Sharp
Page composition by Integra
ISBN: 1-58115-347-3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Grant,Daniel.
The fine artist’s career guide/Daniel Grant. — 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Art—Vocational guidance—United States. I. Title.
N6505.G657 2004
(cid:2) (cid:2)
702 .3 73—dc22
2004001815
Printed in Canada
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Content s
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
CHAPTER ONE Selecting an Art School . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Choosing the Program or School . . . . . . 2
Art Schools and the Computer . . . . . . . 18
How Schools Select Their Students . . . . 23
Interview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Financial Aid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
CHAPTER TWO Looking for a Job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Assessing Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Preparing a Résumé . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Developing a Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Interviewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Resources for Job Hunters . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Career Advice for the Fine Artist . . . . . 55
CHAPTER THREE Establishing a Presence in
the Art World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Making Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Internships and Assistantships . . . . . . . 63
Balancing the Day Job and
a Rising Place in the Art World . . . . . . . 67
Exhibiting One’s Artwork . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
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IV – CONTENTS
Art Worlds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Private Commissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
To Sell or Not to Sell (Directly) . . . . . . . 78
Finding a Dealer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Sales and Rental Galleries . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Selling Art on the Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
CHAPTER FOUR The Search for Art-Related
Income . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Teaching at the College Level . . . . . . . . 96
State Artist-in-Residence Programs . . . . 102
Federal and Privately Sponsored
Residence Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Developing a Print Market . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Licensing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
CHAPTER FIVE Putting One’s Art Talents
to Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Portraiture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Courtroom and Forensic Art . . . . . . . . . 147
Religious and Liturgical Art . . . . . . . . . 150
Letter Arts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Combat Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
CHAPTER SIX Art-Related Employment Requiring
Additional Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Medical Illustration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Scientific Illustration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Art Conservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Art Therapy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Interior Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
CHAPTER SEVEN Making a Living as a Printmaker
or Sculptor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Supporting Oneself as a Printmaker . . . 221
Working in a Print Studio . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Supporting Oneself as a Sculptor . . . . . 228
Public Works of Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Working as a Sculpture
Foundry Technician . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
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CONTENTS – V
Carpentry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Theater Props . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Frame-Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
CHAPTER EIGHT Careers in the Art World . . . . . . . . . . 243
The Museum as Employer . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Art Appraisal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Arts Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
CHAPTER NINE Careers in Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Moving into the Design Field . . . . . . . . . 260
Illustration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
A Foot in Two Careers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
From Commercial to Fine Art . . . . . . . . 278
CHAPTER TEN The Art World and Minority
Artists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
African-American Artists . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Native-American Artists . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Asian-American Artists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Latino Artists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Minority Artists and Craftspeople . . . . . 296
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
Scholarships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
General Job-Search Assistance . . . . . . . . 299
Career Skills for Artists . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Art and the Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
Health and Safety in the Arts
and Crafts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
Of Related Interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
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Introdu ction
eing an artist nowadays means building a career on two tracks:
B
Track One is finding a job that will cover the essentials (food,cloth-
ing,shelter) and then some (art materials,studio rental,student loan
payments, among other possible expenses). The average college student
graduates these days $14,000 in debt (paying $170 per month for a ten-year
loan) only to enter a job world in which the average starting salary is
$24,000. Track Two is developing a presence in the art world that will even-
tually lead to an income,supplementary at first and perhaps full-time later
as an artist. Today it is the rare artist indeed who has not needed to have a
job to support his or her art. A job,however,is not just something that pro-
duces a steady paycheck; it has to be thought about with some care. Waiting
tables is not likely to earn one enough money to pay back a student loan
and, after years of trying to exhibit and sell artwork, one may only be
qualified to wait tables some more. According to several surveys, most
artists spend more on art materials than they receive in income from sales,
a fact that renders their job income even more crucial. Many artists prefer
to seek jobs that do not involve their artistic skills and talents, believing
that their art-making energies will be diverted or that their art itself will be
corrupted, turning into something that feels like just more work. Others
look for jobs within the arts or those that call upon their art training so that
the process of earning a living does not take them permanently away from
art-making, which is the reason that they sought that training in the first
place. Both approaches are valid: the history of art in the twentieth century
has seen artists emerge from any number of professions, from wine
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VIII – INTRODUCTION
merchant (Yves Tanguy), mailman (Arnold Friedman), and lawyer (Vasily
Kandinsky and Henri Matisse) to art critic (Fairfield Porter),architect (Tony
Smith), and museum curator (Howardena Pindell). This book naturally
focuses on jobs—or,perhaps,second careers—that call upon one’s art skills
and training. Some of these careers may require additional study or
degrees, but in every instance a studio art background is relevant and
highly advantageous. No one should believe the cynics who claim that
training in art only prepares one for unemployment and poverty.
Becoming an artist is not solely the result of a strong will to succeed.
People become artists in association with others who are like-minded,join-
ing societies,associations,and cooperative galleries,even living or renting
studio space in a building with other artists. The Romantic image of the
artist depicts the individual standing alone, but artists have always con-
gregated in some place, providing each other with mutual support, an
exchange of ideas,and what we nowadays call “networking opportunities.”
Artists work and exhibit their work together as well as share information
about opportunities. Regardless of the job one pursues, anyone believing
him- or herself to be an artist should develop a wide range of attachments
with other artists; otherwise,the desire to make art one’s career will be only
a fading dream.
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1
C H A P T E R O N E
Selecting an
Art School
n 1930, eighteen-year-old Jackson Pollock left home, traveling
I
across
the country to take classes at the Art Students League in New
York City,joining his brother Charles,who was already there studying
under the painter Thomas Hart Benton. Five years later,Pollock joined the
New York workshop of Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros,following
another brother,Sande,and a friend,Reuben Kadish. Earning a bachelor’s
or master’s degree was probably not on his mind; rather, he was doing as
artists had done for centuries—following the artistic currents of the time to
the cities,studios,and private schools of the artists whose work most inter-
ested him.
Nowadays, eighteen-year-olds with an enthusiasm for making art are
likely to choose among the hundreds of art schools and university art
departments, seeking college degrees and basing their selections on repu-
tation,facilities,student-teacher ratios,and career services offices. Virtually
all of the fine and commercial artists schooled in the postwar era have
taken this route, learning theories and technical skills and gaining an
important credential for the society outside the classroom.
Art academies are not exactly like trade or professional schools,such as
those for business,engineering,law,appliance repair,and medicine,which
are judged on their ability to produce qualified, employable workers who
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