The artist's career guide: how to make a living doing what you love

Using a “tough love approach” to pursuing a career in the visual arts, Jackie Battenfield expands on her highly successful classes and workshops to provide a comprehensive guide for both emerging and mid-career artists. Providing real-life examples, illustrations, and step-by-step exercises, Battenfield offers readily applicable advice on all aspects of the job. Along with tips on planning and assessment, she presents strategies for self-management, including marketing, online promotion, building professional relationships, grant writing, and portfolio development. Each chapter ends with an insightful “Reality Check” interview, featuring advice and useful information from high-profile artists and professionals. The result is an inspiring, experiential guide brimming with field-tested techniques that readers can easily apply to their own career. Contents......Page 8 Introduction: Why Read This Book?......Page 10 Section One: Taking Charge of Your Professional Life......Page 22 ONE: How to Assess, Plan, and Take Action......Page 24 TWO: How to Assemble the Essential Tools to Support Your Work......Page 45 Section Two: Circulating Your Work......Page 92 THREE: How to Get Started: Peer Networking, Readiness, and Creating Your Own Opportunities......Page 94 FOUR: How to Introduce Your Work to the Professional Community: Researching and Exhibiting in Nonprofit Spaces......Page 116 FIVE: How to Build Long-Term Professional Relationships......Page 144 Section Three: Supporting Your Work......Page 178 SIX: How to Earn and Manage Money......Page 180 SEVEN: How to Find Even More Support: Grants, Residencies, Gifts......Page 218 EIGHT: How to Read and Work with the Fine Print: Contracts, Legal Issues, and the Art of Negotiation......Page 262 Section Four: Maintaining Your Practice......Page 302 NINE: How to Structure Your Day-to-Day Operations......Page 304 TEN: How to Build Community to Survive Being Alone......Page 332 Epilogue......Page 362 Acknowledgments......Page 368 Biographies......Page 370 A......Page 384 B......Page 386 C......Page 387 D......Page 388 E......Page 389 F......Page 390 G......Page 391 I......Page 392 L......Page 393 M......Page 394 O......Page 395 P......Page 396 R......Page 397 S......Page 398 U......Page 399 W......Page 400 Y......Page 401 Using a "tough love approach" to pursuing a career in the visual arts, Jackie Battenfield expands on her highly successful classes and workshops to provide a comprehensive guide for both emerging and mid-career artists. Providing real-life examples, illustrations, and step-by-step exercises, Battenfield offers readily applicable advice on all aspects of the job. Along with tips on planning and assessment, she presents strategies for self-management, including marketing, online promotion, building professional relationships, grant writing, and portfolio development. Each chapter ends with an insightful "Reality Check" interview, featuring advice and useful information from high-profile artists and professionals. The result is an inspiring, experiential guide brimming with field-tested techniques that readers can easily apply to their own career. - Publisher. A comprehensive guide for both emerging and mid-career artists to pursue a career in the visual arts. Providing real-life examples, illustrations, and step-by-step exercises, Battenfield offers readily applicable advice on all aspects of the job. Along with tips on planning and assessment, she presents strategies for self-management, including marketing, online promotion, building professional relationships, grant writing, and portfolio development. Each chapter ends with an insightful'Reality Check'interview, featuring advice and useful information from high-profile artists and professionals. The result is an inspiring, experiential guide brimming with field-tested techniques that readers can easily apply to their own career.