A successful art career is about more than just being a good artist. It’s about finding your artwork’s audience, protecting the work and your interest in it, and maintaining the practices and relationships that let you go on making your art. You have to be your own supporter and promoter, coach, business manager, market analyst, salesperson, luck maker, and best friend.

In Business Basics for Artists, offered through Mastrius, you can learn to do all this.

During four weeks of Saturday morning classes, two hours at a time, we’ll explore different kinds of exhibition venues and the proposals required for each, including writing artists’ statements, bios, and CVs, and how varying types of galleries require varying information. We’ll look into the development and maintenance of artist/gallery relationships. We’ll also talk about maintaining professional studio business practices, including keeping inventory and financial records (so you can do your art business taxes correctly), using contracts, understanding copyright, and what kinds of insurance you might need. And because in addition to making and exhibiting the artwork and running your studio, the artist also has to look after getting the art to its destination and letting people know how to see it, we’ll look at packing and shipping artwork, promoting your exhibition, and what to think about as you develop your artist’s website and social media.

Throughout these weeks, you’ll be building your own individual materials for future uses, adding information that will always support you to your fund of knowledge, finding a new support group, and having fun. And all the classes will have time for the concerns that matter most to you.