art smarts

Chapter 7. The Business of Being an Artist

If you want to have a career as an artist – or even if you’re just working on a single project – there may be some business that you’ll need to take care of, or make sure someone else is taking care of for you.

Business doesn’t fit with the romantic notion of being an artist, and many artists don’t like this aspect of their careers. However, it’s rare that an artist’s work is seen by the public without some paperwork and organizing beforehand. Success as an artist is a mixture of talent, luck, connections and, for many, skill at writing grant applications. It’s often a case of preparation meeting opportunity.

Given the many erroneous assumptions about people with disabilities, it may take a lot more persistence for you to get an “in” to the art world. You might need extra help, and you might also find yourself having to educate agents or curators.

A complete description of the business related to all the artistic disciplines would take volumes, so we’ve let our twelve artists suggest some general areas for you to consider. In addition, there may be short business courses you can take at community arts councils, community centres or art schools in your area.

First of all, if you want to be hired as a performer, or to sell your art, or to communicate an idea to the public through your artwork, then you have to let people know what you’re doing. This is called “networking” or “promotion.” If promoting, or “selling,” yourself is hard for you to do, then you may eventually find someone to do that for you. Musicians and other performers often have “agents” who promote them and find them jobs, or “gigs.” Until you’re getting enough work to pay an agent a fee, though, you’ll probably have to do the promotion yourself. A good media kit, with photos of you, a description of who you are and what you do, and a list of things you’ve done in the past, along with articles about you or reviews by critics if you have any, will do much of the talking for you.

Finding a gallery to represent you is a good route to follow if you’re a visual artist but the gallery will, of course, take a “commission” (a percentage of the price) for any sales they make of your work. Like a media kit for the performer, a portfolio that has photos of your work is essential for the visual artist.

it’s rare that an artist’s work is seen by the public without some paperwork and organizing beforehand. success as an artist is a mixture of talent, luck, connections and, for many, skill at writing grant applications.

One of the things we can impart to people is that music is not a very glamorous business. There are a lot of people who are working away and they’re not millionaires. Don’t have any illusions; it’s hard work without a lot of money.

In the first part of things you’ve got to have talent. You’ve got to have your business chops together, too, to be successful. Making sure you’re ready to go. One of the things I see amongst people with disabilities is a lack of self-confidence. You can’t have that in this business and succeed. You’ve got to know that you’re good and not be ashamed of telling people that you’re good; without being arrogant. You’ve got to work hard and practice.

As long as you know what you’re doing, you can play with anybody. Surround yourself with talent. Network: find other people who can help you, who you can bounce ideas off. Get together and do some writing. Put an ad in the paper saying, “I need a song-writing partner.” There are thousands of people out there who want to do that kind of stuff.

I will be doing an application for a grant from PromoFACT [a source of funds, sponsored by the MuchMoreMusic television station,to stimulate the production of electronic press kits (EPKs) and websites for Canadian independent artists and record labels; see resources in Appendix B] to get my website together and my electronic media kit, because that seems to be where it’s going. No one sends press kits in the mail anymore. I don’t have a website, and it’s becoming evident to me that I need one. I’ve applied for grants before and gotten turned down. You get turned down more than you get them, but you have to keep plugging away, especially in my line of work.
joe

I have a press kit and resumé – not very long, but professional. You send twenty and get maybe three replies. I go on a mission to find the right person to ask for money. I call everywhere and I knock on every door, just to find money.

I found a sponsor to give me money to go to England to work with CandoCo – someone with a big business who actually wanted to support an athlete. I take care of the sponsors who give me money. I send them emails, and I keep in contact – that’s very, very important.
france

When I first started on with Yuk Yuk’s, they were reluctant to send me out to do shows, because they were locked into that thinking, “How will he get there, shouldn’t somebody travel with him?” It took quite a few months for me to finally get to where I was able to say, “Look, you give me the gig, and I’ll get there!” It was important to do that, to prove to them that I could do it, I would do it, all I needed was the opportunity. That goes for everybody, you know, disabled or otherwise. You’re looking for opportunities to get ahead and get things going.

Promotion never ends. You promote yourself every time you step out on stage. You’re only as good as your last show. To tell the truth, every time I step out there I say to myself , “You’ve got to be focused on the show and you’ve got to do the best job possible.” You start doing a bad job, and people forget you pretty quickly. You have to keep asking yourself what you can do to sell yourself to someone else, to a bigger market, how can you win – what can you do to win more people, another show, another group.

I have a media kit with an 8x10 glossy photo, pamphlets, etc., but the best thing is doing a good show, and then it’s word of mouth from there.

Early in my comedy career, I’d arrive in Calgary or in Winnipeg or Halifax, and I would call local radio stations, newspapers, television stations, and I would say, “Hi, my name is Gord Paynter. I’m a stand-up comic, I’m blind, and I was coming out here to Halifax and some of my friends suggested I give you a call.” Well, none of my friends may have suggested that, but it was self-promotion. And if you call ten stations, maybe one says, “Yeah we’d like to do an interview.” That was crucial, that was essential, because it helps you build up your resumé and your bio and your references and things like that, and it helps promote you across the country. Now more often the media calls me.

If events are going on in your community it’s good to be involved – to show up or to offer your assistance as MC or whatever. The visibility factor is very positive.
gord

the important thing is to be clear on what you want to get across and who your audience is

I’m learning to get really good at effective “pitching,” to knock cold on someone’s door and give them my stuff.

Ironically, though my wheels have nothing to do with my voice, my wheels can prevent me from getting auditions for mainstream acting roles in television and film. That’s why I need to concentrate on voiceover work. Even though they can’t see my wheelchair, I’m hoping it will become part of the people connection, so people will remember me: “Oh, that’s interesting – a voice artist, he’s in a wheelchair, blah blah blah.” I want to use my physicality as my selling point, as part of my uniqueness to try and appeal to someone’s perhaps “politically correct” sensitivity. To me, it’s whatever I can use! With voice, it’s all about what it sounds like, but if there are three or four voice actors that sound the same, they’ll go with the guy who’s the friendliest to work with, or the fastest; there’s all different ways of hiring. So I don’t just want to drop things off with someone else, I want the person who’s going to be the one to hire me for the job to be able to meet me. If I can meet someone and be friendly and demonstrate that I’m able to do the job quickly and efficiently, and perhaps they want to be socially responsible and employ diversity, I want to have that opportunity as well.

As an actor, there are some very important tools, the first being the voice and the body – you have to keep those two in shape and then the promotion and media tools come into play.The “head shot” is really important. The key thing in a resumé is to list everything you’ve done related to the work and be proud of it and be able to speak about everything. It doesn’t matter how big or small it is. A big resumé isn’t a better resumé. And a resumé is not going to get you work; it shows that you’ve done work. Your talents will get you work.

When an actor has enough of a body of work, in television and film, at least, the next step is a video reel. For that you take all the work you’ve done on TV, and you cut and paste it together on a videotape to demonstrate how you look and how you sound. So I’ve got that, and all the casting directors have that, and if somebody were to say, “Well, what have you done?”, I can just give them that. As a voice artist I also have a demo CD. On that I have commercials – there are four different styles of commercial and they’re back to back. These are mock-up ads, and they have four different voice styles. Then I have four narration slots, with four different voice styles: nature narration; training (like what you’d hear on a corporate training tape); history; and public service announcement.

I talked to other voice artists and found out what they did and then I took a workshop on voiceover. I’ve learned there is no one way to do all this stuff. You can take two different workshops on two different weekends and get two very different ways to do it. It’s all individual and the important thing is to be clear on what you want to get across and who your audience is.

Another promotion thing I’ve done is send out postcards; on one side of the card it has my photo and the name of my agent, and my resumé is on the other side. I sent it out when I switched agents.

I’m resigned to the fact that the world of television does not want people with disabilities playing their roles. So my focus becomes just, go out there, do plays, do shows, create my own work and be so damn good that people cannot help but hire me!
james

I have my flyer, and this is how I promote myself. And also by doing performances. That’s another way. That’s the major way. And a comments book. So far word of mouth has provided enough work.
rasika

I’m not able to promote myself in the same way that other people can, because I can’t get out there in the same way. I make sure I meet lots of people. Probably the number one thing in self-promotion is networking and talking to people, so they know what you’re doing. So to that end I took a SEARCH course here in Vancouver, through the Vancouver Alliance for Arts and Culture. It’s not just for visual artists; it’s for photographers and dancers and musicians and everybody. One of the components in the Alliance is networking, so they network with each other and other people and have seminars. It’s a great cultural group of people, which is nice.

I try to involve myself in community things that are going on, to allow me access to other people who are artists. I’m putting together a promotional package. I have my paintings on slides. I have a scanner, so I can put them in digital format. I have taken black-and-white photos of myself, and I have them on file. I have my resumé and my artist’s statements ready. I make sure, any time I put up paintings, that they’ve been professionally hung so that they look good, and they look professionally done, and they have proper tags on them that say who I am. I submit proposals to exhibitions as they come up and if I feel they’re appropriate. And I volunteer where I feel the event that’s happening is important to art and therefore to me.

Networking is such that you never know who’s going to introduce you to somebody who’s goong to introduce you to somebody who’s going to make a difference. So it’s everybody. It’s other artists, and not just other visual artists, it’s musicians and people who are writers. It’s a wide variety of people.
bernadine

networking is such that you never know who’s going to introduce you to somebody who’s going to introduce you to somebody who’s going to make a difference....