Email: The Canvas of Art Business Communication

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A key lesson in art education is understanding the relationship between form and content in creating meaningful works. Just as a great artist doesn’t need to disrupt the fundamental structure of painting to express genius, they benefit from recognizing the value of how those structures support their vision. Forms are familiar. Forms and mediums communicate without words, providing a framework that guides the audience. Within those forms, content is deployed with personal variation that allows creativity to emerge.

Email is no different. It’s a communication tool—a canvas—that can convey vision. Email has its forms to lighten the cognitive load for both writer and reader. It has ample opportunity for broad content, an array of colors, styles and personal voice, that allow innovation to emerge. It doesn’t have to feel like spam or, even worse, a generic “blast.”

Aligning Form with Your Art Business

Just as an artist’s use of form reflects their personal abilities and desires, email forms work best when aligned with the abilities and goals of your art business communication.

Ask yourself:

  • Do you think out loud about your concepts?
  • Do you have routines for finding your muse?
  • Do you study works in progress to find the next steps?
  • Do you appreciate viewing your finished work from different angles?
  • Do you benefit from visiting other artists’ studios?
  • Do you love celebrating your friends’ work?
  • Do you like celebrating your own?

These joys and creative processes can become part of your email communication. Every email can include sections devoted to these treasures, helping you connect authentically with your audience.

Structuring Your Communication

For instance, a scheduled email might include:

  • A Concept: Share something you’re researching for your next work.
  • A Studio View: Offer a glimpse of your workspace.
  • Celebration: Highlight a colleague or collaborator you recently connected with.

This structured form makes writing emails easier while also defining what you need to do for your sales and marketing efforts between newsletters.

If the process feels dull, maybe you’re working with content that’s not aligned with your vision. Choose themes you could explore on repeat. If you need novelty, mix it up with quarterly variations. For example, create four unique formats and rotate them each quarter, repeating the cycle yearly.

The Audience Comes First

Remember, your emails aren’t just for you—they’re for your audience. While your monthly studio updates might feel everyday and pedestrian to you, it is novel to your followers. It may even be a source of inspiration or intrigue for them. 

Significantly, consistency in your communication builds your brand, solidifying your identity and values. Repetition isn’t boring; it’s essential for creating a strong, recognizable presence and brand.

Success Through Form and Content

Success in art—and in art business communication—comes from using forms effectively and knowing the content you love.

If this process feels overwhelming, give yourself space to reflect. Join a coworking session with the agency, or let’s collaborate over coffee to make space with you. 

Banner art credits: The Letter, 1890–1891, is a color drypoint and aquatint on laid paper by American painter and printmaker Mary Cassatt. The artwork depicts a young woman seated at a writing desk, sealing an envelope—a moment that captures the intimate, personal act imprinted on each correspondence. Cassatt’s use of delicate linework and soft, layered tones lends itself neatly to digital interpolation, as the textures and subtle gradients translate seamlessly into modern digital media, bridging the tactile intimacy of traditional printmaking with the precision of the graphical form.

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Time Management for Artists: Rethinking Your Schedule

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As artists, we often think of time as something to be chased—an elusive resource that always seems to slip through our fingers. What if, instead of battling against it, rethinking your schedule regularly helped harness your creative energy? 

The power of the schedule isn’t just about organization; it’s about reclaiming control over how we work, what we focus on, and even what we avoid.

Schedule what you want to do.

The power of creating the life and business you desire is agency. You have freedom to do as you please. However, we often either don’t know how to use it (we get busy), or we let someone else choose for us (we get lazy). 

If we have done the heavy lifting of determining what we want, we can work to preserve the space to do it. We can schedule it. If we want to be in the studio or on our bike, we can put that on our calendar. 

The key is to respect the meeting with yourself. We can tell other people that time doesn’t work. Rarely will anyone ask why; it is easier to just move on to another suggested time. Furthermore, when we say no, we quietly become more valuable.

Schedule what you don’t want to do.

When we first start building our own business, we have to do everything within the venture. We need to make our products, grow our markets, build relationships with customers, collect our money, count our money, explore our next creative project, and keep our space and lives together. 

There are a lot of things to do, with varying degrees of joy felt when doing them. For those less-than-fulfilling tasks we need to accomplish, we should be our own boss and assign them to ourselves (this is what it means to be a boss—telling someone to do the stuff we may not want to). 

When we know the assignment is due, we can schedule time appropriately to accomplish it.

Schedule what you don’t want to do—in small doses.

The detestable tasks (paying taxes, organizing the supply closet) may need to be broken into small, manageable steps to progress toward the goal. 

The Pomodoro Technique is a great tool for this. Set a timer (25 minutes, or about what it takes to boil pomodoro tomatoes) and work without distraction. When the alarm rings, you are free to move on with life, or even reward yourself. A couple of things happen in this process: 25 minutes is not much time to endure, yet 25 minutes of focused work can be meaningful. Often, at the end of 25 minutes, our productivity begets energy to continue the work and get closer to being done. 

Completing a marathon requires a series of small steps.

Scheduled time is trackable time.

Time is the only resource we cannot get more of (with current technology). If we do not know where our most valuable resource is going, there is a good chance we are wasting it—or at least not being compensated appropriately for it when we determine our prices. 

Scheduling (or documenting) our use of time is one of the most helpful tools we have for growing a sustainable business. There is no bank statement at the end of the month to tell us how we spent our time; however, if we keep a schedule, we have an opportunity to review our time expenses. Tracking time enables us to know our real cost and be compensated correctly for it. Awareness of time equals better pricing.

There are many frameworks and tools out there to utilize time. If you’re into artificial conversations, you could likely have a great one with your favorite computational language model (AI).

Rethinking your schedule alone?

Time is difficult to comprehend and difficult to consistently harness to do the things we want.

Getting an outside perspective can help you see how to better align your time with your goals. Whether it’s for creative growth or business clarity, brainstorming with someone you trust can be the catalyst you need to transform your schedule from chaos to clarity. If you’re not joining us for our free virtual coworking sessions already, these are a great opportunity to see what’s working for other creative professionals.

If you are having trouble wrapping your head around your time and how best to use it, reach out to get a coffee with us. The cost of the beverage is on us, and potentially the expenditure of time is a great investment for you.

Banner art credits: Ansonia Clock, c. 1936 is a watercolor and graphite on paper piece by Edith Magnette in the Index of American Design. The graphical style of the Index of America Design makes the individual works a quality of reproducibility that translates easily across modern digital forms. Intentional planning creates space for deeper creativity, turning time into an ally rather than a source of pressure.

 

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Time Management for Artists: Rethinking Creative Energy

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Much ink has been spilled on the value of time. No need to waste it now trying to add my poetic spin. Time is everything. But how do we need to approach time as artists? How do we harness our creative energy?

Utilizing time effectively starts with a mindset.

Time is a form of energy.

I don’t have the mathematical prowess to prove it, but time makes things happen. It is an energy. It is a combination of physical things and movement (E=mc2, anyone?). As artists in business, we need to understand that to manage our time, we should see it as energy. 

Time is not just the physical things we have to do but also the mental and emotional effort we have to exert to accomplish our desired life. When we approach our creative work, we need to consider the physical aspects and the effort utilized within. It is easy to think we can do more in a day than we actually can. 

Be more fulfilled by doing less. Get more done by doing less. Get more done better by doing less.

Time is a social concept.

If we navigate the universe on our own, time becomes pretty meaningless. There would be no external person pushing us to accomplish anything. Deadlines would cease to exist. This might sound euphoric, but the external pressure is valuable to push us to get things done. 

Furthermore, if we want to accomplish something bigger than ourselves, we need other people. If we intend to do life with folks beyond ourselves, we need to operate within and respect the realm of time. 

“Tuesday” means something that connects us with others. Knowing this helps us accomplish things on Tuesday.

Busy is destructive.

Busyness is not a badge of honor. I feel anxious when I find myself describing my life as busy. I use that word when I am pulled in too many directions, with fleeting resources to accomplish what I desire. 

A too-full schedule slows down creative energy. Busy reduces depth for thinking, feeling, and exploring the unknown. I often end up in a busy place when I haven’t done the work of determining what I actually want. Knowing what we want allows us to say no to things that we don’t want, which frees resources/time to use for generative, fulfilling things. 

Fulfillment is the goal, not busy.

Harness time, channel creative energy

If time is truly energy and a shared social contract, then managing it isn’t just about checking boxes—it’s about channeling it toward what truly matters. Start by doing less. Not because less is easier, but because less is often better. It’s about focus, presence, and energy flow. 

If you think of time as a force to be harnessed, rather than chaos needing order, you might discover a new rhythm for your creative energy—one that feels less like a race against the clock and more like a dance with it. 

Banner art credits: The Nile—Evening, 1905-1911 is a watercolor over graphite on wove paper piece by American Artist Henry Bacon (1839 – 1912). This piece features the serenity of sunset, and a moment of pause amidst movement—a perfect metaphor for rethinking creative energy.

 

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The Art of the Artist Statement (How to Write an Artist Statement)

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An artist statement serves as a written expression of your artistic practice, providing insight into your work for audiences who may encounter it in various contexts such as exhibitions, grant applications, or teaching positions. Artist statements are an extension of the art itself. It is similar to an abstract, something that summarizes the concept, influences, labor, and purpose of your work. Compelling statements often reflect a similar vulnerability as the work itself. Just as there is no right way to make art, there are different ways to write an artist statement.

Here’s a breakdown of what writing an artist statement might look like, when it’s used, and how to craft your own.

What is an Artist Statement?

Here’s a blurb taken from the Creative Independent that gives a great, concise definition—“An artist statement is a not-too-long series of sentences that describe what you make and why you make it. It’s a stand-in for you, the artist, talking to someone about your work in a way that adds to their experience of viewing that work.”

  • An artist statement is a piece of writing inspired by or directly from you, offering insight into your artistic work. 
  • It is written in the first person, distinguishing it from artist bios, which are typically written in the third person. 
  • Both artist statements and bios represent you as an artist, conveying your artistic identity and intentions even when you’re not present.
    • Your “artistic identity” may be different than your bio or personal narrative. There is a difference between the “you” in your bio and the “you” of your artistic identity that people can decipher from experiencing your artwork. When you write an artist statement, you get to decide how much or how little of your personal narrative is connected to the artwork.

Let’s take an example scenario.

Alicia is a life-long cross-country swimmer who enjoys taking trips to tread international waterways. She also works as a photographer of marine wildlife for National Geographic while maintaining an active art practice making photorealistic graphite drawings of the rising water levels and pollution she encounters along her travels.

Alicia’s artistic bio might highlight her role as a photographic journalist, her love of swimming, and her climate consciousness. However, when she writes an artist statement for her drawings, she may underscore, along with the media and processes, her concerns for our environment and the health of global marine ecosystems. Her “why” is to raise awareness for marine life and waterways. Her “artistic identity” is the part(s) of herself that defines her art-making.

Writing an artist statement requires space to reflect, analyze, compose, edit, share, and revise. It may include sources, ideas, and materials relevant to your current artistic practice. It will evolve as the artist evolves. Processes change. Interests change. Perspectives change. Feelings change. Skills change.

When to Write an Artist Statement

An artist statement can accompany a single work, a body of work (or series), exhibition, or entire practice. 

  • Some instances where you need to write an artist statement include:
    • Exhibition submissions,
    • Grant applications,
    • Teaching position applications,
    • Fellowships,
    • Magazine and catalog features,
    • Websites,
    • Personal studio practice, distilling
    • Selling a work of art
  • They are a point of connection, and for many, an entry point into your work. 
  • They provide guidance to audiences, publicists, curators, and critics, directing attention to the key ideas and concerns in your work. Writing an artist statement can also be integral to your creative process, helping you articulate your artistic vision, work out your intentions, and even suggest the path forward in the studio.

Though it presents a challenge for some artists to write an artist statement, these statements hold immense value for creatives. Sitting down every so often to translate the silent or solitary artistic labor, which consumes countless hours, into words is something you can weave into your weekly or monthly professional dashboard. Taking time consistently to identify specific audiences, feelings, and efforts will help you to verbalize the essence of your creative journey and effectively convey the importance of your piece in as many words as can fill one paragraph.

The Recipe for Writing an Artist Statement

Take inventory—gather your ingredients.

  • Identify the content of your work
    • (This is like a formal analysis, call out what we see, the visual subject matter)
  • Explain the form of your work
    • (Including materials, processes, and traditions)
  • Describe your artistic process
    • (And provide visual or auditory descriptions)
  • Discuss influences on your work
    • (Whether cultural, historical, theoretical, personal, or biographical)
  • Key ideas, issues, struggles, and goals within your work
  • Clarify the thematic focus of your work
    • (Setting it within a specific time and space)

Put it together. Expand on the chunks of information you compiled about the work. Think about it in three parts:

  • Formal content—visual analysis, what you see, what you used to make it, how you made it, how long it took
  • Contextual Information—what inspired you to make the piece, did anyone influence your work, what was happening around you that could have had an impact on the work,
  • Interpretive Moment—why did you make it, who or what is it for? Do you want to tell the audience something to take away?

You can organize these parts however it feels most natural to you. You’ll see in some examples that artists weave the components together depending on what they are using the statement for.

Tips for Writing an Artist Statement

Keep your artist statement on file and update it as your practice evolves over time.

  • Consider your audience and aim to make your work more accessible and understandable. Don’t dumb it down, but DO use language that most people can grasp without a PhD.
  • If you’re uncertain or exploring new ideas, don’t hesitate to express it in your statement.
  • Be authentic and avoid overly complex language or jargon.
  • Keep your statement concise, straightforward, and honest.
  • Make the reader want to learn more about your work without over-explaining. Leave room for the audience to want more or to insert their own meaning.
  • Avoid relying too heavily on quotes unless they are directly relevant to your work.

Editing and Refining Your Artist Statement:

  • Seek feedback from others, including friends, colleagues, faculty members, (or us!)
  • Read artist statements and writings of artists you admire for inspiration.
  • Keep a journal and integrate writing into your artistic practice to facilitate the process.

Wrapping Up

Learning to write an artist statement is an ongoing process that evolves alongside your artistic journey. By following these guidelines and continuously reflecting on your practice, you can create a statement that effectively communicates your artistic vision and engages your audience.

If you are ready to work with a team that can help you get into the studio doing what you love, let’s chat. Or join Coworking with Creatives, a series of free virtual workshops to help artists and creatives build sustainable businesses.

Banner art credits: Martha, c. 1835 is an oil on canvas piece by an unknown 19th century American artist. From the folk art tradition, with its flat, two-dimensional rendering, typical of many self-taught or primitive artists. This simplicity of form makes it easier for digital processes to create clear lines and blocks of color that frame and draw out the rich texture.

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Ready to hire a manager? (How do I find one?)

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It is very difficult to operate a sustainable and thriving business. As we are starting our venture, it is tempting to take paths of least resistance. In many circumstances, it is smart to conserve energy. So when an artist is ready to hire a manager, it’s common to look to friends, family, or colleagues who feel safe and familiar.

BUT when it comes to hiring, there is an adage that rings true: “hire slow, fire fast.” It costs a lot of money and time to bring someone new into an operation. Similarly, it costs a lot of money, time, and stress to keep the wrong person in place.

Hiring the right people is an art form worth practicing.

What makes a manager?

When it comes to hiring a manager, the right person needs to have an appreciation for efficiency (getting work done without waste) and a respect for structures. Ideally, they have the ability and desire to build routines, design systems, apply those processes, and repeat. A great manager can improvise, but their superpower is actually found in the mundane.

The skills that make a good manager are not frequently aligned with the skills that make one a great artist. Frequently in the art business world, artists look for a studio manager among other artists. This might quickly yield a willing participant, but the results often frustrate both parties. The employee has experience in the arts but likely gets asked to do things that are not their real strengths or comfort. Meanwhile, the employer is frustrated that work is not being done and likely stressed that an employee has their own creative vision to pursue. In theory, it can and sometimes does work for an artist to hire another artist to manage their business, but there might be better options.

A manager loves systems the way an artist loves art

There are people who see beauty in repetition and clarity in the tasks at hand. (Yes, some artists do fall into this category.) These folks often end up in fields like engineering and business administration. As an artist, these people seem inaccessible from a dollar standpoint—aren’t those high-paying jobs? Yes, they are, but they often pay high because other aspects of the job are unfulfilling: the product being produced is meaningless; the culture of the workplace is soulless; the work is toil with a reward that is a medium for something or someone else.

It is quite possible that as an art studio, you can offer systems-loving folks value that exceeds the traditional paths of engineers and business types. The pay can be part of the reward package, but consider that you have meaning, soul, and inspiring business operations.

A manager likes to be in the midst of things

Finding an organized, systems-oriented person may not be any harder than hanging out at a local engineering school. There are likely people in your network who have the skills to be the manager of a growing business like yours.

There are a significant number of folks in the workforce who operate other people’s businesses—or at least a part of those businesses. They are familiar with corporate systems and tools. If no one comes to mind, you certainly know people who know people. The best place to start your search for your next employee is within your own circle of influence. (This is why LinkedIn is popular.)

Ask people: “What do you do? Do you enjoy doing it? Have you thought about a career in the arts?” You might be surprised by who you find in those already close to you.

Messaging to hire a manager

If you are hoping to find someone beyond the realm of a hustling artist who says “yes” to any gig in the arts, you might have to consider your messaging.

A “studio manager” is not going to catch someone whose résumé includes “engineer” positions only. However, an “Excel wizard that enables others to build monuments” might sound familiar and crazy enough to excite a spreadsheet savant in an otherwise soulless middle management position. The specific skills needed to produce your bold products and services can make for captivating job post messaging. There are no rules for marketing jobs. It is fair, and valuable, to lean into creativity to attract the right talent.

Managing the hiring process

Everyone has a portfolio. No, the manager you hire may not have photos of creative projects they have made successful—particularly if they are outside of the arts world. However, they will have samples of their organization skills and the ability to show how they refined corporate tools. As you are considering the fit of a person to run your studio, consider if their process for organizing aligns with yours. They should be able to use the tools (or introduce new ones) that help your operation keep running even smoother.

It will be important that you can work well together. Remember, a manager is likely being hired to manage your time. Will you let them tell you what to do? And if you are pursuing someone with strengths that are not your own, their personality might also be different. This can initially cause tension. However, if you are serious about getting to new places in your business, then the friction might be exactly what you need to overcome the obstacles you’ve been facing. Trust and respect, although hard to quickly assess in hiring, might be the most valuable aspects to consider when passing the keys to your studio to someone else to run.

“I’m looking for a manager who can also…”

It’s a bonus to hire a manager who is also able to do the work. Does the studio needs operational support? Look for a manager who has skills to apply to production. Is communication is lacking from the studio (grants, newsletters, posts, captions)? Look for someone who has a way with words or marketing experience. Are sales slow? Look for a manager who would be fantastic to bring along for meetings with clients. They can help build relationships and close deals.

Multi-talented folks exist. Clarity on what you need might lead you to the rare gem that can make the studio run more efficiently and accomplish even more.

A manager is a great addition to any studio—especially when the time is right. Good management will get you more time for research and development (i.e., more time in the studio).

If you are ready to hire a manager but still uncertain, we might be able to help. Consider signing up to learn about our free monthly virtual professional development workshops or schedule time to chat. 

Banner art credits: The Northern Whale Fishery: The “Swan” and “Isabella”, c. 1840 is a oil on canvas work by John Ward of Hull. Known as a premier ship and marine oil painter, his family background in the industry must help to create such a mystical, nautical scene. The careful, finely detailed figures have a sharpness that give them clarity and strength against any backdrop.

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Am I Ready for a Manager?

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If you are feeling overwhelmed by the work to be done, a manager might be a great addition to your team. A manager makes sure that work gets done, and can help you conserve energy in the process! Are you ready for a manager? 

If you are not managing yourself, then you likely are not ready to be managed. 

However, there are alternatives and ways to prepare. Before you take the step to hire someone to oversee your business, it is important to assess your readiness; otherwise the hire may cost you more than you expect. Dollars will go out the door, and stress (the only true killer cost) will rise. 

Here’s some ways to start preparing your practice to take big steps and be ready for a manager.

What does a manager do? 

Generally, a manager oversees the use of resources to ensure that a business accomplishes what it sets out to do. These resources include what you imagine in a studio—supplies, materials, and money. More significantly, a good manager keeps an eye on the most expensive resource of any business—they manage time.

Are you ready for someone to tell you, advise you, or hold you accountable on how you use your time? If you answered no, a manager is NOT the right person to hire (yet).

Do you know what work needs done? 

There are many projects and tasks that a business needs to do to stay viable. Bringing a manager in to get EVERYTHING done is not a reasonable ask. The studio needs to have direction on the work that is at hand. 

  • Is there production to be done? 
  • Are there relationships that need to be taken to the next level? 
  • Are there opportunities to research? 
  • Do you need help getting the word out to the right people? 

Specific work is much more reasonable to accomplish than a generic ask for a manager to “run a business.”

Do you know how the work gets done? 

There are different paths that arrive at the same destination. This is true of the work that needs to be done in a business. There are multiple ways to stretch a canvas, chat to someone on a phone and organize files. But unless you have clarity on your way of doing these things, having someone else try to do it for you, or manage it for you, the relationship will frustrate all parties. 

If you are not clear on exactly what needs to be done, it will be very difficult for someone else to oversee it.

They will do things wrong (or, at least, wrong according to you.) You have routines and systems that you utilize to accomplish the day to day work in your business. Are they just in your head or have you written them down? It is arduous to create standard operating procedures (SOPs) but if they are only in your head you will have to repeat them every time someone else sets out to accomplish the task. 

If they are written down they can be utilized by others with clarity. More importantly, they can be improved upon by someone else. If not, when you hire someone else to assist in accomplishing the tasks at hand they will likely do it wrong.

Alternatives (if you’re not ready for a manager)

If you…

  1. are ready to have your time managed,
  2. know the work to be done,
  3. have clarity on how it is done,

…then a manager may be a great hire to optimize the business.

However, if you still aren’t sure about your next hire let’s consider what might be the right fit.

Say you have clarity on the work to be done, and structures that someone else can build upon but you aren’t willing to give up oversight of your time (B and C but not A). Potentially what you need is a technician, someone who can do the clearly outlined work. You are not hiring them to optimize or manage your system, but only to be a part of it.

Say you’re ready to have your time managed but don’t have clarity on the work to be done or the structures you utilize to accomplish the work (A but not B or C). A good manager could possibly help you. However, a coach or a strategic consultant might be even more valuable at this stage. They can help you equip the business to grow and be ready for a manager.

(Note: A strategist will cost more than a manager, and a manager will cost more than an employee or technician.)

Ready to grow but not quite sure what the next step is? Reach out or consider joining a free virtual professional workshop.

Banner art credits: Hudson River, Logging is a watercolor over graphite on wove paper work by Winslow Homer. The expansive watercolor landscape with two very finely detailed subjects logging in the foreground captures the energy of work done in a magnificent, yet calming setting. The graphical nature of watercolor blocking makes it particularly apt for digital interpolation and precise, experimental recoloring. 

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Social Media Strategy for Creatives: 3 Steps Toward Success

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Social media strategies for creatives can be overwhelming, but don’t need to be. Major social media brands have been built on the impression that everything—and anything—of importance can be found on their platforms. This is overwhelming and not entirely true. Nevertheless, markets, buyers, and potential customers (of any industry) still look to social media to assess quality and value.

As an artist, your “brand” is very personal. Is it possible to build an authentic social media presence and meet your business goals?

Here are three foundations steps toward building a successful social media strategies for creatives.

Your Social Media Mindset 

Before we get to those steps, let’s begin with a simple mindset check.

Do you agree with any or all of the following statements?

  • “Social media is how I will get discovered.” 
  • “Social media is the most important validation.” 
  • “My social media following determines my value.”

Not only are these not the whole truth, but they can be debilitating. These ideas can paralyze entrepreneurs (especially creatives) with self-doubt.

Instead remember:

  • “Social media is one tool I use to build my audience.” 
  • “Social media gives people who already love my work one more way to engage with it.” 
  • “My audience and I determine the value of my work together.”

Don’t confuse being a successful creative business owner with being a social media influencer. Being an influencer is not a bad thing, but it’s a different business model. A sale is a sale, and a following is a following. Is your goal to sell art or sell influence? The models may overlap at points, but ultimately the value of an artistic legacy is unlikely to be measured by likes.

The right mindset makes social media a tool to use, instead a tool that uses you. It will be easier to build campaigns that drive purposeful success and audience growth.

Now, let’s explore important steps for successful social media campaigns. 

Step 1: Understand Your Audience 

Social media is vast, but an artist’s biggest impact is typically among niche or local audiences. (This is not a bad thing).

Identifying niche audiences helps entrepreneurs to think strategically (and realistically) about how social media can be used to achieve business goals. The better you know your audience, the better you can create meaningful connections and tailor your content to them.

Choose one existing audience and unpack their identifiers. If you haven’t defined an audience or thought about a marketing plan before, you must (for growth in any domain).

Start simply with everyone who owns one of your works. How did they find out about you? If it wasn’t on social media, was there a specific point when they used social media to interact or learn more? In traditional marketing speak, this is called a “touch point” on the “customer journey.” If an artist can identify details about how and why existing collectors used social media to learn more before purchasing a piece, they can use insights about those “touch points” to encourage collectors on their journey toward a purchase.

From here, work more broadly to group existing collectors and prospective clients into larger audience segments based on shared interests or demographics. What do they engage in on social media? What are they looking for?

Ask questions, using polls or surveys on social media, to collect information to start with. The simplest things provide helpful feedback even if the response is low.

Identifying how an audience is focused on a particular aspect of an artist’s work doesn’t mean they don’t see the work’s true or “whole” value. No one will see your work the way you see it. Be prepared to cultivate a social media expression that may take time. Accept the challenge to see your work from different perspectives. This can be constructive, not destructive.

Step 2: Create Good Content (Messaging and Calls to Action) 

With an audience in mind, unpack your brand and value proposition. Start from the broadest statements of value and work, and narrow in on how your target audience(s) might relate most strongly to specific aspects of your work based on their unique identifiers. 

Create content by breaking it into two pieces: the message and the call to action.

The message should be the part that comes naturally from you, your story, and the story of your work. The message answers “What do I do?” “How did I do it?” “What do I want to share?” “Why is it important?” “Why should others care?” This is the part where you offer your audience value whether it’s a tip, an accomplishment to share in, or an anecdote to enjoy.

The call to action comes less naturally, but it is an essential part of good content. Calls to action (CTA) are not desperate pleas for attention when you’re engaging with the audience who already values your work. This should be a nudge to show audiences how they can support an artist they follow.

Define your desired outcomes of the content.

Create measurable goals. If the goal is to sell work, does work sell because of post likes? Or because of face time spent with prospective collectors? Encourage the forms of engagement proven to help achieve the desired outcome.

Ultimately, the message provides value to the audience, the call to action guides how they reciprocate that value to the creator. 

Step 3: Plan, Post, and Repeat 

A great campaign is made up of good posts, but how are they put together? Social media algorithms are complex, even mysterious. But throughout the algorithm’s evolution, all successful content has shared one thing: consistency.

A consistent social media plan will be built on structures that already exist for the business. If there is a schedule for your studio that includes events, deadlines, or even personal events, that schedule should dictate content. Work backwards from events to create stories focused on the journey to the event. Connecting the content to the actual work makes it easier to create calls to action with concrete impacts.

Determine a post frequency objective that’s based on the amount of time you can invest in creating content. Don’t anticipate every day will open up for a spark of inspiration. If it takes 30 minutes to create a valuable post, and scheduling a 2-hour content creation session per month is all that’s reasonable, then your objective should be one weekly post. If it’s possible to schedule a 2-hour content creation session weekly, consider making your objective 4 weekly posts.

Frequency is unique to each individual’s resources, but consistency can be achieved at all levels. If social media is a persistent challenge, consider investing in a content calendar or scheduling tool. The best tool for organization will be the one you use. However it gets done, setting aside time to plan out and create valuable content ahead of time will be the best way to create a consistent social media presence.

Once planned content is in place, check back and use comments and messages to organically deepen engagement with your audience.

Collaborate and Grow

Art has been around for longer than social media and modern markets. Social media is now an essential for building a successful creative business in the modern world. Artists must keep adapting. Creative businesses have a unique opportunity to use these tools in ways to grow the influence and impact of art.

Like studio schedules, social media strategy for creatives will be unique to each artist. But all good content creation is built on simple concepts: target audience, messaging, calls to action, and planning for consistency. Master these basics and start connecting.

If you’re struggling to discern your expression, look to peers whose content you enjoy. See what’s working for them and ask how it may or may not work for you. Our co-working sessions are an opportunity to connect with creative professionals with different approaches and goals across a full spectrum of experience. Our fellow creatives help us grow and adapt to industries like social media which change quickly and often.

 

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GUEST POST: How You Can Find Success When Starting a New Business

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This post was generously contributed by Chelsea Lamb

Diving into Business

Are you thinking of starting your own business, you’re not alone. More and more people are leaving the predictable 9-to-5 employee lifestyle to launch their own companies. In fact, according to official statistics, the number of U.S. business applications has been steadily rising for more than ten years. If you are part of this growing number, you may wonder where and how you should begin. This guide from Burkholder Agency provides critical first steps and practical online tools to get you started on the right path.

 

Choose a Name

Choosing a name for your new company is an early step that can impact your future success. Selecting an optimal name can simplify your marketing strategy and help you connect with potential clients. Luckily, online name generators can help you choose an easy-to-remember one that conveys the vision and purpose of your business.

 

Consider Working From Home

Launching a business from the comfort of your own home saves you money, and therefore, reduces your risk. By using your house rather than renting a separate space for your company, you need less money to get started and incur fewer overhead costs down the road. The at-home business arrangement also saves you time and increases your flexibility, making the work-life balance easier to achieve.

 

Pick the Right Business Structure

If you are running your own company, filing as a limited liability company can be a smart move. LLC status protects your personal assets from potential liability and reduces your tax burden by allowing you to categorize company profits as personal income. Although the filing process is straightforward and doesn’t require much paperwork, an online formation service is recommended to ensure you meet all the state-specific requirements.

 

Develop a Comprehensive Business Plan

Once you’ve selected your company’s name, location, and structure, it’s time to develop a business plan.  A comprehensive plan, which includes details about your product, target market, and business structure, can serve as a roadmap for your company’s direction, decisions, and strategies. It should also include financial information, including start-up costs, projected operational expenses, and metrics for measuring success. To create your company’s business plan, you can do it yourself or use special software or tools to help you.

 

Apply for Funding

If you need money to launch your business, there are several potential sources of funding. For example, loans that are guaranteed by the Small Business Administration, such as 504 loans, 7(a) loans, and microloans, are easy to qualify for while still offering competitive rates. There are also small business grants available from both government and private sources.

Another option is to seek out an angel investor or a venture capitalist who is willing to provide funding in exchange for equity in your business. Finally, crowdfunding platforms allow individuals to contribute money in exchange for a product or perks.

 

Select the Best Payroll Service
When you hire staff, you need a system to handle all aspects of the payroll. If you don’t want to handle this administrative task in-house, an online payroll service can help. Look for a company that allows you to customize the payroll system to your company’s particular needs with options, such as:

  • Tax form completion
  • Benefit deductions
  • Automated tax withholdings
  • Time tracking
  • Scheduled direct deposits
  • Year-end summary reports
  • Tax penalty protection

 

When starting a new company, many of your early decisions can impact the direction and future success of your business. Thankfully, by planning well, exercising the necessary steps, and taking advantage of online tools, you can ensure a smooth and successful launch.

 

Chelsea Lamb has spent the last eight years honing her tech skills and is the resident tech specialist at Business Pop. Her goal is to demystify some of the technical aspects of business ownership.

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WHY CLASSICAL MUSIC … or any art for that matter … MATTERS

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I am working with the Concert Truck on a 20 state tour in 2020. The concert truck is bringing world class art to all populations with a mobile concert hall.

Susan Zhang and Nick Luby in front of their mobile concert hall

I am pretty scientifically minded. I have two engineering degrees and am very comfortable with a spreadsheet. Yet, I have always known, despite the lack of logic, that culture, art and music are powerful. It wasn’t until a conversation with a mentor that I could put an argument around my heightened sense of value for creative productions.

I asked my respected friend, a retired museum director, how he went from entering college as a math major to leaving graduate school with a PhD in Art History. The pivot occurred when reading Henry Adam’s Mont Saint Michele and Chartes. Adam’s brilliantly describes that upon entering a space like Saint Michel, someone has a deep and seemingly conflicting sensation that man is quite small, inconsequential AND man is amazing for their ability to create such spaces.  A cathedral, embodies the spiritual. 

The arts are powerful because they can move us in ways that no object can. 

 

Classical music is one such force.

 

I have a pretty proto-typical relationship with music. My parents suggested I take piano lessons in my primary school years. I have some fond memories of tickling the ivories but most of what I recall was my shortcoming in practicing, which then lead to less than comfortable confrontations with the well-mannered-grandmother-like-figure that was my piano teacher. Mastering the instrument required more practice then my sub 10 year old mind and body could endure. (For that matter, it requires more than my present adult mind and body could endure!)

The path to classical piano virtuoso (or any instrument)  is not for the faint of heart. The technical aspects alone take incredible rigor and near superhuman feats. It is quite unlikely that you will find someone complaining as they exit the symphony hall saying, “I don’t get it, my kid could do that.” 

 

Classical music reminds us of how amazing humans can be!

 

My knowledge of the time tested music we call Classical is also typical. I want to believe I can tell the difference between Bach and Beethoven but I am hard pressed to name the precise piece. Furthermore, the names of world class composers that history has handed down to us, are not at the top of mind. I have an awareness but it is not refined nor deeply academic.

However, I can not help but encounter the musical form.  I recognize its near ubiquitous presence in other mediums of pop culture. Film borrows from the tradition regularly and leans heavily on the affective nature to get us to feel something that a moving picture alone can not. If a producer wants to: heighten the tension, increase the elation, allude to love or fill us with nearly any other human sentiment, there is a piece of music that has endured time to do so. 

 

Classical music makes us feel!

 

Classical music is one of the magical arts that moves us to the higher planes of our humanity. It reminds us how amazing human beings are and at the same time how simple we are to be scared by the guy in a hockey mask.

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E1507: History of the space

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Sam Lacombe Painting @ E1507

Sam Lacombe is a Baltimore based painter. His work is highly detailed and highlights everyday experiences through replication of street signs.

We purchased E1507 in July of 2016 from our neighbor, Alan Shapiro. To call it a shell would have been generous. The roof provided no shelter, and the floor gave no support. It was not a space to enjoy life.

We are not positive on the history of the building at this point, that story will come in the future.  An original structure on the property was likely built in the late 19th century. While renovating we found a foundation approximately at the front wall of the courtyard or 25 feet from the front door. The back portion was likely added in the early 20th century. The building had evidence of a fire which may have caused weakening of the beautiful timber roof and floor joists we removed during demolition 🙁 A few of the lovely planks live on in the Union Collective about 4 miles from E1507. The Baltimore Spirits Company repurposed several for their tables, and Well Crafted Kitchen used a few in their sign. 

The home was one story structure of fairly standard design, albeit not in all of its glory. It had three steps leading up to the door and typical eightish feet ceilings. There were two larger spaces with a bathroom where the stairs are presently. We preserved some of the beautiful brick work on the interior wall in the studio. If you look near the wet bar you will see “newer” brick and mortar where Alan had made a doorway to his larger studio space next door. One of our favorite accents in the place is the layers of plaster and paint on the original brick wall of the new stairwell.  Also, if you look at the wall in the courtyard you will note a “doghouse” at the roof line. There were stairs along that wall that suggested an intention to build a second story in earlier days, again this is only speculation at this point. 

Alan’s family had owned the property for the past four decades. In most recent years, the building had served as an extension of his cabinet making studio. Like many creative spaces, it was filled with material. Some of the contents could still spark joy, much of it was detritus of ideas yet to be executed. We spent six months working with Alan clearing the space for its future and working with PI KL (PIKLSTUDIO.com) to come up with a vision.

Pavlina Ilieva and Kuo Pao Lian, the architects, were the perfect talent for our project. They saw constraints as friends. They knew aesthetic had to support function. They believed details made for big impact. They appreciated how the melding of history with modernity was a place for magic in the moment to happen. They were ideal to collaborate with on a space to marry cultural production, and appreciation, with everyday life.

…

We live just around the corner from E1507 and had been doing AirBnb in the guest bedroom of our home for several years prior to our purchase. We made a financial investment based on the notion of short term rental use. However, Scott  runs a talent agency (burkholderagency.com) He envisioned the space as a place to show audiences and artists how humanity might live with art. He wanted to experiment with his theories on building relationships between creators and wonderers and the value ALL humanity might experience by surrounding themselves with objects of meaning on a daily basis.

The location on Eastern Avenue is rift with opportunity. The corridor is a prominent east west artery in the city. The architecture along the avenue shows that throughout history it has been a place for businesses and residents alike. It has the grand qualities and bones to be an important asset for a world class urban center. 

We wanted our space to support the potential of the future. Although it is presently serving as a home, we can imagine the space being used for commercial purposes. We wanted the layout to be simple and non-confrontation to future spatial visions.  We can see a day when a fashion designer loves the natural light or a small office enjoys the open airy feeling or even a bistro serves delectable coffee in the courtyard!

In the present, to provide optimal return on the financial investment, we contrived a space that could host a spectrum of interests. We designed with the intent of two private spaces; one like a traditional hotel room with bed, bath and wetbar. The other like a one bedroom flat with; living, dining, full kitchen, bedroom, bathroom and laundry. A guest could also rent the entire building offering reasonable accommodations for up to 6 people, if a couple is inclined to sleep on a comfortable fold out sofa bed. 

The “studio” would be perfect for an inexpensive one night get away for a couple wanting to experience Baltimore. The apartment would be a wonderful place for guests to call home away from home during a longer stay near circumstances of life. The entire building would work well for a group to celebrate a life milestone with friends. 

…

Kuo Pao had always wanted to place a courtyard in the middle of one of Baltimore’s tiny row houses. The typical design for 14 foot wide properties that are 80 feet deep is to place the outdoor space at the back. By positioning the exterior space in the center we exposed a new source of light, lots of light! The mid-building location also provided us the opportunity to utilize the small alley way as a private entrance to the studio space. 

The historic “charming” homes of Baltimore are often quite narrow. To overcome the squeezing sensation we made the bold decision, as we had no roof to hold us down, to make the ceilings ten and a half feet high! The height, coupled with natural light from the courtyard and 4 skylights, make the space free and airy.

Talent is all around us! The simple layout needed several aesthetically pleasing finishing touches. There is no trim work in the space. Our builder (Santiago Baten) was a craftsman and took pride in delivering our clean lined vision. Peter Machen (machenart.com) is a sculptor whose medium is metal. He kindly took on the overly simplistic task of creating our unique door frames. They are ¼ metal sheets cut to width: industrial strength and industrial weight but only visible when actually looking at them. The bathroom doors were produced by Chris Zickefoose (chriszickefoose.com) He made a few mundane floorboards harvested from the building during demo into lovely sliding works of art.

The table in the one bedroom apartment took a lifetime to make. It was Alan’s workbench. He crafted his works of wooden wonder for over three decades on the surface. It has all the beauty marks of serving a maker faithfully and continues to share her character with our guests. The base was constructed by Garrett Bladow a 21st century renaissance man.

To learn more about E1507, visit here. To book a stay at E1507, visit here.

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