...Business Models for Artists
SEASON 1 EP 07
Mentioned in this episode:
Yayoi Kusama
Theaster Gates
Creative Business Model Canvas
Episode Transcript:
Hi, it's me Isotta. Welcome to the final episode of Season 1 of Art Is... a 7 part podcast for artists. I wanted to apologize for the delay in this episode. It was supposed to come out last week on May 3rd but unfortunately, because of an injury I had to take a week off to recover, but I am well now so let’s get back into it!
Last time in Episode 6 we explored how art experiences are undergoing radical change and the creative potential of No-Code tools for emerging artists. I explored my fascination with the unprecedented overlap of digital and physical happening in the arts at the moment. Digital art is thriving from the NFT boom but the way we enjoy and experience that work is developing rapidly as well thanks to Metakovan and the digital architects building online museums in the Metaverse. These digital museums are imitating physical ones but instead represent a novel, video game-like experience accessible to all. Meanwhile, there is an interesting trend happening in physical art museums like the soon-to-be open Superblue experiential art center in Miami where visitors are immersed in digitally infused art spectacles that wow the senses and engage with you psychologically and physically. To learn more go check out Episode 6, it's only 10 minutes long!
However today, to close out the season, we will explore one of the themes which inspired me to start Art Is… The idea of expanding the role of the artist … and our definition of artistic practice.
This is Art Is… A podcast where we visualize the future of the art world. Fundamentally, this is a podcast for artists so today we will talk about the work we do as artists and explore how expanding that definition on a personal and industry level is integral to our mission of visualizing the future art world.
In this introductory season we have looked outside of the art industry at new tech influencing creatives, at the startup space for business motivation, we have looked at lots of innovation and I’ve told some stories about my own experiences as context but something we haven't done yet is look to art history.
We have already established that currently in the art world there isn't a culture of sharing best practices. Professionally speaking, contemporary artists don't tend to disclose publicly or to their communities and peers how they get opportunities, exhibitions, commissions, how they balance their business, make money, and develop professionally. So where did we learn or, I guess, not learn that behavior from?
As an art history student, I was passionate about contemporary and modern artists and engaged deeply with their works but I never investigated the business side of these artists’ careers or truly valued how expansive their practices are and were. It never came up in class and the acclaimed authors and academics writing books and essays didn’t write about it either.
Now, as an early-career artist and recent graduate, I am very concerned with themes around artistic sustainability. How can I ensure that my creative practice will have longevity? How can I start earning an income? Where should I focus my energy? And as isolating as those thoughts can be I realized that up until now I never thought to investigate it through the lens of art history.
Maybe it's because I always assumed times have changed. The internet changed everything for the world, and that includes that art world. But really, as we have explored in Episode 3 and 6, I feel like it's only pretty recently that that art world is actually engaging in digital spaces at all. That means it has been basically offline for many decades, except for the bare minimum websites, social media, and online finance.
But if we think about how integral in-person art events and exhibitions are for the networking, professional development, and non-art side of an artistic career, then things haven't changed much. I believe that there is much to learn and engage with from art history. The greats who came before us… but when we say “art history” I feel like you're imagining Van Gogh, Klimt, or even the classical statuary of Ancient Rome so let me clarify– I mean contemporary art history. It was hard to choose just one example but in honor of her recently opened major retrospective in Berlin I wanted to touch upon the incredible career of Yayoi Kusama.
Kusama is the most famous and successful living female artist her art career has spanned almost 80 years so she's had a lot of time for iteration and trial and error. She has literally done it all. Her career is the definition of expansive, she has had success in the elite art world, in the mainstream commercial domain, through branding partnerships, merchandising, fashion design, retail, and more. However, she struggled for much of her life to gain recognition due to xenophobia, racism, and misogyny.
In the 1960s when she was living in NYC, she pioneered so many art trends like the use of wallpaper and soft sculpture that was later adopted by Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg and never received the recognition she deserved. Instead, she was criticized for her blatant self-promotion, seeking out opportunities herself because galleries wouldn’t take her on. One of my favorite stories from this period is from 1966 when she staged a sale of her work at the Venice Biennale, which she was not formally invited to exhibit in. Either way, she presented her work with vast quantities of reflective stainless steel orbs and herself–beautifully dressed in a traditional Japanese kimono and named the installation Narcissus Garden. She then proceeded to sell these orbs to passersby for 2 dollars apiece.
Kusama was later told off by the Biennale officials and had to stop selling. Fundamentally, Kusama is a performer and she, along with Pollock and Warhol, defined what it means to be an artist in the public eye–artist as persona. And she charted her own path to success being criticized throughout her journey. I kind of see her as the first influencer, self-marketing promotion, aesthetics, performativity, entertainment, spectacle are all central components to her work. She also is nonjudgemental on how her work is disseminated into the world. A painting in a gallery or a plastic keychain, curator Stephanie Rosenthal explains she sees all opportunities, including merchandising, as a vehicle to bring her work into the world.
SooJin Lee points out in her essay The Art and Politics of Artist Personas that Kusama is one of the few female artists in history who have seen their career thrive in the mainstream art market and culture during her lifetime. Her success also contradicts the Western myth of genius as a tragic hero, which in modern art history, is usually associated with male artists, such as Van Gogh or Pollock, who died young.
Lee further contends that since the 1960’s artists’ activities increasingly include non-art actions like networking, publicity or self-promotion. These “non-art” actions have been ignored by the discipline of art history, but are integral to successful art practice. All the while, the discipline keeps trying to avoid the growing importance of the world outside of artworks, such as artists’ biography and the art market’s star system. Kusama is the art and her individual pieces almost feel like iterations or by-products along the way There are so many ways of analyzing and learning from the career of Kusama but what I took away was her boldness, steadfastness, and ability to persevere despite difficult circumstances of war, prejudice, and mental health crises.
Her vision as a creative, and as a business person, is boundless. I can’t speak to her personality but it's interesting how even now despite her success, she is still described by institutions as ‘fame-hungry and a workaholic.’ I feel like those two have such a negative connotation but actually might describe the attitude of many contemporary artists. Working hard, being ambitious, and wanting recognition for that isn’t a bad thing. It just demonstrates the vast amount of work there still is to do. To move past the stigmas around artwork as work and the recognizing that needs to be done around the non-art activities which are central to professional creative development and crucial to building a better, more inclusive, expansive, and exciting future art world.
Now that we have looked at an iconic artist whose career has already shaped and continues to shape the canon of art history, I wanted to highlight the work of an artist I greatly admire who has redefined what artistic work means and interestingly made a point of sharing that with the world.
Theaster Gates is a potter and urban planner. He uses art to discuss complex histories in the US and around the world, from race and class to preservation and community development, his ability to explore materials, to present and disseminate narratives and personal histories inspires me greatly.
But what is truly amazing is Gate’s ability to think about his artistic practice in an expanded field–how he positions his work alongside architects, engineers, activists, developers, educators, financial experts, and more, to both deeply reflect upon, and then act on systemic issues facing his community. Like reshaping the Southside of Chicago, investing in real estate development, to energize action and creativity in an impoverished and abandoned block.
His philosophy on beauty, which stems from ceramics, is that crafting a beautiful vessel is important, but the contents are equally important. I see a natural parallel here with the current state of the art industry, so many beautiful vessels or art pieces but the contents, the structure, and connection of our artistic and creative communities are equally important to the continued creation of beauty. Culture is the match that ignites change, and as we seek out change in the art industry, let’s let art, passion, and culture drive that reinvestment.
Gates is an interesting example because he makes art objects but also engagement-based art and these feed one another. The work he makes and sells in the traditional art market, for fairs like Frieze or Art Basel funds and fuels his socially engaged work. Specifically Dorchester Projects, his community development model in Chicago.
The takeaway here for me is that his approach to artistic success and advancement has been a flywheel. Not the result of banking on single great work or breakthrough exhibition but rather from the collection and accumulation of small wins and ambitious projects stacked up over years of hard work and dedication. Between Dorchester Projects and the Black Madonna Press, a printing company he set up, Gates also has partnered with government bodies, the Johnson Publishing archive, and many more organizations and companies. Always navigating the creative dichotomy between a work that ends up on a wall and a work that changes people's lives. He defies the stereotype of “artist in isolation,” because he has built a team and an impactful long-term business model which enables him to compartmentalize, communicate, and execute creative and meaningful projects that have changed the world.
His guiding principle is to always find a use for what seems discarded, broken, or abandoned. Make do and mend at the scale of the object, and also at the scale of the city. He is a problem solver and a visionary and a perfect example of an artist expanding his practice beyond the studio.
Both Gates and Kusama are empowering examples of artists whose creative practices are expansive and whose authenticity and motivation are remarkable. Their personal and cultural identities are woven into the work they make. And as I think about my art practice and the kind of projects I want to work on, I feel overwhelmed and unsure of how to move forward. I don't really have a clear picture of where and how I want my art to exist in the world. I don’t feel in control.
Much of Season 1 of Art Is… has delved into the art business divide–learning into the stigmas and insecurities around non-art activities and professional development. Because most artists work alone, it's hard to explain to others our intentions, plan our time, and identify the weak points where we need help to ensure our careers have longevity
People say you have social media. “It's so easy now, just showcase your work on Instagram and you're good!” But there is so much more to do. How to navigate the division between personal motivations for making work with commercial ones. How to track progress and identify where you are versus where you want to go. There isn’t a culture in the art world of sharing strategies for this, so after some research, I found that some entrepreneurial creatives have adopted the business model canvas, a tool often used in the startup world to map out a business plan on one page. I never even thought about making a business plan for my work- and for those unsure of what a business plan is, it's not just how you make money. It's an opportunity to define objectives and create a roadmap to achieve them.
It will help you identify your audience and define where you are so you can identify what you need to focus on to move forward or continue on sustainably. It sounds boring but it's actually remarkable and I don’t know what Kusama and Gates and other artists do because, as we said, no one likes talking about this very much. But as I start to investigate my own creative business model canvas, I realize that clearly communicating, at least to myself, the resources, activities, channels, partners, and more which shape my daily artistic identity and the offer I'm presenting to the world makes me feel more grounded and intentional as an artist. I wanted to share that with you because I believe that transparency and peer-to-peer support are integral to the expansion of artistic work and to our vision of the future art world.
Kusama is an icon and Gates is a leader, the role of the artist and artwork has already been expanded and redefined because of them. But one last example came to mind. Epitomizing these pandemic stricken times, and that is not led by one artist but by institutions shaping the industry. I wanted to highlight the amazing work done by art museums and cultural institutions in Italy, especially the Castello di Rivoli museum in Turin that has converted a gallery into a vaccination center and where patients enjoy wall paintings by Claudia Comte and a soundscape by Egon Elliut. In Naples, a similar effort is happening in the Madre Contemporary Art Museum. In Milan, vaccines are being administered in Anselm Kiefer’s ‘Seven Heavenly Palaces,’ an installation in the decommissioned industrial site of Hangar Bicocca.
These historic buildings were first converted into art spaces and now into critical vaccination distribution centers - saving lives and serving a purpose the artists probably could never have imagined. They help demonstrate the expansive nature and value of art and artistic work. It's an interesting moment for artists, especially early career and emerging artists. Few are positioned as we are to gain inspiration and motivation from the world around us, to iterate and critique, to learn from other industries, embrace tech and innovation outside our comfort zones, and explore the expansive creativity of established artists who have already changed the world.
I’m excited because this is just the beginning and I promise that we will delve deeper, share more stories, question the status quo, and continue to lean into the uncomfortable realities of the art world in order to reimagine it, explore and visualize a future for all of us. This is the end of Season 1–a mini-series of seven episodes. But don’t worry because we’ll be back soon in Season 2 where we will revisit these themes, innovations, technologies, business models, and way more through conversations and stories told by other artists, experts, and members of the community. So go back and listen to each episode which I designed for you. And let me know if you want to participate in the form attached in the episode description because this is a podcast for artists and I know you have some great ideas to share. You always do.
Thank you for listening to Episode 7 of Art Is… This week I'd like to thank Tommaso Serra. Thank you for your constant support and enthusiasm. This podcast wouldn’t exist without you.
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