Samantha Foster
Spectrum Editor
Michael Todd
Assistant Spectrum Editor
For VCUarts undergraduate students, graduation can be an intimidating event. Often times, “artist” is not a position in a company. Making a living within the arts can be difficult, no matter what type of medium is used. For those hoping to pursue a career in the arts, establishing an individually designed business through entrepreneurship is often the best, albeit most uncharted, path.
“When was that moment you decided to become an artist… a maker, a designer?… It’s a hard question for some, a no-brainer for others. Did you take up ceramics, for example, because it reminded you of hours spent cooking with your grandmother?… When applying to colleges, how did you respond to the concerned adult who suggested that art could just be a hobby?” Alex Hibbit asked at at the Entrepreneurship Symposium this past Thursday.
Hibbit, an assistant director, graduate chair and associate professor of art at Ohio University, moderated the symposium presented by the Craft and Material studies department and The American Craft Council. It was meant to inspire and aid undergraduate artists in developing a business based on their craft. Three guest artist lecturers working in various mediums were able to share their individual journeys and their acquired knowledge and experience of making, marketing and selling their art.
The panel included Heather Mae Erickson, a sculptural yet functional ceramics artist; metalsmith and studio jeweler Amy Tavern and Daniel Michalik, an artist working primarily with cork and founder of DMFD, his own furniture design company.
Hibbitt, who is also a practicing ceramics and fiber artist, began the discussion by explaining that the craft world is a lot like an elephant.
“If you do see the whole elephant, you also see where you stand in relationship to it and in contemporary life. Context is everything,” Hibbitt said. “If you know where you want to position yourself, … you’re able to focus your entrepreneurial intentions in an appropriate manner.”
During their respective presentations and the following question and answer session, the lecturers were able to describe their varied pasts, individual trials and revelations, while still discussing advice about beginning a business and making a living in the art world.
Perhaps the most agreed upon of these ideas is the simple truth that there is no one way to start a business. However, the panelists said that art students already have an advantage in the entrepreneurial field.
“When you look at literature about entrepreneurship outside of the arts, all they talk about is creativity,” Hibbett said. “They talk about how they want creative thinkers and critical thinkers, because that is what really makes entrepreneurship work, so you’ve already got a leg up because you’re in a creative field. You’re already thinking critically.”
One of the primary concerns of audience members, as posed during the question and answer session, was the relationship between the artist and the patron.
“In the beginning, when you start out, it’s really more of a question about setting up (your) identity as a maker and the objects that you make so that the concept of compromise (with patrons) can be phrased out as much as possible,” Michalik said. “If you set it up in the right way, compromise is more like a challenge … and is more like an opportunity for moving forward.”
Due to the utilitarian nature of her tableware, Erickson stressed the importance of interaction with her work. To achieve this, Erickson often cooked for and invited fellow artists to select their own table settings from her collections. This is but one example of bridging the gap between the maker and the patron emphasized during the panel discussion.
Presenters touched on everything from economics to photography and presentation to accepting and pushing past rejections and failures. A particularly emphasized point was the importance of networking and community building, beginning with undergraduate peers and professors and even talking to strangers.
“It starts in school and blossoms out from meeting professors and their friends and who you decide to keep in contact with, who you associate yourself with,” said Erickson. “You (may) have your crafts friends and your design friends and your architecture friends, (but) it’s how you bring those friends together in the same dialogue.”
As important as having a product worth selling is the artist’s creation of a product of which they are proud. The overall message was based upon the significance of creativity and self-motivation to achieve entrepreneurial success.
“If you’re not a motivated maker, you’re probably not going to be motivated…to critique yourself, to give yourself assignments, to give yourself due dates,” Erickson said. “It’s a million jobs all in one. You have to kind of use your own expertise and choose your own adventure.”