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Building an Artist Application Package: How to Set Up Your Artist CV and Statement So Applying Becomes Easy
This article explains how to create a professional artist application package for residencies, grants, and exhibitions by building a sustainable system for your artist CV, statement, bio, images, and documentation. It offers guidance on preparing, customizing, and maintaining materials that align with your evolving practice and institutional opportunities.
How Artists Can Best Harness the Energy of an Artist Residency: What to Do Before, During, and After
This article examines how artists can harness the full energy of an artist residency by approaching it intentionally before arrival, working strategically during the residency period, and integrating its outcomes afterward, with clear guidance on documentation, networking, and marketing as essential parts of the residency experience.
How to Decide If You Should Do an Artist Residency and How to Choose Which Ones to Apply To
This article explains how to decide if you should do an artist residency and how to choose artist residency programs that align with your practice, capacity, and long-term professional goals.
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Handling Discounts Professionally as an Artist
Requests for discounts are common in the creative industries, but they can be fraught with emotional and professional challenges. Artists...
Feb 26, 20256 min read
The Role of the Artist as Curator: Origins, Value, and Contemporary Practice
This article explores the origins of the artist-as-curator phenomenon, examines its value to contemporary art, and outlines how artists approach and enact curatorial roles.
Feb 5, 20255 min read
What Counts as Art? Cultural Capital in Creative Fields (Part One)
What counts as art is not simply a matter of individual taste or artistic intent but the result of a complex web of social, cultural, and...
Feb 2, 20256 min read
Decolonizing the Arts: Structural Change, Not Just Representation
In discussions of decolonizing the arts, the term is too often conflated with surface-level efforts: temporary exhibitions of...
Jan 28, 20255 min read
Gentrification and the Arts: The Ethical Dilemma
Gentrification and the arts are inextricably linked in the narratives of urban change. Artists often find themselves portrayed as both...
Jan 26, 20256 min read
CV vs. Resume: What Artists Need to Know
For artists navigating the professional world, understanding the difference between a curriculum vitae (CV) and a resume is essential. While both documents serve as tools to showcase your experience and skills, their purposes, structures, and audiences differ significantly. In the arts, where professional trajectories often involve a combination of exhibitions, teaching, and grants, the distinction is even more critical. This article explores the key differences, examines whe
Jan 21, 20254 min read
How to Identify Reputable Art Opportunities: Deciphering Value and Avoiding Exploitation
Opportunities for artists—exhibitions, residencies, grants, markets, and community projects—are often presented as pivotal steps toward...
Jan 12, 20256 min read
Breaking Down Gallery Contracts: What Every Artist Should Know
Gallery contracts are a critical foundation for professional relationships between artists and galleries, outlining expectations, rights,...
Jan 1, 20255 min read
Insurance in Gallery Agreements: Safeguarding Artwork Against Loss, Theft, Damage, and Beyond
In the professional art world, insurance is one of the most critical—and often overlooked—components of a gallery contract. Artists...
Jan 1, 20255 min read
Understanding Art Contracts: The Importance of Duration and Detailed Timelines in Art Contracts
In the professional art world, gallery contracts are not just agreements; they are tools that define the relationship between the artist...
Jan 1, 20256 min read
Ownership in Gallery Agreements: Why Artists Must Retain Control of Their Work
Ownership of artwork is one of the most fundamental rights an artist holds, yet it is often a point of confusion or contention in gallery...
Jan 1, 20255 min read
How to Write a Concise and Impactful Artist Statement
This guide outlines a step-by-step process for crafting an artist statement that effectively conveys an artist's work.
Jan 1, 20254 min read
Mutual Aid in the Arts: A Framework for Collective Support and Resistance
Exhibition piece on mutual support and aid, as part of Artist’s Way Project. Grand Rapids, Michigan In the face of systemic inequities,...
Dec 31, 20245 min read
Selling Out or Staying True? Authenticity in Art Under Consumer Capitalism
Learn how an artist can remain true to themselves in a consumer capitalist market!
Dec 31, 20245 min read
Feminist Art Theory and the Undervaluation of Artistic Labor
This article explores how artistic labor has been devalued, the systems that perpetuate this inequity, and the structural changes required to address these injustices.
Dec 31, 20245 min read
The Class System Within the Arts: How Late-Stage Capitalism and Hustle Culture Deepen Inequities
The art world has long been romanticized as a meritocracy, where talent and creativity transcend barriers to determine success. This...
Dec 31, 20246 min read
Knowledge as Power: Why We Must Talk About Systemic Issues in the Arts
The arts are often celebrated as a space of creativity, expression, and freedom. Yet, beneath this ideal lies a complex web of systemic...
Dec 31, 20244 min read
Fear of Success in the Arts: Navigating the Paradox of Achievement
Fear of success is a psychological phenomenon where individuals consciously or subconsciously resist achieving their goals due to the...
Dec 31, 20246 min read
Learned Helplessness in the Arts: Psychological and Sociological Effects of Creative Paralysis
Learned helplessness, first studied by psychologists Martin Seligman and Steven Maier in the 1960s, describes a condition where repeated...
Dec 31, 20246 min read
The Starving Artist Myth: How Romanticism Shaped Modern Expectations of Artists
The trope of the “starving artist” has cast a long shadow over the arts world, shaping not only how society views artists but also how...
Dec 31, 20244 min read
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