Carolyn Edlund is Executive Director of the Arts Business Institute, a non-profit that offers creative business solutions to artists and craftspeople. She is also the Founder of Artsy Shark, a forum that targets artists AS small business owners with marketing and sales tips. Carolyn flips a lot of the concerns artists may have about growing their careers as a business into positive opportunities for full artistic expression. Her emphasis on the lifestyle of the artist as one of glamour and freedom is insightful and balanced by the call for creating a skill set to further one’s deepest professional aspirations.
Topics Include:
- The fine arts vs. arts & crafts barrier
- Art for its own sake vs. art as a business
- How artists build a business without sacrificing their craft
- How “repeat business builds business”
- The catch-22 of selling out for money or not being good enough for it
- The artists’ enviable lifestyle of glamour & freedom
- Referring to all customers as collectors
- Branding: How artists create their brand
- Marketing: How it has changed – keeping up with the times
- Essential marketing tools & skills for artists
- Scalability: managing audience growth
- The opportunity of technology for fine art and business scale: 3D Printing, Laser Cutters, etc
Listen now, or download and take this 40min episode with you on your phone or mobile device.
The Arts Business Institute is at artsbusinessinstitute.org and Artsy Shark at artsyshark.com
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great questions, great answers – thanks so much.
Angela, thank you! We’re glad that you enjoyed our podcast!