Office Hours for Artist Entrepreneurs

First come, first served. Bring your questions, issues, trials, and barriers to overcome. It’s Office Hours for working artists!

One of the features of CHF’s Art-Business Accelerator and Digital Learning Portal is Office Hours, which take place as conference calls at a pre-scheduled recurring time. In this venue, artists lay out the challenges they’re facing, and a leader in a specific practice area of art business provides input and insights to spur individual progress.

Doing this with a group invites better, stronger questions and provides answers to questions that other artists find applicable to their own businesses but perhaps didn’t think to ask.

So, to get a little more specific about what goes on during Office Hours, here (with the artists’ permission) are four excerpts from a call that I hosted on August 3rd. The sense of familiarity that you hear is attributable to the fact that each of these artists is an Executive Fellow in CHF’s Art-Business Accelerator, and we’ve already had many of these types of conversations before.

Looking for the schedule of Office Hours? This link works to find a time and RSVP if you’re logged in and have Entrepreneur, Executive, or Fellow status.

How do I advance-pitch my already moving series of shows?

Gregg Chadwick is a painter who leverages iconic subject matter to ignite broader interest in fine art. He is currently touring the US with his show “Mystery Train.” For more about Gregg, see his executive profile.

Excerpt: “Decide what’s going to happen and then (not how yet), because you’ve already made the decision, you start to see opportunities that fall into place.”

How do I construct my sales pipeline?

Kristin LeVier is a scientist who brings the microscopic world into view through sculpture, so art becomes a vehicle for deeper insights into the natural world. For more about Kristin, see her executive profile.

Excerpt: “Building your list is about asking people to get on your list, offering them something valuable, and promising not to SPAM them.”

How do I generate publicity, and should I utilize LinkedIn?

Belgin Yucelen welcomes innovation while resisting the overthrow of timeless achievements in human aesthetics and culture. For more about Belgin, see her executive profile.

Excerpt: “Develop a talk you can deliver, as though it were going to be a TED talk.”

How do I put together contracts for hiring assistants or other professionals?

Nadia Fairlamb calls on her audience to work together by working specifically with what is in front of us—our individual communities, local resources, and cultural contexts. For more about Nadia, visit her executive profile.

Excerpt: “If you’re hiring someone to come to your physical studio, you may technically not be able to hire them as a contractor…”

Takeaways

The key things that make these calls effective are:

1. Getting clarity on what is being asked and the context behind it
2. Zeroing in on the overall goal, because sometimes the question itself doesn’t
3. Exploring possibilities, not as panacea but as options that leave the artist in charge
4. Taking time to do the question justice and illustrating the points with effective storytelling

To take advantage of CHF’s Office Hours for your art practice, apply for our 2019 Art-Business Accelerator Fellowship or become a member of our Digital Learning Portal at the Entrepreneur level or higher.