ARTIST SURVIVAL SKILLS: How to Earn a Living as a Canadian Visual Artist was developed for two reasons. One: Success in the visual arts, no matter how you define it, comes more readily to artists who manage their careers professionally but Canadian visual artists have few resources to guide their professional development. And two: There is a particular knowledge deficit in the community of Canadian visual artists concerning the importance and techniques of marketing and sales.
Whereas there a many worthwhile books for entrepreneurs on starting and growing a small business, this book looks at key components of small business theory and discusses them in the context of a creative skills-based small business—the self-employed Canadian visual artist or crafts person. It was produced in order to motivate and assist Canadian visual artists and crafts persons seeking to increase the percentage of their income that comes from their artistic practice.
Nearly all self-employed professional artists are supported by professional associations, but Canadian visual artists are not. The writers have the Writers Union of Canada, actors, stage managers and dancers have the Canadian Actors Equity Association and ACRTA; musicians have the Musicians Union. Directors, choreographers, and composers—all artists have professional support. These professional associations lobby government of behalf of their membership, they provide professional information on things like health, taxation, copyrights etc., and they often negotiate salaries and benefits with employer associations.
Canadian visual artists do have Canadian Artists Representation/Front des artists Canadiennes (CARFAC) and its Copyright Collective to support them, but only a tiny percentage of Canadian artists belong to this organization so its strength and relevance is diminished. (The CARFAC Copyright Collective, however, is an important Canadian resource for artists and it will be discussed further in the section of this book dealing with copyrights.)
All the professional associations that support their membership define what it means to be a professional in their discipline. A stage actor knows that he must work on several exhibitions as an apprentice in order to qualify for membership in the Canadian Actors Equity Association. Once a member of Equity, the actor’s salary and all working conditions are protected by his contract and association membership. Until Canadian artists can define what it means to be a professional artist in Canada, no professional association can exist.
Canadian artists do find professional support in the many artist organizations of Canada. Local arts councils, art clubs, and non-profit cooperatives and societies for visual artists and crafts persons often assist in the professional development of artists through workshops, guest residencies, group sales, publications and many other activities. Groups such as these will be discussed further on in this book in the chapter on “Community,” but this lack of a national service organization for visual artists is a major reason this book was written.
ARTIST SURVIVAL SKILLS: How to Earn a Living as a Canadian Visual Artist
Published by CTP/Vancouver Desktop Publishing
225 Pages $34.95
Available from Opus Framing and Art Supplies, Chapters/Indigo and various independent bookstores across Canada.
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