Liz Roth: Syllabus For Business and Art

Syllabus For Business and Art
The goals of this class are to: Help you develop the attitude, and the materials to start thinking of yourself as a professional artist, and not as a student. You will leave this class with a professional resume, artist statement, and a cohesive set of slides. Teach you how to find venues and exhibit your work in a variety of setting. You will leave this class with publicity materials, a mailing list, a list of places to show, a contact list for publicity, a show concept and a show announcement. Teach you how to discuss your work easily and naturally. You will leave this class with a well organized slide presentation of your work. Help you develop a plan to improve your credentials over time. You will leave this class with a one year plan, knowledge of taxes and legal issues, and having applied for several juried shows.
Week 1
Class 1	Introduction to Course, Syllabus Overview, expectations Assignment: Read Handouts
Week 2
Class 2	Your Artist Resume How this differs from a job resume. Types of categories, fitting your unique experiences into categories, looking good without lying, review of samples. Assignment: Prepare resume, 1st draft.
Class 3	Filling Your Artist Resume: Exhibits The juried show (ArtCalendar), the group show (Discuss planning for this semester!), the solo show (start thinking about it now), venues. Assignment: Look through ArtCalendar or other listings and find 5 shows/fellowships you will apply to. Send away for 6-8 applications.
Week 3
Class 4	Your Work, Your Slides Handout: How to talk about your work. The use of slides in discussing your work. Creating a narrative. Assignment: We will be taking slides of your work next class. Bring slide film and 1-3 pieces to photograph. Read Handout, how to photography your work.
Class 5	Slide Taking: Basic Photography Using a camera, about films, about lighting, about the digital camera. Take slides of 2-D work Assignment: Prepare Resume, 2nd draft
Week 4
Class 6	Slide Taking, Continued Take slides of 3-D work Assignment: Read handout Artist Statements. Develop film.
Class 7	The Artist Statement Examples, discuss ways of approaching, necessity of Assignment: Write Artist Statement. Bring in copies for your colleagues to review
Week 5
Class 8	Form and Content: Putting it all together- Resume, Artist Statement, Slides, Slide Labels Presenting yourself and your work coherently. All about slide labels and conventions for shows. Importance of projecting your slides. About cropping, detail shots, masking. Assignment: Read your colleagues artist statements. Be prepared to comment and discuss. Next class: video taping. Bring a blank tape and be prepared to discuss your work for 10 minutes.
Class 9	Discuss Your Work on Videotape In pairs or small groups, discuss your work. Assignment: Analyze your tape. Based on this, prepare a 5-7 minute discussion with slides.
Week 6
Class 10	Slide Presentations 5-7 minute slide presentation of your work. Group discussion; Assignment: Hand in completed, redrafted resume, artist statement, and 5-10 correctly labeled slides in a slide sheet.
Class 11	Organizing a group or solo exhibit: Venue Developing a theme and title. Remember: this title goes on your resume. Make it good. Finding an appropriate venue for your work. Assignment: In small groups, research local venues. The class must present the instructor with 20 minimum venues, including, addresses, contact information, probably lead time for an exhibit, and opening policies (if any).
Week 7
Class 12	Organize Your Exhibit: Preliminary Publicity Nitty gritty file organization. Developing a time line and sticking to it. What is and how to develop a publicity list and a mailing list. Assignment: In small groups, develop a publicity list. Include names, addresses, phone numbers, lead times, and preferred graphic formats (photo or electronic media, if computer disk, preferred formats).Start developing your publicity time-line
Class 13	The Press Release How to write one, getting attention, what graphic materials to include and when to include them. Assignment: Write a 1st draft press release. Complete your publicity time-line
Week 8
Classes 14,15	Spring Break
Week 9
Class 16	Digital Marketing Your website as an art marketing tool. About art/gallery websites. Your slides and original art as digital images. Sizes, formats. Assignment: Collect art for next classes digitizing. Bring floppy and/or zip disk.
Class 17	Demo/field trip: Digitizing Your Images Scanning in images and slides. When to scan direct, GIF and JPEG formats, use of digital camera. Assignment: Organize to hand it completed press release (2nd draft), accompanying images, and publicity list.
Week 10
Class 18	Show preparations: Costs Class analysis of press release, images, publicity list. What costs are involved in show planning. Assignment: Develop itemized show budget
Class 19	Show Preparations: The Invitation Purpose of the invitation, potential as a budget buster. Types, negotiating with printers. Assignment: Research costs of printing invitations. Come up with 3-5 invitation alternatives based on different budget projections
Week 11
Class 20	Show Preparations: Putting together the details, tying up loose ends Invites, publicity, timelines, mailing list, the Opening, costs, shipping Assignment: Complete show time-line and itemized budget. Start working on mailing list. 15 names and addresses this week.
Class 21	Legal Issues Overview of contracts you may need soon: Contract for sale (and moral rights provisions), consignment, art rental agreements, model release forms, invoices. Assignment: Make sure you have applied to your juried shows by now!
Week 12
Class 22	Taxes and Money How much money do you need to be an artist: art creating, and art marketing? Dealing with a day job: the big balancing act. Introduction to artist taxes. Assignment: Determine your ballpark monetary needs for art making and art business. What might be a deductible expense? Project next years cash needs.
Class 23	Your Professional Development: An Overview All about grants, artist colonies, gallery relationships, fellowships, internships, shows, travel, graduate school, other forms of continuing education Assignment: Choose your final project. Possible ideas: develop an art website, apply for a grant, prepare graduate school application, apply to an artist colony.
Week 13
Class 24	Business Writing Skills for your Project How to write a business letter. How to determine if and when to add supporting materials Assignment: Write a letter relevant to your final project
Class 25	Individual Meetings Assignment: Continue working on final project. Prepare for presentations.
Week 14
Class 26	Final 15 minute slide presentations of your work Assignment: Continue working on your final project. Continue adding to your mailing list.
Class 27	Final 15 minute slide presentations of your work Assignment: Continue working on your final project. Continue adding to your mailing list.
Week 15
Class 28	Individual Meetings Assignment: Continue working on final project.
Class 29	Individual Meetings Assignment: Continue working on final project. Prepare for presentations.
Week 16
Class 30	Class review of Final Projects Hand in complete marketing materials to review: Resume, Artist Statement, 15-20 slides, proof of the 5 juried shows you applied to, Show Plan, including: press release, invitation, publicity list, mailing list, show timeline, and budget.
Bibliography Barnes, Molly, How to Get Hung: A Practical Guide for Emerging Artists, Journey Editions, 1994 Perky and some Ok general advice, but low in specifics. Crawford, Tad, Business and Legal Forms for the Fine Artist, Allworth Press, 1995 The best source for this type of information. Great tear out, usable forms. Crawford, Tad, Legal Guide for the Visual Artist, Allworth Press, 1992 Hopefully more than you ever need to know Davis, Sally Prince, The Fine Artist's Guide to Showing and Selling Your Work, North Light Books Geared toward the regional artist. Nice checklists. Cheesy, but covers the basics. Franklin Smith, Constance, Art Marketing Handbook for the Fine Artist, ArtNetwork Press, 1992 Friendly writing style, good marketing ideas, nice introduction to making a plan. Hart, Russell, Photographing Your Artwork, Northlight Books, 1987 Highly Recommended! How to take pictures of all sorts of work. Basic and advanced techniques. Klayman, Toby, The Artist's Survival Manual Friendly general introduction to most aspects of marketing and psyching yourself up. Hoover, Deborah, Supporting Yourself as an Artist, Oxford University Press, 1985 Nice section on seeking support for your project, and the grant review process. Marquand, Ed, How to Prepare Your Portfolio, Art Direction Book Company, 1988 A bit dated, but some nice ideas on putting together a binder. Nice, short section on photographing your artwork. Oxenhorn, Dennis, Money for Visual Artists, American Council of the Arts, 1993 A compact list of grants, awards, and artist residencies. Piersol, Edna Wagner, Living By Your Brush Alone, Northlight Books Similar to the Fine Artist's Guide. Focus on transforming the hobbyist to a professional.

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