The ArtWorks Manifesto

Con­tribute to the Manifesto

For quite some time now I have been think­ing about how a Credo of sorts could be set up that would help to guide artists of all kinds on their quest to inte­grate their art with busi­ness. More­over, I was look­ing for a tool that could help artists solid­ify their impor­tance to our growth as a cul­ture and rein­force their value and the value of their work in bring­ing their visions to fruition.

So I have started what I call, for want of a bet­ter title, The Art­Works Man­i­festo. It is meant to be a start­ing point and as such I invite artists and read­ers to add to it by leav­ing a com­ment below . In the end, we will hope­fully have a com­pre­hen­sive guide to help artists real­ize their valu­able role in our future and buy­ers real­ize the impor­tance and value of art in their lives.

If you feel like expand­ing any of the points below feel free.….

All com­ments etc. received before Sep­tem­ber 23, will be con­sid­ered for inclu­sion in the first draft of the doc­u­ment, and all con­trib­u­tors will be acknowledged.

What your see below is what I’ve come with so far.

Art brings light into the world

Art is an absolute neces­sity for a cul­ture to survive

Art is about intimacy

Art is about the heart not the mind

Buy­ers are not enemies

The more we involve our buy­ers the more they will evan­ge­lize us

Give them what they want or help them find it

Self invest­ment is impor­tant to success

The sale is a sacred point of connection

Artists must learn the skills needed to be professional

Art mar­ket­ing efforts should Focus  on the buy­ers, their prob­lems and how you can help them.

The stan­dard retail model of busi­ness does not meet the needs of artists and their markets

The tech­nol­ogy offered by the inter­net and its elim­i­na­tion of geo­graphic bar­ri­ers needs to be embraced by artists in order to succeed

The nature of the artist-buyer rela­tion­ship will con­tin­u­ally  change as new tech­nol­ogy emerges

Tech changes will even­tu­ally bring artists and buy­ers closer pre­sent­ing here to fore unre­al­ized oppor­tu­ni­ties for artists to serve as men­tors and teachers.

As artists take on the men­tor­ship role they will play a major role in grow­ing the value of cre­ative work.

Art mar­ket­ing will con­tinue to shift to rela­tion­ship build­ing and conversation

Gallery place­ments will be more depen­dent on artist gallery owner rela­tion­ship than before

Artists need to shed the “starv­ing artist” mind­set learned both through cul­ture and education

Artists also will need to real­ize that their abil­ity to sup­port them­selves as artists is directly depen­dent on their abil­ity to mar­ket their work through connections

Artists also need aban­don the “hum­ble artist” busi­ness model and move instead to a model of abun­dance and value.

Artists will be able to set the tone for mar­ket­ing mes­sages by really show­ing the inef­fec­tive­ness of sell­ing & pitching

All mar­kets are net­worked whether you see it or not, your story is being told with­out you

Artists can learn to use the net­worked mar­ket to help build 10000 true fans peo­ple who will buy your stuff no mater what.

Artists need to learn how to posi­tion them­selves in todays and future markets

Artists rep­re­sent the front line in efforts to edu­cate the mar­ket of the impor­tance of art.

Suc­cess­ful artists rec­og­nize the impor­tance of the busi­ness side of their work and strive to bal­ance each

If artists want peo­ple to buy they have to be respon­sive to their markets

Mar­kets are starv­ing for per­sonal con­tact with you so don’t hide in the back of your booth or only show up at the gallery or your opening.

Todays and future mar­kets depend on con­ver­sa­tion and grow through word of mouth so join the con­ver­sa­tion get out of your stu­dio regularly

The con­cept of “starv­ing artist” is a myth nobody needs to starve if they are wil­ing to learn to use the right tools for the right time and place

The con­cept of “art sell­ing itself” is also a cen­turies old myth that has not helped increase the value of art or the pres­ence  art in our lives

Please use the form below if  mak­ing a pub­lic com­ment freaks you out…

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