"What’s in Your Business Toolkit?"
A Symposium on the Nuts and Bolts of Managing an Artistic Career will utilize business and creative skills to enhance your visibility as an artist. It is a business development symposium for visual artists at the Nicolaysen Art Museum on August 5-6.
Many artists wonder if it’s possible to make a living doing what they love most.
This two-day smorgasbord of information will illuminate the processes of becoming more visible and financially successful as an artist.
Tips, tricks, professional insights, as well as business skills and development will all be addressed in this symposium.
This symposium will present sessions and panelists that will explore the following subjects: Legal & Finance, Crafting a Business Plan, Marketing, Technology, Pricing & Value, and Accounting.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 5
9 a.m.: Introduction
10 a.m.: Accounting 101. This session on basic bookkeeping and accounting will help improve your profitability and teach how to calculate breakeven sales.
11:30 a.m.: Lunch Break
12:30 p.m.: Marketing. This session will explore business professionalism, the art of networking, customer/client cultivation, how to draft artist statements, resume packets, and letters (including proposals and cover letters), how to introduce your work professionally, avoiding market saturation and how to find the right representation or art festival for you.
2:30 p.m.: How to Craft a Business Plan. This session will go over the elements of a good business plan and utilize market research to predict sales.
5 p.m.: Evening Reception (with cash bar)
FRIDAY, AUGUST 6
8:30 a.m.: Technology. This session will deal with utilizing and becoming familiar with social and media networks o increase visibility, as well as step by step instructions to creating a presence online.
10:30 a.m.: Legal and Finance. In this session, the ins and outs of drafting and negotiating dealer/festival/museum contracts, and copyright agreements will be analyzed. Also, the options and steps artists should be taking for future financing opportunities will also be discussed.
Noon: Lunch Break
1 p.m.: Pricing & Value I
3 p.m.: Pricing & Value II
These sessions will expore understanding your marketplace, evaluating your work for sale, establishing price points and range—and want to go solobucking the system. Local/regional/national artists discuss how they achieved success in the art world and share personal experiences.
Cost for the Symposium (includes reception, 2 full days of panels, snacks & 2 lunches)
125 Non-members of the NIC
$100 Members of the NIC
$50 Students (with valid ID)
$75 Daily Rate (registration for one day)
Please call the museum at 307-235-5247 (and ask for Amanda Helm) to pay by credit card. Please make all checks payable to the Nicolaysen Art Museum.
Hotel Information (ask for the NIC block rate):
Days Inn- 300 East E St. (I25 and Center St.) 307- 234-1159, $69 a night + tax
Super 8 East- 269 Miracle St. 307-237-8100, $79 a night + tax
Registration will open at 8 a.m. both days.
Registration forms will also be available online at www.thenic.org.
Please call 307-235-5247 for more information and ask for Amanda Helm.
