artbizbuz

Making Art For Money

Posted on 10 September 2009

What is success in art? Is it fame? Is it artistic satisfaction? Is it the sense of fulfillment? Is it even correct to consider success in art?

It is clear that if you are defining your marketing success, then it is about money. The business dimension of your art activities can be calculated and measured numerically; your measure of success is based upon the money you made from selling your art. Art business success should be separated and kept apart from artistic success. The topic of this discussion is success in the art market.

There are many aspects to consider before entering the art market, but the fundamental choice you have to make is between making art for money versus making money from art, and / or finding a middle ground between these two.

Are you making art to earn income; or is making art a priority for you by itself, and earning of income from your art only a secondary (although important) goal? Can you fuse these two aspects into a single approach for your art ?

There are no right or wrong answers here. Regardless of your answer to this question, there are ways to succeed as a professional artist. But in order to find these ways, you have to know what you are looking for.

Essentially, there are three scenarios for you to consider:

• Following art market trends
• Find a market niche for your existing art style
• Work Smart and merge the two into one flexible strategy.

Scenario 1. MAKE ART FOR THE MARKET

(Producing trendy art to suit current market demands. Following art market trends)

You are a market conscious artist and you are ready to create art following the demands of an art market segment: In this case you have to know art market trends. Ideally, you would be able to foresee these trends, to be the trendsetter on your own (see Scenario 4, below). But, as a minimum you need to know these trends and reflect them in your artwork. So, your marketing strategy is:

• To learn which market trends are relevant to your art.
• To implement these trends in your artwork in your own unique way.
• To offer your “trends friendly” art on the market.

Scenario 2. SEEK A MARKET FOR YOUR ART

(Looking for market niche for your art. Selling art. Finding demand, Creating demand)

You are not willing to change anything in your art, neither in subject matter nor in the style, but you are interested in selling your art. In this case you are focusing on finding a market niche for your art with no intention of changing your style. Your personal style in your view is an absolute which has no room for stylistic maneuver. You are positive that your art style is not subject to adjustment for the art market.

There is nothing wrong with this point of view, but in this case if you want to make money from your art you have to

• Find a market niche for your art
• Introduce yourself properly in this niche
• Make your art accepted by the market niche.

Scenario 3. SMART ART MARKETING

(Adjust your art to better fit the market. Adjusting to demand, Amplifying demand)

You are willing to fine-tune your art (either in subject matter or in the style) within fundamentals of your personal art concept, to make your art better fit marketing trends.

In this case you finding the middle ground  between reflecting marketing trends and staying true to your art core. So, your approach to marketing your art should include:

• Categorize criteria of marketing trends relevant to your art.
• Build a system which would allow you permanently watch marketing trends relevant to your art. Identify and constantly watch marketing trends which are relevant to your art.
• Adjust your art to changing marketing trends and make modifications of  your art noted and accepted by the your market field.

In all three  cases you have to follow certain steps to succeed. Some of these steps are same regardless of your fundamental choices. Some of them are different, but in you have to do a marketing research in anyway.

Scenario 1: your market research is an exploration for trends in which you would be interested to change your art style, in which you would be inspired to adjust your art to make sales. You are changing your art by following market dynamics and therefore you are constantly listening to the market’s pulse, following trends relevant to your goal for increased sales.

Scenario 2: your market research is an investigation of market segments which are already friendly to your art. You are not changing your art style by following market but you navigate through changing market to observe what are the new niches available for your art.

The nature of research is different in both cases but a market research has to be done in both cases.

Scenario 3: your market research is study of market segments and marketing trends which can go with your art. You are adjusting  your art style to fit a market if you notice a trend  or  discover new niches compatible  with your art. The degree of adjustment is determined by you based on your level of artistic self assessment – because you are trying to stay with your personal style while being “friendly” to the market trends.

The nature of research is different in all three cases but a market research has to be done regardless of which scenario you choose.

There is fourth scenario:

Scenario 4: when you are setting the trends and others are following you, but I guess it will be a subject for a different conversation.

All these are outlines of possible strategies for the art market, and they are valuable only if you are interested in business aspect of you art. Nobody can strategize artistic success. Art value manifests itself differently every time. But there are proven strategies for business achievements. You cannot learn how to be a talented artist; but you definitely can learn how to make the most of money of your art talent.

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