Crista Cloutier, one of LinkedIn’s recent “Influencer in the Contemporary Art World,” will be at the Reece Museum to give a talk on how artists can build and market themselves.
“In her talk, Cloutier will, she says, explore the journey of the artist, how one finds a voice, develops it and uses it to create a professional career as a working artist,” writes Lise Cutshaw in a press release from Mary B. Martin School of the Arts.
In the beginning of Cloutier’s career she was, according to the release, “selling millions of dollars of artwork to galleries, running her own gallery and nationally recognized studio, appraising, licensing and writing about art and curating exhibitions;” until one day she decided to change it all.
After selling everything Cloutier moved to France and started over. While in France she created a business school titled “The Working Artist,” that was for visual artists. Not only was she recently honored by LinkedIn, but she has worked with artist from more than 30 countries in a large number large of areas as well.
“Ever since she walked away from the commercial world, Crista has been teaching workshops and developing programs and courses to help artists learn the business side of the art world,” said Anita DeAngelis, director of the Mary B. Martin School of the Arts at ETSU.
On Thursday, Sept. 29, at 5 p.m. at ETSU’s Reece Museum, Cloutier will present her talk. This is to go along with the Best of Tennessee Craft 2016 Exhibition that is also at the Reece Museum until Dec. 2.
“So why are we having a business person come in and talk during this particular exhibition?” DeAngelis said. “As it turns out, one of the things that Tennessee Craft includes in its mission is helping craft artists market themselves. We thought it was important to have some discussions on this particular topic during that exhibition.”
Ever since Cloutier started her new career she has dealt with artists who just don’t know how to go about handling certain things. She goes so far to say that: “the struggling artist is not a myth. It’s a real person.” In interviews she has discussed the importance of knowing business when being an artist, and being prepared to handle one’s business affairs.
“They must understand their market, they must behave professionally within that market and they must set and achieve financial goals,” Cloutier said in an artsjournal.com blog.
Although her speech is on teaching artists to be business aware, she still advises “that artists create the work that speaks to them.”
Cloutier will also be doing a workshop on project planning. For information call 423-439-8587. For more information on the talk or ETSU Mary B. Martin School of the Arts, call 423-439-TKTS (8587) or visit www.etsu.edu/martin.
