In case you missed it, this article about the “birth of the creative entrepreneur” is a pretty good read. While of course the world and the way artists work have both changed drastically throughout history, a lot of this boils down to semantics and labels. True creativity and artistry, though always subject to interpretation and judgement, will never die as long as humanity exists.
Anyway, I do 100% consider myself both an “artist” and a “creative entrepreneur.” I believe that a huge part of succeeding as an artist today is that entrepreneurship. This means that a lot of artists wear many hats and possess many marketable skills that they choose to put into their own businesses. One of the most crucial skills a professional artist needs today is a certain degree of technical literacy.
Right now I’m composing this blog in WordPress.
I manage all the design and updates of my website myself because I have the skills to do so. I don’t even know how to calculate what it would have cost me to pay someone else to do this over all these years! I am partly self-taught and partly taught by others.
I took college courses for some skills, like digital photography and Photoshop. Other skills, like WordPress design, search engine optimization, and business development through social media, are things I just sort of picked up through years of continuous effort.
I know how to upload things via FTPS. I know how to customize Facebook privacy settings and manage lists and groups to use the site exactly how I choose. I know which video settings to use when uploading my particular video files to YouTube. I know how to add tags to photos so they’ll be picked up in Google image searches. I know little basic PC things, like how to run backups of my data, and how to keep a database of my art inventory.
To me, none of these things seem like a big deal, or anything particularly noteworthy. But I realize that all of it adds up to a vast body of knowledge, which, I know through speaking to lots of my fellow artists, we do not all share. While of course I’ve done a lot of hard work to learn all this stuff, I’m lucky because it is intuitive to me.
My family includes a lot of tech professionals–programmers, web developers, IT security experts. I’m even married to a techie! The acronyms fly fast and hard at every family reunion. (You know the ones.) And a lot of that goes over my head as my eyes glaze over. But throughout my life, I can also see that a lot of it has stuck.
My technical background/aptitude/comfort level is something I hugely take for granted. I get a lot of requests for advice from artists who don’t know where to start, asking things like “How did you make your website?” or “How do you get such good images of your art?” or “How do you get people to follow your content online?”
The truth is there are no quick answers to these questions. I can usually point someone in the right direction, but without building up a certain level of expertise through many hours of study, you’re not going to be able to present yourself or your artwork professionally in today’s world.
I kind of feel the same about having good writing skills–some people have them, some people don’t, and they can be directly applied to an artist’s business. An artist’s business is of course entirely dependent on creating the art itself. Beyond that, though: when I think about all the success I’ve had showing my work, sharing my work, and selling my work over the years, I couldn’t have done any of it without developing both my technical skills and my writing skills.
There are probably many other skills I have and take for granted, and others I should spend some more time building. We all have our strengths and weaknesses.
What skills do you think are crucial for a “creative professional” today? What skills are optional but might give an artist a big leg up?
