A list of artist career development resources that provide
advice, information, and guidance on a wide range of
artist career development topics.
PUBLICATIONS  ARE LISTED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER
(As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.) 

The Art and Business of Photography
Author: Susan Carr
Provides essential information about the photographer’s legal and business
concerns, and explains the difficult balance between maintaining a successful
business and pursuing creative, noncommercial work in the photography
field. Includes interviews with 11 top photographers

Publisher:  Allworth Press
Publication date:  2011
buy

Art, Inc.
Author: Lisa Congdon
Covers various topics related to career development for
fine artists and illustrators.

Publisher: Chronicle Books  
Publication date:  2014
buyArt, Money Success
Author: Maria Brophy
The author tells personal stories of her own business dealings,
successes and failures.
Publisher: Son the the Sea, Inc.
Publication date: 2017
buy
ART/WORK: Everything You Need to Know and
Do as You Pursue Your Art Career

Author: Heather Darcy Bhandari and Jonathan Melber
Imparts advice based on interviews with 100 curators, dealers and
other arts professionals throughout the United States.  Written by
an art dealer and arts attorney.
Publisher: Free Press
Publication date: Revised 2017
buy
The Art World Dream: Alternative Strategies for Working Artists
Author: Mark Rudd

Discusses the peaks and challenges of an artist’s career and
offers practical advice.

Publisher: Cire Corporation
Publication date: 2001
buy
The Artist in the Office: How to Creatively Survive
and Thrive Seven Days a Week

Author: Summer Pierre

A humorous book about integrating the work you have to do with the work
you want to do.  The author tackles everything from money issues and the
importance of patience during the creative process – to better organizing
your time to countering the isolation of being an artist.

Publisher: Perigee, The Penguin Group
Publication date: 2010
buy
The Artist’s Guide: How to Make a Living Doing What You Love
Author: Jackie Battenfield

Using a “tough love approach” to pursuing a career in the visual arts,
the author provides a comprehensive guide for artists at all career levels.  

Publisher: Da Capo Press
Publication date: 2009
buy
Business of Art: An Artist’s Guide to Profitable Self-Employment
Includes information on career and business planning, marketing
and promotion, budgeting and money management, legal issues,
and financing creative work.

Publisher: Center for Cultural Innovation
Publication date: Revised 2021  
https://www.cciarts.org/cgi/page.cgi/business_art.html/Books-c1/Business_of_Art_An_Artist_s_Guide_to_Profitable_Self_Employment_Second_Edition-p1
The Business of Being an Artist
Author: Daniel Grant
Covers a range of career-related topics, including making a
transition from school to the working world.

Publisher: Allworth Press
Publication Date: Revised 2015
buy
CARFAC Ontario’s Advisory Notes
Documents that summarize specific topics relating to an
artist’s career and the business of art. PDF format.

Publisher: CARFAC Ontario    
http://www.carfacontario.ca/CARFAC-Ontarios-Advisory-Notes
Crusade for Your Art: Best Practices for Fine Art Photographers
Author: Jennifer Schwartz.
“Helps you navigate and demystify the fine art photography world. The
knowledge and resources this guide provides give you the tools to take
your fine art photography career by the reins and thoughtfully and
purposefully develop a plan to get you where you want to go.”

Publisher: Crusade Press
Publication date: 2014
buy
Getting Your Sh*t Together: The Ultimate Business Manual for
Every Practicing Artist
Authors: Karen Atkinson and GYST Ink

Aims to help all artists everywhere avoid career development
pitfalls and get on the track to success on their own terms.

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Publication date: Revised 2014   
buy
How to Survive and Prosper as an Artist: Selling Yourself without
Selling Your Soul, 7th edition

Author: Caroll Michels
Written for fine artists ready to launch their careers as well as experienced
artists who wish to relaunch their careers. Empowers artists to take control
of their careers to create a fulfilling life and earn a decent income.
This newly revised edition continues to demystify the inner workings of
the art world and challenge the status quo. New topics include: Feedback
on new business models for artists: Going to the extreme; use of social media
and website development as marketing and publicity tools and what does
and doesn’t work; confusion between the “art-buying public” and the
“general public” and their differences; new suggestions for establishing
and calculating prices for artwork; neighborhood gentrification and the
growing challenges of securing a reasonably priced live/work space – and
much more on many more important subjects. The author is the founder of
the Artist Help Network, and a career coach and artist-advocate.

Publisher: Allworth Press
Publication date: Revised 2018, 7th edition
buy
Information for Artists: A Practical Guide for Visual and Media Artists  
 Contains 19 chapters covering a variety of subjects relevant to
Canadian visual and media artists.

Publisher: CARFAC Ontario
Publication Date: 2005 (sold out). New edition on the way.
www.carfacontario.ca/Information-for-Artists-A-Practical-Guide-for-Visual-Artists 
Living and Sustaining a Creative Life: Essays by 40 Working Artists
Author: Sharon Louden
Publisher: Intellect Ltd.
Publication Date: 2013
The forty essays are written in the artists’ own voices and take the form of
narratives, statements, and interviews. Each story has a common thread of
a commitment to creativity, inside and outside the studio. “Both day-to-day
and big picture details are revealed, showing how it is possible to sustain a
practice that contributes to the ongoing dialogue in contemporary art.
These stories will inform and inspire any student, young artist, and art
enthusiast and will help redefine what ‘success’ means to a professional artist.“

buy
The Practical Handbook for the Emerging Artist
Author: Margaret R. Lazzari
Designed to help visual art students make the transition from art
school to their own art practice.

Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing
Publication date: Revised 2010.
buy

Professional Artist

Description: Articles on practical business advice and strategies.
Published bimonthly. Print and digital editions.
www.professionalartistmag.com
The Profitable Artist: the Performing Literary and Visual Arts
Editors: Peter Cobb, Felicity Hogan and Michael Royce
A compilation of the best practices approach to planning and organizing an
art career, based on more than 30 interviews and illustrated through
anecdotes and in-depth case studies.
Publisher: Allworth Press & the NY Foundation for the Arts
Publication date:  Revised 2018


buy

Starting Your Career as an Artist: A Guide for Painters,
Sculptors, Photographs, and Other Visual Artists

Authors: Agie Wojak and Stacy Miller
Chapters cover topics essential to artists who are entering the art
world.  Includes interviews with artists.

Publisher:  Allworth Press
Publication date: Revised 2015

buy
Strategies for Serious Older Artists

Author: Eric Rudd and edited by Barbara Rudd  
Covers the subject of what will happen to your artwork after you die,
including how to upgrade and adjust your studio methods, and how
to get ahead of the curve for your later years.  It offers alternatives
for preserving and exhibiting your life’s work even after you die

Publisher: Cire Corporation
Publication date: 2013 
buyThe Successful Artist’s Career Guide: Finding Your
Way in the Business of Art

Author: Margaret Peot
Covers a range of issues from health insurance to taxes and legal advice –
and self-promotion and employment. Also provides advice for freelance artists.

Publisher: . North Light Books
Publication Date: 20012
buyTaking the Leap.  Building a Career as a Visual Artist
Author: Cay Lang.
Covers a comprehensive range of career-related topics.  
Publisher:  Chronicle Books
Publication date: Revised 2006
buyThe View from the Studio Door
Author: Ted Orland.  
Co-author of Art and Fear, Ted Orland confronts issues such as what are
we really doing when we make art?  What is art?  Is there art after graduation?
And how do we find our place in the artistic community?

Publisher: Imagine Continuum Press
Publication date:  2006  
buyA Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers will Rule the Future
Author: Daniel Pink
The author builds a case for predicting that the future belongs to a
different kind of person with a different kind of mind: artists,
inventors, storytellers-creative and holistic “right-brain” thinkers
whose abilities mark the fault line between who gets ahead and who doesn’t.

Publisher: Riverhead Books
Publication Date: Revised 2006 
buy

ORGANIZATIONS ARE LISTED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER

Artists Trust, Artist Support Programs
http://artisttrust.org
Sponsors various programs on career development for artists.
Based in Seattle.

Arts Business Institute
www.artsbusinessinstitute.org

A non-profit organization serving the art and craft-making communities,
providing practical business education for artists.
The Charles Huling Fund for Artists
http://clarkhulingsfund.org

A nonprofit organization that offers many programs and
services to assist artists with marketing and career
development, including blogs, podcasts, workshops,
and other educational programs. 
Creative Capital Foundation
www.creative-capital.org
A nonprofit organization that sponsors professional development
workshops and webinars. Also provides grants to artists.
GYST, Inc.
www.gyst-ink.com
An organization that helps organize their professional lives.
Offers services related to career development.
Caroll Michels, Career Coach and Artist-Advocate
www.carollmichels.com
Author of How to Survive & Prosper as an Artist, and founder of the
Artist Help Network. Assists artists throughout the USA and abroad
with career development through phone and in-person consultations.
Also offers art world contact lists.
Mint Artists Guild
http://www.mintartistsguild.org
Trains teenage artists in Detroit business skills and career strategies, and
provides exhibition experience by showcasing their artwork in public spaces,
including galleries, fairs, workplaces, galleries, and various events. Selected
students, who are chosen by a jury of art professionals, are tutored in
career planning, promotion, pricing, communication, and collaboration.
They also participate in field trips to art-related venues, and attend workshops.
Springboard for the Arts
www.springboardforthearts.org
A source of management information & training for independent artists &
small to mid-sized cultural organizations. Offers consultations,
information, and workshops.
W.A.G.E. (Working Artists and the Greater Economy)
www.wageforwork.com
Draws attention to economic inequalities that exist in the arts, and works to
resolve them. Its advocacy efforts have successfully received commitments
from many U.S. nonprofit art institutions to pay artist exhibition fees for
solo and group shows. An artist fee calculator is published on the
organization’s website. 
WEBSITES
ArtBusiness.com
 A series of articles on the business aspects of the fine art world. Penned
by  Alan Bamberger.
www.artbusiness.com
Artjaw.com
 A collection of first person stories from the art world, sponsored by
Spector Projects. Artists, dealers, critics, administrators,
curators, and academics sound off.
www.artjaw.com 
 

The Artist as Debtor
www.artanddebt.org
A website developed to provide a discussion about the impact that
the  growing mass of debt has on artists. 

GYST Radio
 Part of a blog radio network. A resource for information on the
business of  art and strategies for a successful career in the arts.
http://www.gyst-ink.com/gyst-radio-2
Immigrant Artist Program Directory 
Sponsored by The New York Foundation for the Arts. An
online directory of   art service organizations and other
resources for immigrants and refugees.
https://www.nyfa.org/professional-development/immigrant-artist-program-iap/resource-directory/

The Maryland State Arts Council Resource Bulletin
 Maintained by Maryland Art Place. It is updated on a
weekly basis and   includes hundreds of listings of arts opportunities,
organized by subject   and deadline date.
www.mdartplace.org/opportunities/resource-bulletin

MN Artists
Sponsored by the Walker Art Center. Devoted to Midwestern artists
working in all disciplines. Dedicated to “improving the quality and
national visibility of regionally-rooted art, artists and cultural
dialogue through a “dynamic online community, responsive arts
journalism, and by giving artists access to, and connections with,
collaborators, influencers and the public.”
www.mnartists.org

NYFA Source
An extensive database for visual and performing artists and writers, and
arts organizations nationwide. Includes numerous resources on career-
related topics. Sponsored by the New York Foundation for the Arts.
http://source.nyfa.org/content/search/search.aspx?SA=1

Professional Practices for Artists
Sponsored by GYST. Includes articles on a variety of topics including
promotion, exhibitions, career, financial, and health and safety.
www.gyst-ink.com/professional-practices-for-artists
An online publication devoted to Career, Culture, and How-To, as related to art,
design, film, stage, and writing.
www.pyragraph.com

TextileArts.net
Devoted to career-related information for fiber artists, including materials,
publications, marketing, techniques, and contacts in the fiber art world.
www.textilearts.net

 

 


Categories: Career