How to manage money as an artist.
Part I: Funding your practice.
Supporting your practice can produce emotional fits. Money is a delicate subject no matter what field you are in.
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In the arts, we internalize negative images promoted by the media of this profession as being one of extremes – extravagant behaviour or starvation. For now, put all those biased images aside. Look inside yourself instead and ask yourself how you intend to responsibly fund your practice. ??1. List all your sources – existing and potential – of revenue. Brainstorm all the various ways you can fund your practice. Include grants, sales, in-kind donations, consulting, teaching, real estate, etc. Trying to budget your life on one source of income as an artist is precarious.
2. If your financial platform is balancing on only one or two legs of funding, brainstorm other possible sources of revenue. What else do you like to do? What other practices relate to your form of artistic expression?
3. Ask yourself what is your best time of the day/week to make your art. Mornings? Weekends? Late at night? Narrow your revenue-generating list down to the potential income streams that least compromise your optimum schedule.
4. Do you know freelancers doing the kind of work you’re interested in developing? Meet them. Take them out for lunch. Find out what the pros and cons are of their business. If they could do it all over again, what would they do differently?
