The Textile Cabin

I recently met with Mick Smith from the University of Southampton who provides free business mentoring for artists and musicians in Southampton. We met in the City Gallery Cafe and talked about my business ideas as an artist. The discussion involved looking at where I was at the moment, what I would like to happen in the coming year, my vision for the next five years and how to plan in order to achieve my goals. The meeting was really useful and after 1 and a half hours we had developed a business plan and an example time line for my coming year. I am quite excited about working on the business plan. The discussion included some advice on having two identities as an artist. The art market is distinctly separated from the craft market and some artists use the craft fairs to make money which provides them with income to continue with their art. The idea is that the artist has two CV’s / resumes, one for art and the other for craft. This idea seems quite exciting and will hopefully give me slightly more structure to my working day. I can now plan to make ‘craft’ items to take to the shows without feeling that I am neglecting the work that I really want to be doing. As a self employed and self motivated artist I find time structuring difficult. The business plan is going to help me with time keeping and focus.