Program teaches artists marketing, business

Though people have long marveled at the works of artists, those same artists are often said to lack a real job.

“Artists have heard that phrase probably over and over again since we were little,” said Sherry Jarvis, during an arts conversation, an event hosted by the Montana Arts Council Friday night at the Best Western Plus Havre Inn and Suites.

Jarvis is the director of the Montana Artrepreneur Program, or MAP, an art-centered business development program.

She said that she paints and does pottery and mixed media work.

When she was growing up, said Jarvis, a Glasgow native, a career in the arts seemed something that was not within reach.

Even when she was studying at Eastern Montana College, now Montana State University Billings, she said the world of higher education seemed to operate on that assumption too.

“They didn’t tell you how you are going to actually create art and make a living creating art,” she said.

Jarvis said the belief was that students would eventually go on to earn their master’s degree and either teach art, become a museum curator or find some other occupation, but not pursue a career in creating art .

The overarching goal of MAP, she said, is to make the title of artist “a credible profession.”

Jarvis said MAP was developed by Cindy Kittredge more than 10 years ago through what is now Great Falls College Montana State University. The program taught artists about the business side of art. It was later brought into the Montana Arts Council and is funded through both the Montana Department of Commerce and Made in Montana.

A survey the council conducted between 2009 and 2013 found artists in the program saw a 275 percent increase in net income.

Jarvis said the program is meant to tailor to the needs and goals of each artist and consists of four parts: discovering, showing, telling and funding the story.

The program focuses on visual artists, though Jarvis said they do hope to broaden the course to other areas of artistry including literary and performing art.

The program, which is taught by working artists, now consists of eight cohorts or groups scattered throughout the state. Over about eight months, the cohords meet for four 10-hour workshops and between four and six two-hour workshops. Each cohort has eight to 10 students.

Entry into the program is juried, meaning entry has to be approved by a committee, and the $350 charge pays for the amount not already funded.

She said the small size of the groups give artists the chance to network and talk about similar challenges they face.

"So it's a really nice community of colleagues that you join when you join the MAP program and you join a MAP group,” Jarvis said.

Jarvis said the instructor and students sit down and decide which dates they absolutely cannot do and work the schedule around those hours.

“So it is flexible, affordable, it’s great information,” she said. The cohort will get together about once a month and learn about 35 practical tools of business.

Jarvis said the program touches on subjects that include logging hours; how to realistically price work, create marketing plans, make business proposals and create strategic business plans, and networking.

Art mentorships and business internships are also part of the program. The cohorts also set up exhibitions of their work, the number of which depend on available funding.

"It sounds overwhelming but over the course of eight months it’s actually very doable," Jarvis said.

She said that students also have the opportunity to take part in professional development workshops.

She said they try to keep the cost of participation in those workshops at a low price, to make them accessible.

Jarvis said people who have completed the 35 tools at the end of the course can have their work critiqued by the instructor and their coaches.

They then can receive market ready certification she said, and can fail, pass or pass with distinction.

Jarvis said, so far, the program has serviced just over 400 students.

But one of the major areas where MAP distinguishes itself from conventional business courses is that traditional business theory places an emphasis on market trends and create or sell items that fit that market.

However, MAP is about teaching artists how to find collectors and buyers who are uniquely interested in their work, rather than catering to the desires of a wider audience.

"They really work a lot to find their niche, so that they are not producing to sell the work to everybody, they are working to find the right buyer for what they do, " said Arni Fishbaugh, executive director of the Montana Arts Council.

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Online: Montana Artrepreneur Program: http://art.mt.gov/folklife/folklife_business.asp