Making It In The Art World

I thought it would be more of like an art dealer type of business lesson. But instead we got things like: Get rich friends to go to your exhibition if you don't have them, go make new rich friends.......that's the advice....

Good book

I'm only a few chapters in and just having such a great time with this book. Brainard's writing is sincere and moving. I'm very excited because I can feel my mind going to new, creative places. It's uplifting and I won't be surprised when I point to this book and this time in my life as a turning point.It's also fun to go with Brainard in his life, as he shares his experiences. One thing that has really stuck with me, was when he talked about the birth of his son. Brainard didn't want to compromise his art, and be an example of compromise to his son-- he didn't want his son to know that he compromised because of him. That was just beautiful. I've always assumed to have children as an artist, there would be a compromise, exactly how he spoke of it. And to read that Brainard was faced with this crossroads in his life, and his reaction was to turn the volume up full force into his art, to get into the Whitney as a result and become the leader he is today. WOW. It's beautiful and inspiring!

Making it in the Art World is an inspiring book for artist. It breaks down the boundaries that often hold creatives captive in poverty or self doubt. He not only provides motivation he provides clear opportunities for artist to take to make their mark in the world. I love his devotion to empowering artist to show up and be seen in a world that sometimes devalues the impact artist make in our culture. This book is a must if you want to navigate the opportunities you have at getting paid to do what you love.

I bought the original version of this book when I was just leaving school many moons ago. Even then I thought the ideas Brainard was presenting were revolutionary, my own nature left me too scared to put almost any of it into practice, to get my foot out the door...Now, four years into being a full-time artist, having stumbled through sales and commissions and social media, and even a pandemic! Here comes the big update. Right when I finally have the maturity to build a plan, to think and act in the long term. To build relationships that make the vision into reality. To buy my freedom, as it were.Everything in here is indispensable. From building relationships, to rewriting the artist statement (this was CRITICAL!), scheduling time, thinking with multiple assets, letter writing! Social media marketing. Giveaways. And thinking about the longest time scale: whats gonna happen to my work when I die? This book gently guides us out of the day to day and into the slipstream of long-form visionary thinking!Thank you Brainard. I’ll be putting all this to good use!