Working artists together online.

November 12, 2007 8:08 AM

Working artists together. Do you know of any online community or email list where artists from all disciplines discuss practical working issues? Issues like negotiating commissions and contracts, our experiences with residencies and artist colonies, etc.?

The discipline-specific forums I've found are mostly basic beginner/student questions (which are good karma to answer, and which I can often learn something from, but which aren't what I'm looking for here).

I guess the big issue is that people who've invested years in learning about these things, and who spend our time researching/doing applications even more than on actually making whatever art we make, just don't have as much time for online community-building as students do.

But a few discipline-specific examples like the very high quality photo.net forums (sadly not my discipline) have me holding out hope that there's something like what I'm describing, that doesn't focus on one discipline and is mostly filled with discussion of working/post-school issues.

posted by allterrainbrain to media & arts (4 comments total)

Wet Canvas might be what you're looking for.
posted by Laura in Canada at 8:38 AM on November 12, 2007

www.artistresource.org -- out of SF

http://www.transartists.nl/ - out of Amsterdam, lots of residences and studio exchanges across the world

www.absolutearts.com - forums,blogs, can post up to 4 pieces free, up to 36 pieces for about $35 a year.

www.artcalendar.com has a forum but it's pretty lame and the editor has turned into a religious fanatic in the last couple of years.

http://www.artshow.com/orgs/index.html --lists competitions, local, regional, state, national art organizations and links.

http://artdeadline.com/ nationwide, they have a free version and then a version that costs $24 a year. Art competitions, advice, marketing, etc.

For negotiating contracts and gallery agreements, your state art/cultural division might be of use. In my state they offer several free workshops a year on those topics. I also found a book by Tad Crawford on legal issues to be good--sorry, I forgot the name!
posted by 45moore45 at 9:10 AM on November 12, 2007

My question would've been better phrased, "What, if anything, is like Ask Metafilter -- with a steady flow of new questions and answers -- but is specific to arts-business topics?"

This is one of those "probably too specific to exist, but worth asking about" questions. I'm not looking for opportunities listings (and I'm not a visual artist). The wetcanvas and absolutearts forums look good for visual arts techniques but very low-volume on general business topics. All the links above should benefit a lot of future googlers who land here, though!
posted by allterrainbrain at 10:59 AM on November 12, 2007

Are you looking for something like Springboard for the Arts?

I know they host a health-care fair, and the website has links for help with the business end of being an artist. I'm not sure of any kind of online forum there, but it might be worth looking into.

FYI they're based in Minneapolis, and I don't know if they work with artists nationally or just locally.
posted by fantastic at 1:41 PM on November 12, 2007