Selling Art to Businesses and Local Governments

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Morning artrepreneurs! Welcome to another edition of the Stay Sketchy newsletter.

Being an artist doesn’t mean you always have to sell your art to consumers and individual art collectors. There are plenty of opportunities to create art for businesses and local governments if you know where to look… 👀 

This week we’ve got:

Taylor Smith - Visual Artist

Taylor Smith has been an artist for as long as she can remember.

She painted her first mural at age 7, regularly took private art lessons, and spent much of her adolescence creating art with colored pencils and watercolor paints.

In high school, she led the rest of her classmates in decorating the hallways for Homecoming and even ended up getting an apprenticeship at a tattoo shop for a short period of time.

Taylor went on to get a bachelor’s degree in Communications & Advertising in college, and paired it with a minor in Fine Art. It was during this time that she acquired her graphic design skills and learned about public art projects as a means to enrich a community as well as earn a living as an artist.

After graduating, Taylor stumbled upon the live painting scene. Here, artists perform their craft in a setting with live music and other forms of entertainment. People can come and interact with you as you paint, as well as buy merch and other products you might be selling from your booth. Taylor loved this setting and spent many nights doing these events and earning money from her art sales.

Eventually Taylor had an opportunity to paint a large mural at one of these festivals and she took it.

She loved the entire process of painting big and wanted to pursue more opportunties that allowed her to do that.

Using Facebook community forums, Taylor discovered that St. Petersburg, Florida had a thriving art scene and she couldn’t resist moving there.

She messaged other local artists on social media and did everything she could to learn from them and establish professional relationships with the ones she admired. Many artists were very welcoming and took her under their wing.

Connecting with these artists proved to be very important as much of Taylor’s work comes from word-of-mouth referrals from happy clients and other artists that know her.

Today, Taylor is known for her vibrant nature-themed murals that dot communities and businesses all over Florida.

She sells prints and pieces of original artwork, continues attending live painting events, and is the Resident Artist at the apartment community in which she currently lives.

Mini Gallery

To see more of Taylor’s work, visit her website or Instagram account.

Artist Insights

Taylor had a lot of great insights to share that we hadn’t heard before, as well as some awesome resources for artists that we’ve listed further below.

🔹 Get Listed on Your City’s Artist Roster

Check with your local town/city government to see if they maintain an “artist roster.”

In Taylor’s area, a law was passed that mandates a certain percentage of the budget for new buildings must be allocated towards public artwork. This creates a need for contractors to be able to locate artists easily, which the city offers to facilitate.

Getting on the roster requires submitting an application and submitting basic information about yourself, your experience, a portfolio of work, etc.

If it doesn’t seem like your city maintains a list of local artists, that’s okay! There are plenty of other resources that help on a national/international level like PublicArtist and the other websites Taylor shared with us in the “Suggested Resources” section (below). These resources are similar to the ones referenced by Christian Stanley in a previous edition of the newsletter.

🔹 Collect Useful Info from Clients Up Front

When it comes to painting murals, it’s important to collect as much information about the job as you can before you get started.

You’ll want to get:

• Photos of the wall

• What material the surface is (stucco, wood, brick, etc.)

• Dimensions of the area to be painted

• Creative preferences (the “vibe” they’re going for)

• Company mission statement

• What they hope the art will do for the space

Creating an intake form on your website (or sharing one you created using free tools like Tally) is an efficient way of doing this.

You can also provide basic pricing information and answers to frequently asked questions to save time.

If murals aren’t you’re thing but you still create commissioned artwork, many of these same principles apply - just dont ask for pictures of people’s walls. 😅

🔹 Look for Opportunities to Become a Resident Artist

In exchange for hosting weekly art events for the community residents, Taylor is compensated with a one-bedroom apartment and her own art studio in the community clubhouse.

In other words, teaching 4 workshops per month gets Taylor access to a high-quality art studio and free rent.

While these residency periods vary in length, they can be great opportunities for people that are looking to reduce living expenses while still working full-time as artists.

Googling “resident artist programs near me” is a good place to start.

🔹 Work at Live Painting Events

You may have heard of “live wedding painting,” but did you know that music festivals and other types of local events may feature live painters and artists as well?

Although these opportunities don’t typically offer pay (while live wedding painting does), they may offer perks like free entry to the show or event, the ability to sell your work & other merchandise while there, and the chance to interact with a live audience.

Be sure to bring business cards to events like these - they’re great marketing opportunities.

Taylor’s Tech Stack

• Procreate, Adobe Stock - Creative design tools for planning artwork

• Adobe Lightroom, iMovie - Content editing

• Squarespace - Website design

• Quickbooks - Accounting & finance

• Google Workspace, Dropbox - Administrative tasks

• Canva - Designing marketing creatives, ads, & additional content

Suggested Resources

Below are various resources Taylor has found helpful in her journey as an artist:

• 📕 Be the Artist by Thomas Evans - a guide for aspiring artists, providing essential strategies and insights to navigate the art world, make informed decisions, and build a successful career.

• 📕 The Creative Act by Rick Rubin - a book that illuminates the artist's path as one we all can follow, offering wisdom to create moments of exhilaration and transcendence in your career.

• 📕 The New Munsell Student Color Set by Ron Reed - an interactive guidebook with perforated color chips and color charts, offering hands-on learning and comprehensive study of color theory, perception, and application in art.

• 🎙️ Vantage Point Radio - a monthly podcast featuring interviews with established artists in the post graffiti/urban art/contemporary art scene, bridging the gap between gallery artworks and their creators, with episodes recorded worldwide.

• 🎙️ Dot Dot Dot by Nine Dot Arts - a podcast that explores art, culture, and placemaking with art and business leaders, focusing on how original art experiences can enhance businesses and create social impact.

• 🌐 CODAworx - a hub that connects artists, creative teams, and industry professionals to facilitate and support the creation of commissioned art projects worldwide.

• 🌐 PublicArtist - a site that connects artists with public art opportunities and provides tools for managing applications and portfolios.

• 🌐 CaFÉ - CaFÉ (Call for Entry) is an online platform that allows artists to apply for art calls, competitions, and exhibitions, offering a comprehensive service for managing application processes.

• 🌐 Monochronicle - similar to PublicArtist, this site offers tools to connect project managers and architects with talented artists for specific projects.

Just because you’re an Artist, doesn’t mean you can’t ever retire.

Focusing on creating art, posting to social media, and connecting with clients can leave little to no time for planning your future.

That’s where this week’s sponsor comes in…

Your IRA, made to order

Choose where and when you want to retire, and a Betterment IRA can help make your money hustle all the way there.

Learn more

Art Business News (that isn’t a snooze)

• Wake up, babe. New Banksy’s just dropped 🐐 - Everyone’s favorite unknown artist just unveiled two new pieces of street art in separate areas of south-west London. The subjects? A goat and some elephants, of course. While most landlords would be furious at graffiti showing up on their building overnight, I’m sure these two will appreciate the increased property value that comes with receiving an original Banksy.

• Wanna be the next garbage artist? 🗑️ - Sick and tired of the same old mediums? Are paints, pencils, and clay just not doing it for you? Need a fresh idea? Why not turn to trash? That’s what Danish artist Thomas Dambo works with. Dambo is famous for creating over 150 troll sculptures around the world made mostly from trash. He says, “I want trash to be the fashion, I want it to be cool, because if it was cool then we would be less wasteful.”

• Building a gallery empire 🖼️ - Have some artist friends that aren’t getting the attention they deserve? What if you opened an art gallery to promote their work? That’s what Ken Hashimoto Harman did when he leased a 250 square foot space in San Francisco back in 2010. As the success of the gallery grew, he repeated the process, promoting his friends and other local artists in galleries he launched in NYC and LA.

Thanks for checking out another edition of Stay Sketchy. Catch you next week! ✌️

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