Week 17: Professionalism

What's considered professional and what isn't? What does it look like and who gets to decide?

Another one of those labels I take issue with, a categorisation used within a control mechanism which helps to decide who gains entry to the club. Those deemed unprofessional may find that doors to opportunities remain closed to them, their opinions, standpoint and in the case of artists their output regarded as irrelevant.

What makes an artist professional and why should it matter anyway? Could the deciding factors include the number of awards won? or number of commissions under their belt? or the design of their website? I suppose the simplest definition of a professional is one who makes a living from their art, but how does one do that within an industry riddled with snobbery? According to "gurus" like Julien Delagrange (art historian, contemporary artist, and the director of Contemporary Art Issue) practices such as self promotion and participation in art fairs and vanity art contests are frowned upon and "can harm your profile and career as an artist."

Methods of selling art and how they rank within the industry (Source: Contemporary Art Issue)

So if you were to concentrate on the top five routes in Delagrange's table (above) you'd risk gaining very little short-term income whilst those bills and eviction notices pile up on your doorstep. Not really an option for many, especially in the current climate.

There are other benchmarks by which we are deemed professional. From one of the exercises in today's class I teased out a few to see how I measure up on the scale of professionalism.. turns out pretty poorly!

It was suggested that art should be considered a vocation rather than a profession, I'm inclined to agree with that.. I believe there are standards we could all work towards, like being respectful to others and honouring your commitments, but these align more with the principles of common decency rather than professionalism.

Yes it would be great to earn a living from making art, but at what expense? suppressing ones identity? We are talking about art after-all and I believe we have ab obligation to protect our freedom of expression.

In a future world dominated by AI maybe this will be a role for art bots; to produce work on demand, leaving the rest of us free to concentrate on making art we love and that represents our true selves whilst slipping further and further into dept.

References:

20 Ways How To Make Money As An Artist Ranked from Best to Worst

Contemporary Art Issue

https://www.contemporaryartissue.com/20-ways-how-to-make-money-as-an-artist-best-to-worst/

Anti-Manifesto Manifesto

Article / Charles Thomson and The Stuckist Bureau of Enquiry

https://www.stuckism.com/Manifestos/AntiManifestoManifesto.html

Artquest

Website

https://artquest.org.uk

ArtRank

Website